Bad Ads

I was sitting in the waiting room while the Most Extravagantly Lovely and Benevolent Woman To Have Walked Among Mere Mortals had a medical procedure done.  (I could make a joke about it, but HEPA and marital preservation instincts prohibit it.)

Anyway, I was trying to finish The Other Wes Moore when CNN kept intruding into my reading to remind me that attacking Libya is controversial, Japanese radiation is not good for you and Elizabeth Taylor remained dead.  Then, a literally unbelievable ad came on.

It was a Chinese man (a professor?  a party leader?  a Chinese Tony Robbins?) addressing an auditorium of eager Chinese young people.  He explained (in Mandarin with subtitles) that empires fell because they forgot what made them great.  He mentioned Greece, Rome, Britain and the US.  Apparently, we fell as an empire because we had too much debt.  And since the Chinese own our debt, all the Americans now work for China.

Where to begin?

First, empires do not fall because they "forget what made them great", they fall for any number of reasons.  Greece (presumably Alexander's empire?) fell, because it was never wholly organized into a single polity and power devolved to local commanders.  Rome fell because the idea of what it meant to be Roman declined, replaced with a greater sense of being Christian.  Oh, and invasions.  But invasions that were unopposed because there were no more "Romans" to defend it.  Britain fell because Adam Smith was right: empires are more expensive than they are worth.

I'm presuming this ad was placed in the near future when we will all work for China, because last I looked the Chinese worked for us.  They manufacture the world's cheap consumer goods.  They work for us, because we don't want to pay a lot for that muffler/plastic toy/shirt.

Secondly, the idea that American greatness was built upon thrift and balanced budgets is historically illiterate.  Alexander Hamilton looked at British economic strength and realized the importance of a perpetually funded debt.  While that orthodoxy died under Jefferson and Gallatin, it remains viable.  America's period of global greatness does in fact coincide with the perpetual US debt.  The military-industrial complex created economic prosperity and the American Imperium.  It did so by frequently resorting to debt.  And of course, no one is more responsible for our debt than Ronald Reagan and George Bush, so... how is this Obama's fault?

There is also a gratuitous shot at the stimulus and HCR, but that ignores the direct intervention that the Chinese exert on their economy every single day.  Honestly, we're looking at China as the apex of free market ideology?  I guess anything successful must be a product of the free markets and since China is currently successful...

What also struck me was the implicit racism of the ad.  The Chinese are a new Yellow Menace.  Sure, it's aimed at the Brown Menace currently in the White House (I mean who let the Black guy into the White house?), but the sinister lighting and ominous laughter at the end was just offensive as hell.

The thing is, I bet the ad works.  It's flashy and being devoid of facts has never hurt conservative arguments before.  And hey, racism bonus points!

Of course, relying on subtitles might put it beyond the reading speed of many GOP voters, but that's a risk they appear willing to take.

I have a hunch the GOP will have a harder time firing up the angry white people as easily this time.  The Tea Party is tiring of Boehner's insufficient purity and the economy still seems to be struggling towards equilibrium.

Long term?  Scaring whitey about Chinks and Mooslims and Spics and Niggers is a losing long term game.

That's the baseline from 2008.

That poll is recent.  Hispanics have yet to flock to the Democrats, but they certainly seem to be leaving the GOP.  If they succeed in alienating Asians, too, well, game, set, match.

UPDATE: Found the ad.  Set in 2030.  So that explains it.  In 20 years everything will change and we will work for China.  Which is weird because 20 years ago we were all going to work for the Japanese.