Now I have been exposed to yet another way the politicos are using media--that most powerful medium of all, the Internet--to carry on the same sort of lowest-common-denominator marketing to attempt to persuade me to vote for a particular candidate.
Take a look at THIS SHORT VIDEO and come on back.
So what's your take? This is my blog so I'll give you mine.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. I think Samuel L. Jackson is a fine actor, and probably a decent guy who believes very strongly in some basic things. He has every right to support any candidate he wishes and to encourage others to follow his suggestions about where votes should go.
Look, I know this video was produced by Jackson and the son of George Soros with the explicit hope that it would go viral. I suppose I am doing my part to help it do just that. When I saw it first, it had just over 300 views on YouTube. What is it up to now? It must be working in that regard. And that, of course, is the beauty of the web. Whether you agree with the message or not, you may forward it to others and eventually it will have more views than those expensive TV commercials do.
Maybe you forward it because you DO believe in the message. Maybe because you DO NOT. Maybe because you think it's clever and well-produced. Because you like Samuel L. Jackson. Maybe because you get some kind of sick kick out of seeing the screamed word "bulls**t" part the hair of those gals. Or hearing an obvious pre-teen girl yell "f**k" out the window at the neighborhood.
All in all, though, this little three-minute mini-movie exhibits precisely what I was saying in my previous blog post. This stuff must work. People must actually be making up their minds about who they will vote for based on clever video, the same simplistic charges, and the shock value of the production instead of actually taking the time and effort to research who the candidates really are, what they have done or promise to do, and what traits or beliefs make them the best for the job.
I've made up my mind already. Unless there is something in the debates or that I learn about my man, I know which lever I'll pull in November. Tripe like the Samuel L. Jackson video won't change that, so it was wasted on me. But how many others will say, "Geez, if Jackson is for Obama, I guess I am, too. He did pretty well with that airplane full of snakes." Or even worse: "Wow! How cool. They said f**k and bulls**t right there in an ad for Obama. If they are that cool...and the prez has been on 'The View' and 'Letterman'...then he is my guy!"
(Disclaimer: I am about as independent a voter as you will meet. Politically, I am practically a left-wing radical when it comes to social justice, human rights, and individual freedom. On the other hand, I'm way, way libertarian when it comes to government assuming too much power, meddling in our lives, and building a bureaucracy to solve real or perceived problems that end up making the problems worse at an unsustainable cost to taxpayers [War on Poverty? 50 years and trillions of dollars later, I maintain poverty is still winning that war!].
But I have kept an open mind and I have researched the presidential candidates...way beyond watching commercials and viral videos and reading op-ed pieces by writers who always come down on the same side of any issue. I can show you real things that have been done in the past 3.5 years that scare the heck out of me. Not a slogan in an ad or a rhyme in a silly video. Real actions that threaten the very fabric of our country. I'll mention a few and close this thing out.
How many "czars" have been appointed by our current president with unknown authority or agenda, with no oversight to speak of from the other two branches of government or the American voter?
How many "executive orders" have been issued and signed by the current president that create reams and reams of new, cumbersome and questionable regulation and policy and happily do so with little research, no legal action, very little oversight, and practically no consideration of their outcome or effect on us, our country, or the economy?
How many new federal agencies, committees, and other bureaucracies have been created to solve what someone considered to be problems without apparent consideration for whether they were actually necessary, whether or not another agency or body was already charged with doing that job, and how in the world we were going to be able to pay for all those new people, buildings, computers, and paperwork?)
Okay, I think I'll go lie down for a while.
Don Keith N4KC
www.n4kc.com
www.donkeith.com
(Want to have a book published but don't know how to get it done? Or have a book--fiction or non-fiction--but keep getting doors slammed in your face. Grab my new e-book WRITING TO BE PUBLISHED...AND READ! now only $2.99 per download. See more by clicking HERE.)
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