GOP’s Last, Best Weapon: Fear
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections, The War On Terrorism
This is pretty typical, but ultimately it speaks to how little the GOP has to hang their hat on. Essentially, their message seems to be very clearly, “Vote for us or you could die.”
Give me a break…
The Republican Party will begin airing a hard-hitting ad this weekend that warns of more cataclysmic terror attacks against the U.S. homeland.The ad portrays Osama bin Laden and quotes his threats against America dating to February 1998. “These are the stakes,” the ad concludes. “Vote November 7.”
Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said the ad would run on national cable beginning Sunday, but he declined to discuss specifics of the buy.
Remember, this is the Republican National Committee. That’s the heart of the GOP.
And just in case you aren’t scared of Osama…be afraid of suitcase bombs!
The ad also cites al-Zawahri’s claim to have obtained “some suitcase bombs,” followed by a scene that appears to show a nuclear explosion.Despite al-Zawahri’s claim, portable nuclear devices are believed to be particularly difficult to produce, and elusive to rogue regimes and terror groups. “The degree of difficulty goes way up as the size of the device gets smaller,” a senior U.S. official said this week, briefing reporters this week on condition of anonymity.
The ad is also featured on the RNC’s Web site. The party said the ad, called “The Stakes,” will be e-mailed to millions of GOP supporters, activists and the state parties.
Boo!
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2006 and is filed under Elections, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Dear http://www.gop.com,
Thanks for the reminder to vote on November 7! The next time the terrorists try to attack America, I sure don’t want you incompetent hacks in charge.
Love and Kisses,
A New Yorker
October 19th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Looks like they’re pulling from the LBJ playbook. Those in charge have been using fear to stay in power for as long as our ape ancestors gathered into groups. “Keep Ook in charge or the saber tooth tigers will eat you children.”
Republicans can’t run on much other than their tougher stance on national security. No surprise they’re going to push it to the edge. But those kinds of ads usually just come off silly and heavy handed, so we’ll see if they do any good.
October 19th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Wait, isn’t that the same Osama that Bush doesn’t think about any more because he’s not a threat. I heard that somewhere, right? A savvy Democrat could take this crap and bludgeon them to death with it.
October 20th, 2006 at 12:19 am
If I were the Democrats I would create a new ad by taking excerpts from this very ad and then intersperse them with regular Americans talking about their fears of continuing with a do-nothing, rubber-stamp, GOP controlled Congress. I think its time for the Democrats to go toe to toe with the GOP with a light hearted…but very pointed “Fear Factor” campaign.
I just don’t think fear can work this time if the Democrats will hit back. Karl Rove has made a career of taking his opponents strengths and turning them into liabilities…and its time someone return the favor. His house of cards is ready to fall.
See a tongue-in-cheek visual of Karl and the boys singing some of their favorite “Church & State” hymns…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
October 20th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Recently Republicans have made a big deal about how Clinton failed to take out Osama bin Laden before he could attack us on 9/11.
If Osama manages to attack us again then it will be impossible to overlook the fact that the Bush administration refused to kill Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora.
Why did they refuse to block the escape route? Because to kill Osama at Tora Bora would have made an Iraq invasion politically impossible.
October 20th, 2006 at 10:47 am
I seem to remeber the GOPerverts going after Clinton with “wag the dog” when he tried to attack our (and freedom’s) enemies. With the GOPerverts in control of all the polital bodies, SHAME on them to blame Clinton for THEIR mistakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 20th, 2006 at 11:13 am
You know, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a Democrat try to scare me about the Republicans’ politics of fear…
October 20th, 2006 at 11:35 am
This goes along with Foxnews’ two big stories, Iran and North Korea. I hear the war drums beating.
October 20th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I think it is absolutely **HILARIOUS** that JG posts this just a few posts above a post that declares, “The Death Habeus Corpus”: a guess the real issue comes down to what one wants to be afraid of.
Me - Terrorist flying planes in building, suitcase nuclear weapons, anthrax, exc.
JG - the Bush Administration.
The Demorats should be afraid, though, afraid that their numbers peeked to early. If they had a brain in their head, they should have waited to release the Folley thing a little closer to the election - but we can never blame an abundance of self-discipline on them.
October 20th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
I “love” how simple some of try to make this. It’s either a decision between fighting terrorism and not questioning the government or questioning the government and letting the terrorists win.
Does anybody think we might be able to do both? Hmmm…
Simply put, the ad is ridiculously desperate.
October 20th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
I’m pretty old and have yet to see a political ad campaign that wasn’t completely lame. But from the marketing perspective, they are smart. These ads aren’t aimed so much at the undecided middle but at the loyal base. The idea is to get the base vote out. How many thinking undecided voters are going to be persuaded by a 30 second commercial?
Both sides do it because it works so well. It’s about like herding sheep. Much of the current political debate centers on using the same tactics. Present only part of the truth and spin it to make your point. Then claim everything else that doesn’t support your position is false or irrelevant. You see this attitude in many blogs. Of couse, since this is a “centrist blog”, you’ll never experience it here. Both liberal and conservative viewpoints are examined fairly evenly.
October 21st, 2006 at 10:48 am
Fear. Have you noticed that Americans don’t react well to fear?
“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” - Bertrand Russell
Oh, we try to face up to the irrationality embedded in fear, push it out of our thoughts, label it, even laugh at it.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” - Franklin Roosevelt
Yet fear is insidious and persistent. It’s promoted and used by the fear-filled, by shrewd leaders.
“Democratic man, . . . is quite unable to think of himself as a free individual; he must belong to a group, or shake with fear and loneliness - and the group, of course, must have its leadersâ€Â? — Henry Louis Mencken
Born in the dark, hungry and aggressively needy, fear overwhelms many with disastrous results.
“Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies.” - Edward Gibbon
And when fear leads disaster hides in the shadows.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda
Fear truncates our lives, fear soils our spirit, fear rejects hope, fear stifles and freezes.
“Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with these gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.” — Richard Bach
Unfortunately, Americans don’t react well to fear.
“In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds / On half the nations, and with fear of change / Perplexes monarchs.� John Milton
“You have to change your point of view from one of fear to one of focus.â€Â?– Christen Brown
We’ll see. Vote on November 7. Vote for change. Vote out fear.
October 22nd, 2006 at 5:01 am
Unfortunately fear is a great tool for bludgeoning the gullible into doing what you want. And also unfortunately, there’s a LOT of gullible people in America. Just look at how many buy lottery tickets!
I despair hoping that someday our country might actually have a majority of people who have a clue as to what’s going on in the world, maybe have a smidgeon of scientific acumen, can read, actually DO read, and don’t assume that just cause the preacher man says it’s so, it’s so.
October 31st, 2006 at 8:18 am
Nice blog! Keep up the good work.