The Commercial about Liberals I would like to see

(Cross posted at Daily Kos)

After watching West Wing, last night, I decided to write about this. A few nights ago, I was thinking about the commercial I would have made if I were head of the DNC. Since I used to listen to a LOT of right wing talk radio, and still listen now to see what my enemies think, I am way too familiar with the memo: Liberals hate America. Also: Liberals support the terrorists and: Liberals are dangerous enemies of everything good in the USA. I also thought about how Dems do seem to be running away from the term "liberal," and how that might be smart, but still. "Liberal" represents all of the best of what has been done in the last century, so perhaps it should be reclaimed.
My idea for a commercial:

First, I would have a trustworthy-looking person say that liberals have been demonized by right wing talk show hosts, who have called them evil and the enemies of the state, but liberals have consistently been for improving the majority of Americans' lives over the last century. Then, go to different people, one at a time, talking about what liberals have done, using the ideas from West Wing and some other ideas.

Woman: Liberals gave women the right to vote

Black man: Liberals supported civil rights

Fireman: Liberals created and supported unions

Elderly couple: Liberals created Social Security

Disabled person: Liberals created disability protections

Mother with kids: Liberals created unemployment insurance

Teacher: Liberals have assured an education for every American children and still support funding all of our public schools.

Person by a river/lake: Liberals protect the environment and our drinking water.

I think the term liberal should be reclaimed. Nothing negative about conservatives in this commercial. What is unsaid may be more powerful than anything blatant. Any other ideas???

...we could use that message. Your ad idea nails it.

The Republicans have hijacked the word "Liberal" (among so many other things) to the point where even those who claim to be Democrats use it in a negative way.

Well fuck what Al From, Joe Biden, Mark Warner, and the rest of those sellouts think, Liberals DID do all of those things and more. And as Smits' character also correctly pointed out, a Liberal freed the slaves.

If that isn't something to be proud of, then we have a bigger problem in this country than even I thought possible.

:loveya: He's got the $$ to pay for the ad!! And he needs to start selling it ASAP!!!

:kick::kick::kick:

Make sure to use lots of red/white/blue. Include a bald eagle in the lake shot. Use patriotic but cool/progressive music. Associate liberalism with patriotism. Point out that liberals balance budgets.

of a webpage addy for more info, or tiny subtle text inserted to quote, whatever the equivalent of chapter and verse would be to back up each assertion (who passed what and when) Otherwise They'll run around in circles crying about us needing facts to back up our facts......

Smits little speech was right on the money.

yes we need people to stand up for everything good that is liberal

our nation was founded on liberal ideals

I think that is what is all comes down to. Democrats should be the protectors of the American Dream, that WE the people should govern ourselves. The American Experiment was not to see if we could build a better society by winning lotteries or allowing corporations to "own" their employees. There were no Lotteries in 1776 and many of the people who came here had already been "owned" somewhere else.

The American Dream was to give the PEOPLE a way to counter the influence of Monarchies, Monasteries and Money. We've been sucked into believing the Repub meme that Government is bad and can't do anything right. If Government really represented us, did what "we the people" wanted it to do, it couldn't do anything wrong!

It really is this simple; ANYTHING that puts power in the hands of of the people (government,) is good. Anything that puts it in the hands of corporations, churches, or cabals, is simply UNAMERICAN.

Do you think we could get MoveOn to fund it? And, most importantly, run it in red, red states? I'm a Liberal and always have been and I HATE the way the Corporatist Dems have run from that term. The only things worth fighting for in this country were designed and fought for by Liberals. I'd give money to see that on the air in my state (OK)!

:applause:

liberals got us the weekend - guy enjoying a football game
liberals got us retirement plans - couple on a sailboat
liberals (originally) got us the right to bear arms - guy with a 10 point buck
liberals got us safe workplaces - guy with both arms in a meatpacking plant

Also, don't forget to include some religious figures and maybe some key people who have fought corruption, to show we are in fact the party of morality.

Maybe at the end a groupd of the assorted people standing together under a flag shaking hands or arm in arm or something to show how we are a varied party that stands together.

I'm not a religious person, but even I'm fed up with the wingnuts claiming that they have a hotline to God, while they oppose pretty much everything Jesus Christ stood for! :eyes:

I also like the diversity angle. Liberals believe in equal rights and protections for EVERYONE, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, etc.

everyone's right to decide his/her faith/belief for him/her self, or to be free NOT to believe
But it would be important to have some faith component to the ad; too many people think "liberal" and think "Godless" (gee, could that be because the reThugs have been repeating that lie ad nauseum for a couple of decades now???)

It'd be good to have a converse ad too: much as I hate the negative ads, they WORK
reThugs have slashed the social safety net
reThugs oppose family-friendly wages
reThugs think the Government has a right to control your body
reThugs think the Government has a right to invade your bedroom
reThugs think 'welfare' is a good thing for big corporations
reThugs want to destroy the family farm
reThugs have imposed a birth burden on every child born (deficit)
reThugs have made us a debtor nation
reThugs believe in poisoned air and water so corporations can make more money

etc etc etc

(conservatives just wanted to serve the crown, and they still do)

Freedom of speech, keeping god out of government, pursuing life, liberty and happiness, self-determination, democratic representative government - these are all extremely "liberal" ideas, freedom from unwarranted search and seizure, even the right to bear arms, all liberal.

A dead founding father?

I'm liking this ad. I was going to add:

50something Husband & wife, 20something son wearing pink triangle t-shirt:
Liberals protect all Americans' civil rights.

30something Wife and husband with two young kids:
Liberals believe in reproductive rights.

I sent this idea to the DNC and am looking for an email address for moveon.org

If anyone has it, can you post? Thanks,

He's a liberal and half the country believes he's the President ... so why not? ;-)

By the way, I like your additions a lot. :toast:

liberals got us to the moon.

been going around, and use it literally, with the voiceover saying everything in the e-mail? You know, the one that starts:

"Joe Smalltown gets up in the morning and makes coffee. Thanks to some liberal treehugger, his water is clean and safe to drink..."

Not to be picky, but "Liberals have assured an education for every American children..." just doesn't resonate.

That would go over like a pregnant high jumper, huh??

"These are OUR values, and always have been."

The rethugs are constantly saying we have wish-washy values and no message. Let's give them a message loud and clear.

:applause:

I love the ideas in adigal's original post, as well as all the additions by other DUers. I especially like JudyM's idea for using Harry Reid and the Dems. It's about they stood together and made a powerful statement.

Don't give up on this. Send it to the DNC! Moveon.org is also a good idea, but they couldn't use Reid and the Dems. Perhaps they could use some "retired" politicians instead ... like Bill Clinton, Mario Cuomo, Max Cleland, Al Gore, Ann Richards, etc.

On edit: Recommended! A toast for adigal :toast:

Conservatives LOST Vietnam..unless you think Nixon was a liberal.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/chinadepot.htm

Nixon was a RINO and the liberal Democrats started it anyway. The really delusional ones think America WON! :wow:

How about a list of all the programs conservatives opposed.

Besides the list above, don't forget programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Yeah, I thought we should do that too. Half the people don't know and a bunch more have just forgot.

Democrats won WWI and WWII

Republicans ducked out of Korea and Viet Nam

again, much as I hate the negative ads, but they work
on edit:
reThugs support war as long as it's YOUR kids they send to die