SHARRON ANGLE & ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION -- GETTING OUT THE FEAR VOTE

Sharron Angle: A low-life but a dangerous low-life.

Didn't we learn anything about propaganda from the Nazi experience?

Is history taught so poorly in our schools that we just learn dates and names but not the lessons behind them? Apparently so.

Propaganda in America is one of the wonders of the world. I'm serious. It controls the masses pretty well for a relatively free, semi-democratic republic. And most of the time we don't even suspect we're being manipulated. Not a clue. That's the most dangerous kind of propaganda.


THE ANGLE ADS

But now and then something totally blatant will be fed to us and it still works to great effect. Not everybody buys in, but many do.

Case in point: The Sharron Angle TV advertisements on illegal immigration.

For those who don't know, Angle is the Republican Senate candidate presently duking it out with incumbent Harry Reid in Nevada. Harry is the Senate Majority Leader but Angle has him spooked because she's ready, willing and able to say anything to get the job done.

Not that Reid's an angel. I live in Nevada and our politicians don't have a great track record -- as you can imagine, this being a state built on gambling tourism and priding itself on vice. The "sin" in Sin City, Las Vegas (my home town), is not just a reference to what happens on the streets and in the sex clubs. It's about what happens in the backrooms too.

For a quick rundown of some slimy Nevada pols of recent times, I recommend taking a look at Jeff Burbank's book "Las Vegas Babylon." You'll see how business is done here.

Oops, these guys actually live in Mexico.

But back to Angle.

She ran one ad showing scary looking Hispanic men that was apparently pulled because she used a photo without permission that actually depicted Mexican men in Mexico (see above). But now she has a similar ad out with more scary looking Hispanic men terrifying whitey.

Many illegal aliens are Mexican. Yes. But there is no way these ads don't make all Hispanics, by inference, suspects (and not just of being illegal aliens, but of being threatening). That's the whole idea. It's stereotyping, profiling, call it what you will. And making immigrants the boogymen when the economy is down is a trick as old as Adolf.

There is no question there have been violent episodes around our southern border. It is also fair to say that illegal immigration is a subject worthy of serious and thoughtful debate.

But this is something else, and Angle knows it. This is the game of false implication.


COMPARE AND CONTRAST

And there's an added layer of weirdness that this story is in the news at the same time as a story about U.S. plans to build a new $16 billion "super base" in Guam, which not all the locals are thrilled about.

But I guess that's not the same thing, since Guam is a U.S. territory: which means we stole it (well, we bought it from Spain in 1899) so that we could do what we like there. Come to think of it, we stole a chunk of Mexico too. Hmm. The plot thickens.


CONCLUSION

A word of caution: The extreme right and the Tea Party and Sarah Palin and the screamers on Fox TV may seem wacky but they should be taken very seriously. Fascism rises when average people are desperate for a lifeline. With things the way they are in America right now, folks are vulnerable to extreme rhetoric and extreme ideas.

Nations should not be ruled by emotion but by intellect. We must not let the Sharron Angles of the world convince us to do otherwise.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

FOOTNOTE: More on immigration, illegal immigration and the U.S. propaganda machine in future posts.

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to check out A REVOLUTIONARY QUESTION FOR YOU.