Minting memes for Obama

[imomus]

It's September 11th, 2008, and things are not looking too good, pollwise, for the Obama campaign. McCain has taken the lead, at least momentarily. As a member of the four-to-one majority of people in the world who want to see Obama win -- and as someone convinced that this election may be America's last chance to avoid a slow decline into malicious, resentful, imperial failure -- I thought there might be something that I -- that we -- could do.



I'm a writer, that is, someone who can generate memes and turn sentences. Now, this doesn't mean that I can connect with the Americans in midwestern swing states who'll control the outcome of the election on November 4th -- I admit that their mindset is somewhat alien to me. But it does mean that I -- and anyone else reading this -- might be able to brainstorm some rhetoric -- generate some memes -- which might help the Obama campaign. Possibly my "help" will be about as useful as Gordon Brown's apparent endorsement of Obama. But something useful might come out of this.

Meme 1: A vote for McCain is a vote for Bin Laden Unlike either presidential candidate, I was actually in New York City on September 11th 2001. I watched the whole thing happen from my rooftop and -- more importantly -- I witnessed the way the feeling of America changed as a result: it went from a playful, secure, creative, open and liberal nation to a fearful, insecure, reactionary, closed and dangerous one. It seems quite clear to me that Bin Laden wanted to provoke the US into stupid acts of aggression -- exactly the ones it went on to commit -- in the hope of draining its resources and bringing about a Soviet Union-style meltdown. And it seems to me that McCain will continue not just the Bush agenda, but the Bin Laden agenda. McCain's foreign policy needs to be connected in the public mind not just with Bush, but with Bin Laden. His hawkishness is exactly what America's enemies want.
Soundbite: A vote for McCain is a vote for Bin Laden.
TV Spot: A Bin Laden impersonator tells the audience: "Last time, the Republicans produced a fake Bin Laden who told you to vote for Kerry. This time I'm here -- the real Bin Laden -- to say that McCain is my man. McCain is the guy who'll continue the wars which strengthen my recruiting drives and weaken The Great Satan, America. Put him in power and you're putting me in power."

Meme 2: It's the economy, stupid. This can never be rammed home hard enough. The economy does better under Democrats. And so does the stock exchange. Republican policies help only a tiny majority of the massively rich. Clinton presided over unprecedented surpluses, Bush has turned them around into catastrophic losses. It makes no sense at all, economically, to vote for McCain unless you're earning more than $150,000 a year.
Soundbite: Hello, elephant in the room! It's the American economy, biggest in the world... for now! (Shorten this slogan, over time, to "Hello, elephant!")
TV Spot: Show a huge room full of people. Voice-over: "We asked all the people whose pocket books will be better under a McCain administration to stay in the room." Everyone except a tiny group of fat cats leave the room. The camera pans round to show an enormous elephant in the room. Slogan: "Hello, elephant! It's the economy. America is richer under the Democrats, and more individual Americans are richer under the Democrats."

Meme 3: The Republicans want to supersize Washington! Whatever they may say, it's the Republicans who are the party of big government. As Tom Gallagher showed back in 2003, "even the Bush administration's own budget projections show no material decline in federal spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product -- even before the inevitable costs of the Iraqi war, occupation and reconstruction are included." The Republicans expand government spending, and expand government interference in private life (wire-tapping, surveillance, snooping).
Soundbite: Who expands the government? Who's snooping on you? The Republicans do, that's who! (Rap version: "Who snoops on you? Who tells you what to do? Who supersizes government? The GOP do! G.O.P: what does it stand for? Government Oversizing Party!")
TV Spot: Voice over: "Who really increases government spending -- and government spying -- in America? Let's look at the pie charts." Charts show Republican expansion of government. Then they turn into a huge hamburger topped with the Capitol dome. Caption: The Republicans want to supersize Washington.

