Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Real Baltimore
Kim Klacik is a Republican running for Congress in Baltimore, and she has a few things to say. Warning: pearl clutchers should have pearls handy before watching this campaign ad:
While Nancy makes selfie-videos of her $30 a pint designer ice cream, Kim Klacik is shaking up her old home town. Sometimes the revolution that arises is not the one the elites were staging. A race worth following. Donate here.
As you were.
Published in Elections
Good commercial overall. The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.
“Name a blue city where black people’s lives have gotten better. Try. I’ll wait.”
Badda-bing!
Typical patriarchal recidivism.
To be recidivism, wouldn’t I have to have stopped for awhile?
Simply great infomercial!
“The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.”
I strongly disagree. By wearing a nicely looking dress, she is essentially subliminally saying to black people ” I did this and you can too!”. By wearing that outfit it’s a message of hope.
She is going after black people who want to aspire to better lives, and showing them how it is done, and that it is possible. That is a powerful message. Black can do much better and can be fully integrated into society. That is her message.
I stand corrected.
I like your interpretation.
I thought the same but I hope she knows her audience better than I. I am bright enough to know she has no interest in my white opinion or vote in her 60+% black city.
You don’t think that white voters in the current climate would welcome a candidate with this message?
Her Twitter version of this ad, posted yesterday, has 3.7 million views.
This is a big deal.
I think this is a great message.
Until blacks stop voting enmass for Dems they will be ignored.
I’d vote for her.
Sorry, but my first thought was that “Kim” used to be (and really still is) a man.
She is a wife and a mother. I find no indication of anything more complicated than that. And watching her move in that video, those hips are all natural – not a speck of cereal.
Brain needing some work.
Agreed.
She needed something analogous to the way guys in political ads would invariably appear in rolled-up shirtsleeves, no jacket (or slung over the shoulder), and a slightly loosened the tie to show they were working on the issues or something or just approachable though still with the gravitas the suit brings.
She is running against Kwasei Mfume for Cummings’ seat. He is well-known and well-funded and the district was carefully gerrymandered to insure an urban Democratic majority was the controlling demographic. Uphill for her.
C’mon. That contrast is what makes the ad effective, it’s the whole subtext. Without the tension of the vulnerable sex object walking the dangerous slums, it’d be no more than another litany of reasons.
The ad is brilliantly composed. Notice how unnaturally tidy the streets and decaying buildings are, so we aren’t distracted by the trash. Klacik is telling us that Baltimore has a structural, systemic, permanent problem.
Note also the ad doesn’t try to use people as scenery. Since it’s short, and political, it hits us over the head with the Omega Man visuals (the I Am Legend visuals, for you younger folks.) The only other people that appear in the ad speak directly to the camera, filling the whole frame – they’re individuals, not props or scenery. The ad isn’t trying to persuade white people; it’s aimed directly at the people who are so obviously missing from the visuals that the ad conjures them into the viewer’s mind.
Yet the viewer superficially worries that Kim will brush against something dirty. Brilliant.
Or older folks who can read.
Hope she’s got a security detail. Mfume is about what you’d expect from a third world subculture in a first world society.
One hour ago. Now it’s 4 million views. This is seriously viral.
This is a really, really big deal.
She’s breaking new ground here. I can’t think of a time a Republican ever noticed the simple truth that the inner city areas are a disaster, and thought to mention it. I can’t think of a time a Republican ever seriously attempted to run for office in an inner city area.
She’s not only proving it’s possible, but also showing how easy it is to do.
Maybe Joe Collins, Lacy Johnson, and others will do something similar. This could change everything.
I wonder how many are voters in her district.
I’m only looking at the “still frame.” Those arms, that face at that angle…
It would be a very different situation if any white person were trying to make the same points.
My heart breaks for the guy who lost three sons.
I cannot imagine.
Great ad.
Isn’t she the person who made some noise about how downtrodden Baltimore was last year when words were flying between the President and Cummings and the media worked really hard to uplift Cummings and his performance over more the 2 decades? There were some volunteer crews in there helping to clean up and they were being trashed by Democrats and media.
No, what I was saying is that she was not aiming this message at them. Thus her choice of attire may make sense for the audience she was targeting.
I think Larry Elder and his team are going to need to update their Uncle Tom Documentary to include a Klacik chapter.
At first I didn’t like the look, but I’m not black, and I don’t live in Baltimore. I did not go to a failing school. Even though my early life is not a paragon of white privilege, I always had hope that I could do and be.
Klacik is the voice that the downtrodden need to hear. She is the face they need to see. She has a story that will resonate.
Klacik will connect with the voters who want OUT of the destruction they’ve been handed. Those who are not interested will ignore. She may not win this year, but she has started the right “conversation.”
I think her video has an outreach beyond Baltimore, and may inspire others like herself, in other ruined cities to step up.