Political Ads
Can someone please explain to me the difference between the Moveon "Betray-Us" ad and the Swift Boat lies from the 2004 campaign? How about the Max McClellan ads? If there is no difference- if you think that all three ads were, at the least, not in good taste, why does one deserve a vote in the Senate condemning it and the others do not? Why does our President call one "disgusting" but uses the others to help his own campaign?
posted by elanit | 12:05 PM
2 Comments:
I don't know about the Max McClellan ads.
I do know that the swift boat folks were going after a person who was running for political office, which to a certain extent makes someone fair game.
Moveon is going after a US general, and using language which questions his patriotism.
That is exceptionally rude, and I don't believe I have seen that before in my lifetime. They could have argued that Gen. Patraeus is wrong in his understanding of the situation in Iraq, and that would have been fair. They could have argued lots of things about his position (although waiting until he presented his position would have given their attack a bit more credibility), and that would have been reasonable.
This is character assassination, and for a group who started with the idea that the country was ready to "move on" from the attacks on Pres. Clinton's character, the ends-justifying-the-means irony drips thickly.
Because in politics, truth, justice, morality, and what is right for the country are no longer the primary goals - power for its own sake is. Parties exist to obtain and retain power, and everyone else is forced to ally themselves with a party if they with to have any power either. All of the people you've just named are simply acting out of a group mentality by attacking members of the other group in whatever way they can.
Post a Comment
<< Home