The Spectacularly Healthy vs the Massively Afflicted.

[Warren Stupidity]

Michael Fox, severely afflicted with Parkinson's disease, funds and stars in a political advertisement advocating for stem cell research, for the Missouri ballot initiative to promote stem cell research in that state, and for the senate candidacy of Claire McCaskill. The ad was incredibly effective, heart wrenching, as Mr. Fox is an iconographic figure, forever in our collective consciousness as, oddly enough, the conservative republican kid Alex P. Keaton in the long running hit Family Ties.

The rightwing media machine was outraged. They went into full assault against Mr. Fox, with Mr. Limbaugh leading the charge with the claim that Fox was 'faking it', exaggerating his disease, pretending to be sick. That was odd enough, but the sad end game of Mr. Limbaugh's career has been one odd incident after another. To compound the oddness, the right has funded a counterattack ad featuring the spectacularly healthy Jeff Suppan, Mike Sweeney, Patricia Heaton and Kurt Warner. What were they thinking?

My first reaction to the counterattack ad was disgust at the people featured in it. Why would they feel the need to appear in this? On examination, I started to realize that the fabled rovian attack machine, the well oiled mechanism of lies and distortions and distractions, the media manipulation that has been so effective, this grand old propaganda machine, seriously blundered here.

Mr. Fox is quite famous. The response it seems had to be from equally famous people. Fame and wealth are neutralized between these two ads, more or less. (I think Mr. Fox, as mentioned above, is iconic and none of these befuddled athletes and minor actors are of his stature, but they are all famous and wealthy.)

So what we have is the Spectacularly Healthy vs. the Massively Afflicted. Fame and wealth mostly cancel each other out. Has the GOP Machine lost all common sense? What is the message they have put out here? The spectacularly healthy are opposed to research that could help the massively afflicted? Could they not find one afflicted famous person to come to their aid? Would not one right wing Parkinson's victim stand up to say no to research that might someday lead to a cure?

Between Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Suppan (et al) the right may just have sealed its fate.

[babylonsister]

1. Great observation, Warren S. I never looked at it this way

so thanks for enlightening me. I can't imagine any person with such an affliction to not want research to happen to possibly find cures. And I think most people know and/or love someone who would benefit from stem cell research. I'm one of them and can't understand the mindset it must take to not support s.c.r. Dead people in Iraq are okay, but don't touch cells?
:crazy:

[Warren Stupidity]

4. I woke up this morning suddenly aware of what it was about

this response ad that was so wrong. The miracle of sleep and shower once again brought enlightenment to me. My hope is that the jarring wrongness of the response, in particular this ad, is going to help implode Republican support.

[Red Zelda]

2. Brain-dead jocks

like Warner and Sweeney and Suppan simply don't have enough smarts to think on higher levels.
Of course, they're all wacko fundies, but if one of their precious little ones was afflicted, they'd be crying for help in a second.

An excellent assessment, btw, Warren!

[postulater]

3. Thanks Mr. Stupidity

Appreciated your viewpoint.

It's amazing how they get away with doing stuff like this.

[OneBlueSky]

5. attacking Alex P. Keaton when he's sick was one stupid move . . .

anyone with half a brain could see that . . . but we're talking Scrunch Limburger here, folks . . . his brain has been fried for years . . .

sorry, Pigboy . . . you blew it BIG time . . . :applause:

[bloom]

15. I think he gets his orders

from the Republican machine.

They wanted someone to try to diminish the effect of the Fox ad - who else could do that. It's not something that a politician could do - so they send out Limbaugh. And Hannity does his part too - he's just not as obnoxious. But tries to downplay/insult the concept of the ad in a different way - to appeal to a different audience.

[sakabatou]

6. Mind if I use your post for a video?

[Warren Stupidity]

18. don't mind at all. nt.

[acmejack]

7. We're rich, beautiful and healthy & you're a malingerer!

No shit, that is exactly how they treat you. From their Psychiatrist Sally Satel, claiming veterans are faking PTSD, they deny people benefits to which they are entitled, their merciless review process, they frustrate people causing them to give up (which I think is the point). These people are just evil.

