My grandfather and i often speak about Christian morality in the context of politics. This has become increasingly noticeable this year and i was stunned when he told me that Bush was not a Christian (in his actions, not necessarily his purported religious association). That gave me hope.
I decided to assemble a little pre-election package for my grandparents. I wanted to send them: Moral Politics, Don’t think of an Elephant, Unprecedented, Outfoxed and Fahrenheit 9/11. Much to my dismay, Outfoxed was only available on DVD and F9/11 wasn’t to be released for a few weeks so it cost a fortune. But still, i sent them the other three.
This made me wonder. I get an AOL CD every few weeks. I realize that not everyone (like my grandparents) have DVDs. But DVDs are much cheaper to produce than VHS tapes. I’m getting all of this paper political propaganda, but most Americans don’t get their propaganda on paper – they get it on TV. This is why organizations spend millions of dollars to place their ads on FoxNews. Of course, FoxNews is biased.
What would it mean for MoveOn (or other organizations) to start manufacturing DVDs and shipping them off to potential voters? Imagine a hand-written note from a volunteer saying that this might be of interest to you (oh random stranger from a swing state). Imagine shipping out Outfoxed or Unprecedented or F9/11 rather than asking people to pay for it. The people who buy it are already converted. Imagine putting a little note saying “if you don’t have a DVD player, return this card and we’ll send you a VHS copy; give the DVD to a friend.” I wonder what percentage of people would watch a movie that appeared on their doorstep. I’d bet a decent number. Certainly more than read paper propaganda. The TV is what makes most people in this country think. Why not work with the TV, even if you can’t work with the TV stations?
This certainly isn’t an idea lost on the (religious) right wing; several years ago, a bunch of particularly virulent anti-gay types got together, funded and produced a vitriolic, nauseating and, I’m sure, wholly effective videotape entitled, “The Gay Agenda” and sent it out to churches all over the country that were sympathetic to their cause. In fact, I think that that’s when that particular phrase entered the vernacular. It included things like a “teaching guide” so that religious leaders could arrange for a viewing and subsequent discussion of it in their churches. It contained all kinds of inflammatory and out of context clips of leathermen at gay pride parades, drag queens, and the usual cast of characters designed to make Middle America collectively gasp, wag their fingers, and shield their kids’ eyes.
Anyway, as I was saying, this is a pretty common tactic that is currently routinely employed by the right wing. Here’s but one example I just came up with for purposes of this post:
http://www.missionamerica.com/videotape.php
That is, of course a videotape, but I think the same notion (of providing material in video, an easily accessible format) is the same.
Maybe people on the other side of the fence need to take a few hints from the religious right’s playbook and start meeting some of their nonsense, rather than hoping that everyone will see the lies for what they are. Sadly, the latter “strategery” is not having the kind of effect one would hope for.
Oh, one other thing: a lot of gay rights organizations like NGLTF and HRC (whatever you may think of them) have tried to buy advertising on the major networks, as well as on local stations, and many times they have been flat-out rebuffed. Isn’t that just nuts?
MoveOn actually did that with a Kerry promotional film on DVD. It was pretty good.