Ruthless Attack Ads and Withering Lies Are Two Rules of the Game

As a local TV viewer in the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), I see a ton of terrible political advertising. The media budgets are as large as the ideas are small.

Here’s what The Club for Growth has to say about the woman who wants to represent more than 800K central Texans in Congress. Be warned, flattery is not their game.

Then there’s Chips Aroy! and his echoing ads.

“Defund the police” was always a horrendous phrase for a good idea, and the GOP knows how to twist The Left’s words and use them to scare Americans who are not paying close attention.

To believe the propagandists and fear-mongers is to believe that the city of Austin will fall into chaos and decay should the voters of the 21st District decide the election in her favor. It sounds like a Hollywood pitch, not a political thriller.

When Chips Aroy! says, “It’s time to reclaim our way of life,” he sounds like the bad actor that he is. “Our way of life” means exactly what to the sitting Congressman? Why code the language now? It means white male supremacy. Why hide the seething racist within? We are well past all the charades, at this point.

What’s Wendy Got To Say?

Wendy Davis, like most Democrats, wants to litigate her case. This is what her defense sounds like in 30-seconds. “You can believe nasty attack ads, or them.” By “them,” I believe she means her grandkids, not her attackers.

Aside from the opaque copy, the problem is people will and do believe nasty attack ads. Therefore, the correct reply is a hard kick to the proverbial groin.

But there’s a problem. Democrats are better than this. They don’t get down and dirty. They keep it civil, like a parlor game. Sadly, that’s a fundamental misreading of the game. Politics is Rollerball on steroids.

In Related News, How the GOP Uses the “S” Word To Hammer Home Its Lies

To appeal to Latinx voters in Florida, Texas, and across the nation, the GOP is hammering away at another core lie: “He’s a socialist,” they claim about former Vice President Joe Biden. That’s like saying that Michael Jordan can’t dunk, or pizza doesn’t taste good. Oddly, the absurdity of the statement and others like it gets washed off in a political context.

“The choice in this election is whether America remains America.”

Sometimes the GOP’s lies are so outrageous they transcend into truth, as they do here. For “America to remain America,” the corruption must end now. It’s also high time to make new American myths. All the talk of freedom from the automatons is just more wasted words. Freedom for whom, exactly? For the well connected, well educated, tax-sheltered, maskless country club set? Same as it ever was.