The best slogan ever in American politics was “I Like Ike.”
You didn’t have to support Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President in 1952 and 1956 to acknowledge that “I Like Ike” offered rhyme, simplicity and a direct message in three, simple, one-syllable words. They fit neatly on a sign or a bumper sticker. They stuck in the mind.
But in this Presidential campaign of 2012, a Mitt Romney spokesman may have invented a slogan that is just as simple and is, unintentionally, the clear and unvarnished essence of the Romney campaign.
Romney perfectly embodies the upper-caste American notion that wealthy people always know what’s best, especially when they are writing tax laws that favor themselves at the expense of the 99 per cent who get exploited and ignored.
The slogan is “Kiss My Ass!” uttered by Romney flack Rick Gorka in Poland Tuesday as reporters tried to question the aloof, wealthy and disconnected Wall Street Republican vulture who hopes to oust President Obama in November and seize the remnants of our economy for redistribution to the one per cent already holding most of the wealth and power.
“Kiss My Ass!” is the entire Romney attitude toward the voting public and the news media. In so many ways, Romney seems to say: How dare you ask about my tax returns? Don’t ask me to explain my outlook on foreign affairs. How dare you question my business dealing? Don’t even think about criticizing my horsey-set wife while I hide behind her skirts. And questions about my Mormon religion are out of bounds, even as some of my supporters smear the President as some kind of closet Muslim.
Romney perfectly embodies the upper-caste American notion that wealthy people always know what’s best, especially when they are writing tax laws that favor themselves at the expense of the 99 per cent who get exploited and ignored.
In the changing environment of campaign advertising and third-party funding apart from the campaign, the Democrats, liberals and progressives ought to promote counter-advertising that clearly illustrates the Romney attitude.
Don’t even mention Obama. Just film commercials and print posters and bumper stickers with Romney’s smiling face and the phrase “Kiss My Ass!” next to it. Do the same with the phrase “Elect the Vulture!” Use the Fox News Channel propaganda method of defining the enemy and then attacking the caricature you’ve created. And if Romney and his supporters don’t like it, they can kiss our ass.