Meme 4: Old America! McCain is 72. If he wins once, he'll be president at 76. If he wins twice, he'll be president at 80. A vote for McCain is a vote to make America sclerotic, geriatric. Vote McCain, and America walks through the world with a Zimmer frame, mumbling to itself. Rumsfeld's slogan about Old Europe will be turned around: it'll be time for "old America".
Soundbite: Don't let America grow old!
TV Spot: Black and white footage of a May Day missile parade in Red Square. Ancient, geriatric, sclerotic Soviet generals raise creaky hands to wave, assisted by young helpers. At the centre, with Sarah Palin moving his arm for him, sits a decrepit John McCain, covered in dust and cobwebs. He smiles wanly down at the passing missiles, then falls back to sleep.



Some other ideas, in brief:

Coalition of the unwilling: Show the polls that reveal how massively people in the rest of the world want Obama to win. Make a TV spot based on Aesop's fable of The Wind and the Sun: things go so much better when everyone's on your side. That's how you get your way.

Sicko: Pack a 60 second TV commercial with the most shameful scenes from Michael Moore's Sicko documentary.

Civil War: Show how the people against Obama all live in the states which were on the wrong side during the American Civil War. Slogan: "They lost in 1865. Don't let them win in 2008." (Okay, okay, I know you can only make gestures about healing that huge divide, never rub salt into the wound. But we can dream, can't we?)

While we're on the subject, I decided to test statistically my theory that if the US divided into two nations -- the nations of the two parties -- the Democratic nation would be much richer than the Republican one. I took two Wikipedia pages, the one listing which states voted for Bush and which for Kerry in 2004, and the one listing US states by Gross Domestic Product (also known, in this context, as Gross State Product).

Results: The 31 states which voted Republican in 2004 had a combined output of $6653339 million dollars. The 20 which voted Democratic had a combined output of $7089701 million. My hunch was right, but -- in 2004 at least -- there wasn't much in it.

Comments

Heh

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think you can win an election in America on the power of Michael Moore and offending southern whites and the elderly, but, we can try.

Sarah Palin scares the sh*t out of me. I would be interested to read anything you write about her. I think she would be delighted to be a Section 28 Thatcher for America.

Maybe I should start that meme - "Thatcher for America." Boo!

Re: Heh

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

Mouseolini

[philentropist.livejournal.com]

<- American in midwestern swing state

Although, anyone reading your blog is probably voting for Obama already, or perhaps not planning to vote at all.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Sure, but preaching to the choir is not what I'm doing here. I'm appealing to the choir to come up with new riffs. I want Obama supporters who are good with memes to mint some new ones, as I've done, which might actually make it into Obama's campaign. People working on his staff do read me -- they've mailed me on Facebook. This is for them, and it could be an ongoing project over the next two months. Open-source speechwriting!

Q for you Momus

[(Anonymous)]

Ripped some Belle & Sebastian cds the other day and started listening to them again for the first time in ages and when listening to Dear Catastrophe Waitress (the song) I thought it sounded so Momus-esque it had to be some kind of a tribute, them being scottish and so..

So, my question, is it? I take for granted that you have met them too?

And, what is your opinion about them?


TJAQ
> http://tjaq.blogspot.com/

Re: Q for you Momus

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I like Belle and Sebastian, and they like me! Stuart Murdoch was there at my recent Glasgow show! Stuart Murdoch for President, 2008!

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

Those are the kind of ads that only help the Spite Vote. Many people, I'm increasingly convinced, vote for McCain/Bush etc. not because they support those policies or like the candidates all that much or even because they want war, but because they hate what they see as "liberals". There's a strong tribal component to this whole thing that people outside America (or living in America in the liberal bubbles of LA/NY/SF/etc) don't see or have difficulty comprehending. "If only red staters knew the truth!" they wail. They do know the truth, and they hate us, and they want us to lose, even if it hurts themselves in the process. It's tribal.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Arghhghh! Those people make me sick! They hate America, and they're destroying it!

