Really Rick Santorum?

I know that politics have been full of fear-mongering for quite some time now, but I didn’t know it had gotten to this level.

Aside from, well, assuming that he can predict the future, and predicting that future very unrealistically, Rick Santorum’s new “teaser” for the coming 8-part series is shot like a horror film. If you took out the audio, the images alone would convey the coming apocalypse. Now, what black crows, abandoned shoes, and creaking merry-go-rounds have to do with real political issues, I just don’t know. I’m at a loss for the answers.

But here’s what’s worse. Right after “sworn American enemy” and images of Ahmadinejad, the director cut in an image of Obama’s face. When questioned, the director said he wasn’t trying to use subliminal messaging, and that if he were, he would be more blatant about it** (not the point of subliminal messaging).

I will leave the issues surrounding a mistaken understanding of how public health care works (I was in Germany, I experienced it with my epileptic friend who was in and out of the hospital–much better service than I’ve ever gotten in an American ER…). I will also leave aside the fact that if there’s a political party supporting big business (and in turn squeezing out American small business) it’s certainly not the democratic party. I will also leave out the fact that Rick Santorum is trying to bring us back into Cold War thinking with his mindset on nuclear power (I thought we settled it in my fourth grade history class that the paranoid Cold War mindset did not help American foreign relations or American safety…)

Nope, not going to delve into these topics (/selfrestraint). Instead, I want to point out that Rick Santorum’s ad has said nothing about his own solutions, and has only attempted to spread paranoia among the American people via manipulation and fancy camera tactics. This is disgusting. There isn’t a single frame in that video that belongs in a political ad. Someone should reassign this director to a flesh-eating-zombie script. Trying to inspire fear in the American people for personal gain is not only disgusting, it’s also just a few steps away from terrorism. I don’t mean to use relativism in an inappropriate way in making this claim; no, Rick Santorum isn’t hurting anyone, but the point of terrorism isn’t the body count but manipulation of masses of people into living their life in fear. I don’t want a leader who tries to manipulate me for his own personal gain (namely: election). No this does not rise to the level of the trauma that terrorism has inflicted on this country. But it does have the same aim: namely creating unreasonable fears where they don’t belong for the spread of a particular ideology. This ad doesn’t prove that you’ll be a good leader for this country, Rick Santorum; it proves just the opposite. This is embarrassing.