I’ve written previously about that penchant of many conservatives to base their moral sense on visceral disgust. As psychologist Jonathan Haidt has demonstrated, this connection is much more readily made by conservatives than by progressives (also, see here).
It is in that context that I must confess that I felt that connection deeply today when I saw John McCain’s latest ad, which makes the shockingly unfair accusation that Barack Obama’s support of a program to protect young children from sexual predators was an attempt to give inappropriate and explicit sex education to kindergarteners.
Here’s the wording of McCain’s ad:
Script For “Education” (TV :30)
ANNCR: Education Week says Obama “hasn’t made a significant mark on education”.
That he’s “elusive” on accountability.
A “staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly”.
Obama’s one accomplishment?
Legislation to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners.
Learning about sex before learning to read?
Barack Obama.
Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.
Truly, this ad is disgustingly immoral. Is a man who endorses this ad fit to be hired as anything at all?
Perhaps some readers thought I was over the top when I compiled a long list of questions the media needs to ask McCain. With this latest ad, however, it is clear that John McCain is a vicious and morally reprehensible person. He has proven himself a fitting partner for Sarah Palin, who has made a blatant lie about the bridge to nowhere the centerpiece of her own persona. Has American politics ever been lower? No, really. Has it ever been lower? This ad is a blatant attempt to scoop lots of ignoramuses into the Republican column in November.
McClatchy has come out calling McCain’s attack what it is: “Out of bounds! McCain Misstates Obama Sex-ed Record.” Let’s see if other media outlets have the courage and integrity to follow suit tomorrow.
Well, perhaps if comprehensive sex ed had been taught in kindergarten, Bristol Palin wouldn't be pregnant at 17, ya think?
Again, and still, issues are being condensed into bullet points so that the uninformed can speak with authority without having to expose themselves to contradictory information. It will be repeated until even the originators believe their own lies to be truth.
In the lingo of the computer industry, this is a prime example of "FUD" (Fear, Uncertainity and Doubt) tactics. This is the deliberate mixing of half truths, spin and outright deception to promote one choice by making the other choice appear so completely blecherous that the worse choice looks better by comparison.
The half-truth in this ad is that technically, teaching kindergarten kids that they should not let "Uncle Pervy" feel them up falls in the category of sex education.
The spin is the implication that the kids are being taught about human sexual relations, when truthfully that are not. In fact, a 5-year old is usually not able to understand the concept of sex drive. Several years ago, A Canadian TV station broadcast porn movies after midnight, which was legal under Canadian law at the time. At first, many young kids in upstate New York would wake up late at night to watch the "blue" movies , but soon lost interest as they decided the movies were boring.
The deceptions, include the claim that Obama has only voted for the one issue and the idea that teaching kids to report being molested as wrong for the family
Time Magazine: John McCain is "responsible for one of the sleaziest ads I've ever seen in presidential politics, so sleazy that I won't abet its spread by linking to it." http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/apolog…