[raccoon]

8. Yeah, the Nazis had nothing on them.

"These people are just evil"

[izzybeans]

9. They try to set up equivalencies in order to counter the power of such

a message (as Fox's commercial). They've already done it with social class. The massively wealthy vs. the struggling worker. They've gone after Michael Moore with who they argue is his equivalent; with rightwing screechers that attack common citizens whenever they become too influential or come too close to the power center. Instead of ridiculing the elite they (e.g. Ann Coulter, Madeye Malkin, and the goons) ridicule relatively powerless people; the people whose power is limited to alliances with like minded elites (which is why they attack Soros so often) and organizing (which is why they denigrate public protest movements and unions). When Ann Coulter attacked the widows of 9.11 victims this is what she was doing. her defense is, "well Michael Moore does it."

They get their followers to buy into the equivalence through sarcasm and infantile mockery. The first thing rightwing automatons have done with Limbaugh is to say "well he's deaf. Don't ridicule a deaf man." There are twisted ironies in all of this. First, if you take Moore's "Roger and Me", he based his whole narrative on irony (overlaying contradictory images and sounds) in order to establish the tragedy of what happens to a community when the company it has supported and helped to thrive abandons it. The right has countered with who they cast as their own versions of the "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore crowd" by mocking working class folks and going after Moore himself. The second ironic twist can be seen by those of us sitting back and having a good laugh at the rightwingers that buy into the equivalence.

The rightwing attacks the mothers of dead soldiers, the families of 9/11 victims, of victims of progressive diseases and tell their followers it is the same thing as criticizing (or attacking if it feels that way to you) the CEO of companies that destroy vibrant communities, of Presidents who break domestic and international law, the profiteering off of mass death by the arms industry, oil companies who have captured us consumers and allow no other option, or of any elite abuse of power.

The true irony is this; an entire party of people have been alienated from the world to such an extent that they find it okay to denigrate their war heroes, the tragic loss of loved ones, the catastrophe of massive job cuts; and for what? All to salvage the reputation of a few corrupt elites who have never served, whose loss of loved ones is tempered by the inheritance of massive estates, whose experience in the job market was handled by daddy, who do not know what living with debt feels like.

[elehhhhna]

11. THAT deserves its own thread, imo...

& heads up: fix "fee" to "few" in the last sentence.

[izzybeans]

13. Thanks. All fixed.

[izzybeans]

14. I a started a thread here linking to the op and my post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2485236&mesg_id=2485236

[tk2kewl]

10. That was my immediate reaction to Supan and other athletes positions

[BlueEyedSon]

12. Gotta love the Cons committing suicide by 1,000 cuts!

[bloom]

16. It is interesting - the symbolisms involved in this.

"...the conservative republican kid Alex P. Keaton" - I never watched that show that much - but I can imagine that a lot of Republicans might have been sympathetic to his character. Making this ad potentially all the more effective.

And then there is the "Back to the Future" thing. Where if we were going to imagine a future - what is it going to be like? Is it going to be a hateful, greedy place - where society did nothing to help the "Massively Afflicted" (or anyone else for that matter) ?

Or is going to be a happier place - where public policy makers (voted in by the public) found solutions to the problems - including some of the health problems - of our time?

[philly_bob]

17. Fox ad: election. Counter ad: constitutional amendment.

I don't get it. I thought Fox ad supported McCaskill over Republican opponent in 2004. But counter-ad warns about a constitutional amendment regarding cloning.

Can somebody set me straight?

Footnote: Adding Patricia Heaton to my list of talented people that went over to the dark side, including Powell, Blair, & Dennis Miller.

[hedgehog]

19. The difference is that I know who Michael Fox is and I don't

know those other people even after being given their names. It makes the Republicans look even more out of touch when they can only come up with a bunch of 2nd stringers!

[Warren Stupidity]

20. Oh they are all Missourans.

So the selection made sense for the target viewing audience. But that is a bit beside the point. What they end up with is having athletes and actresses, those blessed with great bodies and great looks - the spectacularly healthy, advocating against the massively afflicted. That cannot possibly play well in anyone's mind. It is in fact disturbing and, well, sick, to have very healthy people telling the rest of us why research for ways to find cures for diseases is a bad thing to do.

It is sort of like having Bill Gates make advocacy ads against social security and medicare. Who in their right mind would do that?

"Hi I'm Bill Gates and I'm here to say that you don't need social security and medicare, its easy to save billions for a comfortable retirement, I did and so can you."

[Lurking Dem]

21. That's funny.

But it's not.

But it is.

Thank you.