Karl Rove Advertises Liberally

As a Florida resident, I can't go a half hour without seeing an ad in which "John Kerry and the liberals in Congress" are plotting some form of progressive deviltry, such as raising taxes on assault rifles to protect the abortion rights of gay whales.

The ads are especially pervasive during major sports events:

Last night while Niki and I were trying to watch the baseball playoffs, every other commercial was a political attack ad. ... One ad they played over and over again all night on every channel starts every sentence for the first half of the ad with "John Kerry and the liberals in Congress ... John Kerry and the liberals in Congress ..." Shut the hell up and let me watch baseball in peace before it goes away again until next Spring! Don't Clockwork-Orange me into an aversion to baseball!

I'm outside the target audience of these ads, but that phrase doesn't seem like one of Karl Rove's better pieces of gopaganda. It positions John Kerry and the liberals in Congress as two distinct groups, an impression that doesn't help the effort to paint him as the second coming of Eugene Debs.

Politics · 2004/10/13 · 5 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

Oddly enough the university from which I graduated had Eugene V. Debs' home on campus. The socialist renegade once even managed his presidential campaign from prison. Quite an interesting fellow actually.

Rove on the other hand is absolutely frightening as are his ads. His manipulation of the Republican party into a neo-Christian radical organization is quite trying.

#1 · Todd Smith · 2004/10/13

I wished Kerry's people would have started saying that Bush is too neoconservative.

#2 · Michael Hussey · 2004/10/13

I think neoconservative is a word that excites angry Howard Dean Democrats like me, but I wonder if people in the middle would know what to think of it. I wasn't even clear on the meaning until they tried to take over the world last year and botched the attempt so completely.

#3 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2004/10/13

At times I wonder if the President knows what the word "neoconservative" means. At least he acknowledged his vocabulary shortcomings last night.

#4 · Todd Smith · 2004/10/14

Being a Democrat or voting for John Kerry does not necessarily mean that a person is a liberal; but, lets admit it, most of us are - at least by neoconservative standards.

I am not ashamed to be a liberal. I wear the title as a badge of honor. I wish that liberals would learn to stand up and proudly be counted instead of letting neoconservatives and their ilk convince us that it is something to be ashamed of.

#5 · Sandra Garrett · 2004/10/18