I'm a registered Democrat.
I believe in climate change.
I've volunteered, donated to, and voted for Barack Obama both times I've had the opportunity.
As a bleeding heart liberal, I must say the Democratic Party has got to be one of the worst parties I've been to -- including my tenth surprise birthday party, which my uncle told me about a week before. As someone that has worked in media/entertainment nearly half the time I've been alive, our party doesn't know how to put on a show, produce a message, or tell a story better than the folks across the aisle.
Last week the GOP machine, under the website GenerationOpportunity.org and YouTube channel "MyGenOpportunity," launched an ad campaign aimed at college-aged Americans, suggesting they "Opt Out of Obamacare."
A few clicks informs us that Generation Opportunity is a group of "millions of young Americans in Washington, D.C., in local communities, on college campuses, online and around the nation dedicated to securing our future prosperity and our liberty."
As equally fascinating as their vague description of their mission is their marketing. On their Facebook fan page, they are indeed a coalition with more than 1.5 million likes on their page... but the title of the page is "Being American by GO." So... people basically joined their coalition by beings fans of "Being American." Crafty. Even more interesting is their YouTube channel, which doesn't have quite as much of a following - with only 505 subscribers (a/o 9/22/13).
Oh, and another couple of curious finds, the vast majority of the comments on the YouTube videos and the Facebook wall postings offer dissenting opinions, not agreement. Weird for a coalition of supporters, right?
The commercial(s) in question is titled "Creepy Uncle Sam;" it's moderately disturbing, overtly perverse, and downright alarming... they did a damn good job. Check it out:
Now, let's walk through this, shall we?
The commercial depicts a young lady visiting her doctors' office, for what she states is the first time. On the way to the exam room, the nurse says her "Oh, I see you chose to sign up for Obamacare..." When's the last time your nurse questioned you about the choices you made about your health care provider? Cue the crickets.
The nurse proceeds to (rather impersonally) show the patient to her room, directs her to change clothes, and await the doctor who will see her shortly. I hate that the rude and intrusive nurse had to be a black woman, but that's my own issue, and I'll eat that.
The doctor comes into the exam room, coldly asks the girl a couple of questions, then instructs her to "swing on over, scoot on down, and try to make yourself comfortable." Cut to the aforementioned young girl, with feet in stirrups, legs spread wide, and then the creepiest Uncle Sam mascot you can find slowly popping up between her legs.
Annnnd cue the scream.
The ad ends with Sammy looking directly at the camera, holding up a vaginal speculum. For the record a speculum is "an instrument that [used] to hold a body orifice (in this case, a vagina) open for better visualization, either because the area is small or because it will close upon itself without retraction." according to Nichole Liggins, MD, obstetrics and gynecology resident physician in Phoenix, AZ (and one of my best friends).
When I watched, the latest commenter on the video called the ad "unsubtle" and "rapetastic." (Full disclosure: the piece has a sister-version... well a brother-version... in which a young man is about to undergo a prostate exam, when everyone's favorite uncle arises, stretching a rubber glove over his outstretched hand.)
Both of the commercials really piss me off.
This comes from the party that spent millions of dollars campaigning in various states across the country for the unnecessary and unwanted, but forced vaginal ultrasounds for women if they were considering an abortion. The party that fought to take away contraceptives and the morning-after pill from women who weren't pregnant, but you know... could become pregnant at some point and that potential life was indeed a life that needed protecting - all in the name of scaling back "big government" and having more freedoms and civil liberties.
But Obamacare is the problem we all need to be afraid of. But what about the idea of not being able to go to the doctor when we're sick, think we may be sick, or just want to get a checkup to avoid getting sick in the future? What about being $40K+ in debt because you had to go the hospital because you weren't well, but avoided it for days because you didn't have insurance and urgent care facilities weren't able to figure out what was wrong with you... no, that's not what's scary. Well, it is to me because that's my own damn story.
The thing that pisses me off even more about this, Democrats haven't gotten in front of the story, and haven't done a lick to try to explain to the American public what Obamacare will look like when it begins full rollout in the coming days, weeks and months.
We, as Democrats have got to do a better job with PR and marketing. Whether it's hiring Olivia Pope & Associates to come in and get the messaging together, or talking with some of those Obama for America strategy folks, something has to be done. As it stands, Republicans are hard at work trying (yet again, to the 40th power) defunding the president's health care plan. They're opting their states out of coverage and alienating their own constituents -- because "Americans don't want Obamacare."
It's never really registered to me how such rhetoric would be see such longevity after Americans voted for the candidate whose platform was based on enacting the Affordable Care Act, rejecting the candidate with no plans to advance our health care system. And then Americans reelected the same candidate, only after the passing of the Obamacare... that they somehow didn't want?
When Obamacare is in full effect and those of us that can't just go to the doctor, because we're uninsured, have the opportunity to do so -- I'll be glad the Left finally did something right... without ever holding a speculum.
For more information on the Affordable Care Act, and to know how & when it impacts you, visit WhiteHouse.gov/HealthReform
