A writer at Daily Dish replies:
Here’s a short clip that includes the Willie Horton and Revolving Door ads. Its critics object that it subtly played on the racism and racial anxiety of Americans – its tone isn’t self-righteous or bile-filled, however contemptible it is.
[……]I did not claim that lies don’t work in political advertising, or that it is always ineffective to play on the fears and prejudices of voters. What I said is that angry, self-righteous bile spewing isn’t effective – that is why you don’t see politicians engage in it very often.
Whether he admits it or not, part of this unnamed Daily Dish writer’s argument is that yelling is immoral and therefore ineffective; subtly playing on racist fears is more moral and thus more effective. It’s not surprising to hear this on a blog founded by a guy who once called political opponents “fifth columnists” and now hands out Moore, Hewitt, and Malkin booby prizes to bloggers who use too much rough language.
Now, as I said earlier, I don’t dispute that this politics business requires a certain amount of finesse, that politicians will often leave the over-the-top stuff to surrogates. They certainly don’t take steps to get too far away from the vitriol, though: I don’t need to remind you how many Republican candidates are on Fox News (they don’t get tough with anybody, their network-mates do). And more than a few candidates for important positions spewed plenty of bile in ads that ran under their own names in the last election cycle. I suppose one could argue that the ambient vitriol is named at the evil “base”, not at the thoughtful, centrist people whose minds are still open to argument.
A lot of politics is aimed at the base and when I tried to think of large-scale, truly mind-changing political movements in recent American history, the first that came to mind was the migration of southern whites from the Democratic party to the Republican party. This wasn’t accomplished over mint juleps with Johnny Mercer tinkeling in the background. George Wallace:
You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about niggers, and they stomped the floor.
Who knows, though, maybe Wallace talked “about niggers” in a very polite voice.
Update. Also too, I wonder if critics of this ad from Diaper Dan Vitter object that it subtly played on the racism.
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