Although the ad only aired in Michigan markets before and during The Super Bowl, it is getting criticism on a nationwide level (from both sides of the political aisle) due to its racial insensitivity. In the article that I linked to above, Hoekstra defended the ad (which is scheduled to run for two weeks on cable stations across Michigan).
By the way, there is actually a website titled Debbiespenditnow.com and it's as over-the-top with the Asian imagery as you can imagine.
In the clips below, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks and Lawrence O'Donnell attack the ad... but from different angles.
6 comments:
I'd usually have a short story to write, but this ad made me LOL.
I think some folks need to simmer down a bit.
Politics is such a dirty, ugly, bullshit game; having corny ads to laugh at is the only good part of any election season.
RIP Herman and the "I am a real American" creepy smile ad. :'(
Josh: Although I won't go as far as some by calling Hoekstra a racist, I do believe he was playing into the xenophobia shared by some on the right.
After writing this post, I caught the reairing of "The Rachel Maddow Show" in which guest host Chris Hayes did a good job of exposing the hypocrisy of the Hoekstra ad:
http://artistdogboy.blogspot.com/2012/02/chris-hayes-proves-racist-republican.html
As far as hypocrisy or anything about Hoekstra, that's a separate issue for me. I don't know who the guy is and don't really care about him.
But for the ad being racially insensitive, I don't understand why folks can't laugh it up a little more than claiming offense.
I had to talk my father down off a ledge not two months ago because of the way The Sing Off (NBC's hit a capella show) made fun of country music.
He pointed out what was true about the difference in the way the show handled hip hop night, rock night, pop night, and then country night. Only with country night did they dress up like idiots, put on a pretend accent, and stick multiple stereotypes while laughing it up. Something they didn't do for other genres.
And it's probably funny to the folks at NBC to give country music artists a hard time and to hickify the entire genre. I'm sure some see nothing wrong with it. It's in good fun.
And I found it funny.
If they had all dressed up in baggy clothes, gold chains and spoke with faux hip hop vernacular, I would have still laughed (because it woulda been corny as hell). But some would have undoubtedly taken offense and claimed that it was racially insensitive.
Unless something/someone is really trying to be mean spirited, I can give it a pass.
I don't know. I just can't view this ad as insensitive. And as far as the xenophobia, I'm not sure I see that either.
I just think the ad plays into the mindset shared by some on the right that foreigners, "the other", etc. are taking jobs away from them. It's a spin-off of the Southern strategy.
I don't necessarily disagree with that. I couldn't if I wanted to. I don't know the schmuck who put out the ad; that may be exactly what he was trying to do.
But sometimes tact just happens to match the situation. Out of intention or coincidence, I can't make that call. But China is something that Americans should be worried about, and it's not paranoia or xenophobia to point out that a lot of jobs are going to China and that China's economy is strengthening while ours is stagnant if not declining.
They own huge parts of our debt and play by a totally different set of rules.
I think it's important to look into why jobs are going to China. It appears the answer isn't a simple one. I just think it's too easy to play the blame China/be scared of China game.
I don't know if you did yet, but the video I linked to in my first comment is worth checking out. Chris Hayes has a pie chart in the segment which points out who owns most of our debt.
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