Smear, Fear, Queer, and Race

I have just seen a news report stating that the racist attack ad funded by the Republican party on Harold Ford, Jr., the Democratic candidate in the Tennessee senate race, was produced by a protégé of Karl Rove. This is the same person (and I use that term very loosely) who was responsible for the attack ad on Senator Max Cleland of Georgia in 2002. You remember this, don’t you, the ad that showed Cleland’s face along side Osama Bin Laden’s and Saddam Hussein’s? The ad attacking the patriotism of a man who lost three limbs serving in Viet Nam. The ad on behalf of his opponent, Saxby Chambliss, a man who evaded the Viet Nam draft because of a “trick” knee. Why I am not surprised to hear that Rove et al are at it again?

I am not surprised, because the only way the Republicans can ever win elections is by the proven formula of Smear, Fear, and Queer. And that is what they are using in the Ford race. Smear him, because he went to a Playboy party at the Super Bowl with several thousand of his closest friends. Use the “terrorist” threat to instill Fear that Ford will not be strong enough on national security, even though he has voted consistently for the so-called war on terror. Queer him, by saying he is for gay marriage, when he in fact he voted for the federal Gay Marriage Amendment. Oh, and I forgot one last Republican tactic, Race. Show a blond, young white woman asking Harold to “call me.”

The Republicans have to use these tactics, because if they actually engage in a battle of ideas without the veneer of Smear, Fear, Queer, and Race they will lose. When their ideas are clearly exposed to the light of day, what average Americans will see is that the Republican party is not the party that represents their interests, but that it is the party of corporate greed and wealth. And when average Americans actually sees the Republican party for what it really is, for what it really stands for, they will vote Democratic. So it must, therefore, fool them into voting against their own interests by Smear, Fear, Queer, and Race.

It seems that in this election, however, the vile varnish that hides the real Republican party from exposure may finally be wearing off. Katrina, Iraq, Foley, et cetera have washed away the protective coating hiding the real beast, and the American voters are now seeing the Republicans for the obscene filth that they really are. That is why the Republicans are so desperate. That is why, as the polls show them losing, they are frantically trying to repair their protective cover with more Smear, Fear, Queer, and oh, I almost forgot, Race.

-Guest Blogger Jeff Bloomfield