Finally, in a couple days, the damnable ads will be
over. The Baldwin-Thompson race will go
into the history books as the nastiest political election ever, the most
expensive election in Wisconsin history, and the second-most expensive U.S.
Senate race in the nation.
The final tally is not yet in, but we already know a few
things with more than a fair amount of certainty. The race between Tammy Baldwin and Tommy
Thompson will be recorded as the meanest, nastiest, most disgusting political
race in our lifetimes. 99% of the ads
run in this race were negative. That’s
not a figure from some think-tank or foundation that’s really a front for
conservative or liberal money. It’s the
figure released by a number of university-based research groups, like the
Wesleyan Media Project.
Week after week, we heard Tommy question Tammy’s patriotism
and Tammy question Tommy’s patriotism.
Tommy said he wasn’t questioning Tammy’s patriotism, he was questioning
her judgment. But that’s not the image
that was portrayed in the attack ads he ran about one of Tammy’s 12 votes
concerning the 9-11 victims. Tommy’s ads
were filled with visual symbolism (like the constant presence of the U.S. flag
on screen) and rife with patriotic platitudes, mouthed by people who were
boldly identified as members or former members of the armed services, if not
actually in uniform. Those images say
“patriotism”, not judgment.
Tammy’s ads were equally obnoxious, using pictures of Tommy
looking old and haggard, a clear visual implication that Tommy is no longer an
energetic cheerleader for the state, but an old, wrinkled white man who cashed
in on his connections. And there was
Tammy’s ad implying that Tommy was fully invested in Iran’s quest to build a nuclear
weapon, complete with some boyish announcer who constantly mispronounced “Iran”
– which I’m not sure was an act of stupidity on the announcer’s part, or a
deliberate attempt by the Baldwin forces to use the popular mispronunciation
“eye-RAN” to invoke another emotional tug from low-education low-information
voters.
And will any of us ever forget Tammy yelling “You Damn
Right” several hundred times a week in Karl Rove’s attack ads?
According to reliable, reputable non-partisan research
groups (like the Annenberg Foundation’s Public Policy Center) two Wisconsin TV
markets – Madison and Green Bay – were among the top five in the nation for
political spending. The
Baldwin-Thompson race accounted for more than 35 million dollars in TV ad buys
– the most in Wisconsin history. As of
the end of last week, Wisconsinites were exposed to an average of 763 ads a day
in the Presidential race (counting the ad buys in Wisconsin’s five largest TV
markets – Neilsen breaks WI into 8 markets) and a stunning 852 ads a day in the
Baldwin-Thompson race.
Most of these TV ads (in the 80% range) were paid for by a
very small group (fewer than 100) of extremely wealthy people. As the graphic at the top of this rant
illustrates, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the floodgates
for essentially unlimited funds from essentially anonymous donors. And don’t kid yourself: both sides have cashed in on the Citizens
United decision.
Had the entire nation been exposed to the incessant drumbeat
of “You Damn Right” and “He’s Not For You Any More” that Wisconsinites have had
to stomach for the past month or so, it might have been enough to create the
tipping point of revulsion that will motivate an aroused citizenry to force
meaningful change in the crooked game of money and politics.
But I’m afraid that it’s going to take a couple more
election cycles and another round or two of disgusting, misleading, nasty TV
ads to finally motivate the people of this country to demand change.
After all, it’s time for us to start “enjoying” the Black
Friday ads again.
