Real people

In this election cycle, a pattern is becoming clear: Republicans won't use real people in their campaign ads - opting instead for out-of-state actors. That's because nobody supports the GOP's garbage unless they're paid to appear on the party's behalf.

There's nothing wrong with being a professional actor. But campaign ads aren't supposed to lie to people by making them think an actor is actually employed in some other field and is endorsing a candidate based on their own experiences. And you damn sure don't do this while ridiculing the very voters you're supposed to appeal to.

But the Republicans do it all!

In Ohio, right-wing gubernatorial candidate John Kasich ran a commersh that claimed to show a real Ohio steelworker. The purported steelworker charged that the Buckeye State's Democratic administration had cost jobs.

But it turns out that Kasich is so dishonest that he lied about the man being a real steelworker. The man is actually an out-of-state actor paid to appear in the ad.

This clip exposes Kasich's deception:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R48YAEcKZeU

(That video is worth watching just for the music!)

West Virginia's right-wing Senate candidate John Raese did something even more outrageous. In a commercial for his faltering campaign, Raese didn't hire real West Virginians. Maybe it's because Raese doesn't live in West Virginia himself: He lives in Florida (and is therefore constitutionally ineligible to serve as a senator from West Virginia). To find people to appear in Raese's ad, Republicans went to Philadelphia to look for professional actors who could produce what they called a "hicky" appearance.

In short, Raese hires out-of-state actors to portray what he thinks West Virginians look like. If there ever was a sign of the modern Republican Party's elitism, that would be it.

This is the flip side of a form of elitism that's been much more prevalent in the GOP since the mid-'90s. They like to shout down opposition by saying they governed the way they did because we voted them in. Except that we didn't. I don't think I've ever voted Republican except in one county race years ago in which the Democrat ran to the right. And nobody even disagrees that Al Gore won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election. Bush claimed he had a mandate without even winning the most votes!

In other words, Republicans think some voters' votes count more than ours. "You don't support us? Sorry, you don't count." I honestly don't see a huge difference between modern GOP elitism and the Divine Right of Kings.

They think it's their birthright, just like how now they think it's their birthright to win back control of Congress.