(UPDATE: Ever wonder what a USA Next ad against President Bush would look like? Here are some ideas.)
I assume we've all seen by now the anti-AARP ad floating around the internet(s) made by some right-wing shill group with a remarkable name. The Left Coaster has it, as well as some mostly good ideas about how to punish the right for such nonsensical slandering. Go read about it if you haven't.
Don't get me wrong, no one would like to see them punished more than I would, but I have got to wonder whether this isn't a setup of some kind. The ad is ridiculous. The wingnuts have sure run some ridiculous ads in their time (remember the wolves? remember the "nuisance"?), but this one is too ridiculous. It says two things about the AARP: that it's anti-military and pro-gay marriage.
The AARP, of course, is an organization for seniors. In fact, when you click on the link, the top of the window will say "AARP: information, advocacy and benefits for people age 50 and older." Click on the "About AARP" tab and you get such fringe leftist choices as "Get Free Tax help from the AARP," "Spirituality and Older Americans," and my favorite, "Spotlight on Wisconsin." Wisconsin went for the Dems this last time. Ergo, the AARP must be a bunch of communists.
So the ad is ridiculous beyond a shadow of a doubt. Given that the people getting married and people in the military tend to be young, and given that all three of the people in the ad are young, the group that made the ad knows how ridiculous it is. The wingnuts, though they might be stupid, aren't stupid.
In short, I can't help but wondering whether this isn't just an excuse to get a conversation going in the corporate media about whether the AARP is liberal. Furthermore, I wonder if we're not doing more harm than good in talking about it.
But then again, the wingnuts are losing his battle so far, and if we are gonna talk about it the only thing to do is to heap upon it the ridicule it richly deserves. In all my years of watching television and internet surfing, that ad maybe the single most laughable thing I've seen. More laughable that Bush being elected in the first place. More laughable than calling Jimmy Carter a traitor. More laughable than Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction. And that, my friends, is saying something.
-- Michael
I suppose it's a possibility that the ad was just an opening shot meant to get attention and start a dialogue that casts AARP as liberal, but I've got to wonder just how effective it'll be. AARP does so much more than simply advocate for political positions--it offers insurance, discounts, etc. that people of all political stripes use, and to my knowledge, this group isn't offering anything in terms of tangible benefits for getting people to leave AARP. I think Steve Gilliard is right on this--they picked the wrong group to screw with when they picked AARP. If AARP wants to, they can seriously ratfuck these clowns. I hope it happens.
And I also think the Democratic party and the AARP ought to do exactly as Steve Soto suggests. Go loud, go big, and start humiliating anyone who associates with this group.
Posted by: Incertus | February 22, 2005 at 09:18 PM
... Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
Swift Boat Vets are fascists. No one is safe. This attack on the elderly should come as no surprise to anyone who studies history.
Here, get a sneak preview of what lies in store for liberals under a repressive fascist state.
The White Rose Society
Posted by: Cheryl | February 22, 2005 at 10:31 PM
The wingnuts really are that stupid, Michael. It appears that the wedding picture was used without the couple's permission (or that of the newspaper that printed it). Which may explain at least some of the haste with which it was taken down, when somebody threatened to wave a subpoena duces tecum under the noses of the folks at USA-Neocon.
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