March 15, 2006 

WRTA

 Brown Shoes Diary 

Senator Bob Ad-Nauseum

A prominent political ad currently playing on the radio and on billboards around the 30th Senatorial District features a worker at a paper mill in Tyrone crediting her job and the other 204 jobs at that plant to Bob Jubelirer.  I find the ad absolutely nauseating, but I'm not sure why.
 
Is it the lack of logic?  After all, this is an ad paid for by the "friends" of Bob Jubelirer, but it's extremely damning of Job-saver Bob.  For if he is to be credited with saving these 205 jobs, then why has he let so many other people down in our district and across the state?  Hasn't he noticed the loss of thousands of other jobs in our area and tens of thousands across the state--why didn't he do anything for those folks?
 
But bad logic isn't a reason to get so viscerally upset as I am with the ad.  Maybe it's the humiliation that befalls the young lady speaking on behalf of the senator.  She gives him full credit for her job as if neither what she does at work nor what her employer does matters one whit.  Doesn't she understand how pathetic her point of view is?  How she is clearly berating herself?  It's one thing to be unaware of your abilities and your value, but to so publicly denigrate one's personal worth is beyond humiliation.
 
But what other people think of themselves, or how they embarrass themselves, doesn't much concern me.  It's a free country and if embarrassing oneself was against the law then I'd probably be serving a life term.  So that can't be what upsets me so much with the ad.  Maybe it's the implied economic genius being claimed by the Senator?  Of course, nobody would believe him if he speaking himself so it was certainly necessary to get somebody else to give voice to the lies.  But again, it doesn't much concern me when one person uses another to speak his lies.  At least one of the two is a fool and both deserve our disdain.
 
Maybe it's the thought that this ad might win Senator Bob another term, maybe that's what has me so upset--it may not be a problem particular to the conniving Senator and the foolish patsy--this ad just might resonate positively with the local voters.  The Senator has, after all, been in office for some 30 years.  He must have a fair amount of loyal support among folks in the 30th District who buy into this nonsense that politicians can deliver economic bounty.  But though the dismal experience of his leadership has cost Pennsylvanians dearly, "fools will learn in no other schools" as the saying goes.  Besides, it's not that much skin off my nose if this ad contributes to his re-election.
 
No, it's not the illogic of the ad that bothers me so; it's not the humiliation of one of his constituents; it's not the Senator's complicity in that humiliation; it's not the Senator's pretense of economic genius; it's not even that such economic ignorance resonates with a fair portion of the local population.  What offends me as a liberty-loving American is the Senator's lack of trust in free markets and in the abilities of his constituents, and the outright socialism that he brags about as his greatest accomplishment.
 
It wasn't that long ago (although it seems a whole lot longer) that there was a guy named Ronald Reagan whose time in office happened to coincide with the greatest economy in the history of the world.  He was always careful to say it wasn't his doing, nor anyone else's in office, but rather that of the American people working hard in a land of freedom.  Mr. Reagan could be heard saying repeatedly, "Government is not the solution to our problems.  Government is the problem."  That's as far from what Senator Bob is peddling as one could come up with.  I have no doubt the Senator believes he can win with his socialist message: We can't do anything without him.  That's the message of every self-serving, power-mad politician.  After 30 years of the same nonsense, I guess I shouldn't expect him or the voters to change now--but it's still nauseating.


The opinions and ideas expressed in this essay are those ONLY of John D McGinnis and should not be considered representative of WRTA.com, any institution with which McGinnis is associated, or anyone else.  He can be contacted at zoiprof@atlanticbb.net.

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