African Americans came out to the polls in record numbers to support President Barack Obama’s campaign and ultimately Democratic candidates across the spectrum in 2008. The upcoming midterm election is an opportunity for the community to again voice the needs of the collective electorate by bringing those same numbers to the polls in November. An active electorate will solidify African American support for the President and guarantee that he will have the support to continue passing the reforms benefiting Americans throughout the country. One effort towards that goal is the barber shop and Beauty Salon program--which is a means to reach out to those voters; garner interest; register voters and solicit new volunteers to support the President.
There are a lot of things I find wrong with this, but the top three are:
1. This is just blatantly condescending and stereotypical of the Democrats toward the black community. I find this offensive. And the fact that they have the nerve to conduct a "barber shop campaign" seems downright stereotypical. If the RNC conducted a SportClips campaign, there would be hell to pay.
2. Barack Obama isn't on the ballot. It's not a presidential election - it's a midterm Congressional election. The Democrats seem to be genuinely trying to confuse that fact and misrepresent the election. In portraying the election as being about Barack Obama, they are at once painting him into the victim's corner - in a position where he must be personally defended - and again as the savior of us all. All we have to do is vote for him, apparently. They're trying to gin up the idea that he's running again. They're even using the "O" logo in "Vote 2010" to make it seem as if he'll be on the ballot in November. Shameful.
3. Does the pose on the poster look sorta... familiar? Remind you of anything? No? How about this?
It's subtle, but they're trying to make a martyr out of Obama and to stir emotions of sorrow, loss and desperation. Just remember, with Obama, everything - especially imagery of him in campaign literature and posters - is very deliberate. Remember the "Hope" and "Progress"posters?
And then check this out, from the Denver Post:
On black radio stations in cities such as Philadelphia, Cincinnati and St. Louis, it sounds a lot like 2008. It's not the music; it's the message.
Aiming to tap into President Barack Obama's off-the-charts approval rating among blacks, the Democratic National Committee has dusted off the presidential campaign's logo, lingo and grassroots strategy to get black voters to the polls this November.
Democrats are betting that if the midterms are a referendum on Obama, they'll like their odds with African-Americans. So in print and radio ads airing in urban areas in battleground states, they have made the midterms all about Obama.
Surely the black community is smarter than that, right? Surely they'll realize that it's Congress that's on the ballot and won't make the same mistake they did last time by casting a ballot simply on the basis of skin color. And surely they'll realize that they, as a group, are being stereotyped and manipulated by their own supposed "black leaders," right? Skin color doesn't make anyone more qualified for office than their sex or what kind of hair color they have. Most black people I have ever known have been very down-to-earth and practical people with a good deal of common sense. How can the "black community" as a group possibly continue to support a man and a congress that tell them that they can get everything - that all their wildest dreams can come true - and that we can spend our way out of the recession, all for nothing? Surely they realize that this isn't a game, right? We're talking about things that will affect us for the rest of our lives and beyond!
There is no free lunch. You can't get something for nothing. You get what you pay for. Sayings like that exist for a reason. They were handed down to us from generations before that had a lot of common sense and wisdom and that suffered - a lot - for what they had. And now, in the hope of getting everything now, now, now we're going to throw all that knowledge away, again?
We're not that stupid, are we?
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1 comment:
This was a great blog, James!
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