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Contributors
Doug Gamble- Contributor
Doug
Gamble is a former writer for President Ronald Reagan and
resides
in Carmel. [go to Gamble index]
 Venom
Politics.org
Hating Bush fuels MoveOn.org ...
[Doug Gamble] 9/2/04
It should come as no surprise that the ultra-liberal
MoveOn.org, backers of some of the most hateful anti-Bush ads
on TV and the internet, is based in Berkeley. Rumor has it that
Berkeley was once part of the Soviet Union, but broke off in
an earthquake many years ago and drifted to northern California
with its communist ideology intact.
It was MoveOn, you
may recall, that posted an internet ad comparing President
Bush to Hitler, before finally bowing to pressure and
pulling it off. The organization last week released a series
of 10 new ads, featuring the “talent” of such Hollywood
lefties as Martin Sheen, Ed Asner, Matt Damon, Kevin Bacon and
Rob Reiner. One ad a week is being released until the election.
The first, directed
by hip-hop video director Benny Boom, shows young African-Americans
approaching a polling place, their voting
cards in hand, only to be confronted by a white policeman who
blocks their way. “We’ve got to get George W. Bush
out of office, and it’s very important that kids understand
what a serious condition the world is in with this madman,” Boom
said in what passes for political analysis from the showbiz crowd
these days.
Another spot has
a flight attendant affixing parachutes to businessmen celebrating
over war profits, before pushing them
out of the plane over Iraq. A voiceover asks, “What if
the same men who profited from the war were asked to fight it?”
Not asked, of course, is what if a company such as Halliburton
pulled out of Iraq? The company has been re-building war-ravaged
countries going back to World War II, under both Democratic and
Republican administrations, and to the extent any comforts of
home can be found in a war zone, Halliburton supplies them to
the troops in the form of food, shelter and clothing. The company,
which takes no position on the war but is carrying out an assigned
mission, has suffered over 30 employee deaths in Iraq since the
war began.
While some of the MoveOn ads will be seen only on the internet,
the organization is committed to a multi-million dollar TV campaign
through the fall. It will test market the spots and air those
it believes will have the greatest impact on voters.
MoveOn was started six years ago by Berkleyites Wes Boyd and
Joan Blades, who made a fortune after creating the flying toaster
screen saver. Republicans would have them take a flying leap.
The web site started modestly as an on-line petition during the
Monica Lewinsky scandal, urging Congress to censure President
Bill Clinton, not impeach him, and move on.
The group now boasts almost two and a half million members,
a political action committee and a so-called 527 fundraising
effort. This has translated into a bulging war chest for Bush-bashing
ads, with much of the funding coming from two individuals, Progressive
Corporation Chairman Peter Lewis and his business partner, billionaire
mogul George Soros.
My Democratic friends
would disagree, but MoveOn and like-minded liberal groups have
injected more anti-Bush venom into the political
bloodstream than was ever directed at Clinton even during the
height of Republicans’ animosity toward him. Suggesting,
for example, that Republicans are linked to Bull Connor-type
racist cops who would use force to keep African-Americans from
voting is despicable.
Many Democrats have never accepted the result of the last presidential
election, ironically refusing to move on. It is because they
harbor so much hatred toward Bush that things are going to get
even uglier in this country if he is reelected. So deep is their
animosity, they will not accept the will of the people any more
than they accepted the December 12, 2000 decision of the Supreme
Court.
With Iraq removed from the axis of evil abroad, a reelected
Bush will have his hands full with a Berkeley, San Francisco,
Hollywood axis of enmity at home. CRO
California-based Doug Gamble contributed speech material to
Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and writes a twice-monthly
column for the Orange County Register and CaliforniaRepublic.org.
Copyright
2004 Doug Gamble
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