[(Anonymous)]

You are opposed to everything that America stands for (the tyranny of the free market, suburban sprawl, the car, etc.). Obama's policies would at best sustain this status quo. Alternative energy sources are not a solution to the car, they're a way to prolong its life. As you know, the negative aspects of the car extend farther than simple environmental concerns.

If, as liberals believe, Obama would help stabilize the economy, that's another victory for capitalism and free markets. And, assuming as liberals do, that McCain will continue to dig the hole that Bush started, eventually sinking the American economy, what better promotion for alternative ways of living (socialism, etc.)?

In addition, when America thrives, and the world has a good opinion of it, it's more likely they'll want to emulate America--to adopt the car, the shape of our suburbs, and our mania for free markets and long work hours.

For a socialist to argue that democratic presidents are a boon for the economy and the market is surely an act of bad faith.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You are opposed to everything that America stands for

I'm a guy who writes about design for the New York Times, publishes books and pop records, loves Japan and gads about on the fringes of the art world. I'm hardly saying capitalism is irredeemably broken. But I think it needs to be as caring, inclusive and regulated as possible, and I favour politicians with ideas influenced by Marxist and socialist critiques of capitalism's flaws, which will be with us -- begging for correction -- as long as inequality and greed prevail in our systems.

[(Anonymous)]

I find your 9/11 shot a bit creepy. I can understand someone wanting to take a photo of the WTC on fire, but why did you want someone to take your photo in front of it, like some tourist shot? You seem to have run downstairs to change your outfit for the second pic as well.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The second picture you refer to -- part of a collage entited "An Eye for an Eye" -- was taken the following day. I can see the source of your confusion; the collage mixes a September 11th photo with a September 12th photo.

Yes, I changed my clothes on September 12th. The site, as you probably know, continued to smolder and smoke for a long time. You may not know what it smelled like, though. For weeks.

If we failed to photograph world-historic events, or make images of them, well...

[desant012.livejournal.com]

You have to note, a lot of the output of red states is due to federal funding provided by the blue states, so the numbers are skewed even more intensely than you'd imagine. Poverty is endemic in the red states... perhaps it's the climate, but hard work and science have no place there.

I wish the blue states would secede ... they fund 80-90% of the nation. Most of the red states are clients of the blue states, and yet we have to live with the president they choose! It's like we're not even Americans in America, we're thems "fruity sodomites - move to Europe!". Unfortunately it looks like they'll win again. Of course, the red/blue state dichotomy is misleading, but screw subtlety for the moment.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The productive ones are disenfranchised. Yes.

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

Europeans are extremely butthurt that, for all their "wisdom" that the US never follows, we're a superpower and it takes the entire continent to match us politically, militarily and financially. If we were to bow to the Euros, we might soon turn into the same socialized, stagnant, feckless, drowning in unassimilated Muslim immigrants that will soon be a majority state that most of Europe has succeeded in becoming.

Hmmm....if Obama loses, we'll send him over there and you can elect him EU President so his glib tongue and thin resume can keep you mollified while the Muslims work on establishing D'ar-al-Islam in what used to be free countries.

[(Anonymous)]

This is parody, right?

[(Anonymous)]

2 articles you may find interesting:

one, about whats missing from japans google street view:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/09/11/japan-street-views-missing-streets/

And this which compares gun control and violence in commie cuba vs the rest of the americas:
http://circlesonline.blogspot.com/2008/09/cuba-fewer-guns-more-tourists.html

-rachel

[autokrater.livejournal.com]

Laugh all you want but I can't honestly believe this "Obama is behind in the polls" bullshit. It just doesn't add up whatsoever for me. I don't like Obama at all but I know nearly everyone else does and to think that McCain is somehow beating him in the polls is ludicrous. Perhaps Obama HAS fallen out of favor with true liberals as over the summer he has called for war,voted for the FISA act and most recently said the surge in Iraq was a success. Obviously this is why I am not an Obama fan..because he is acting much like the rest of them. Either these democrats are paid for and handled or they honestly don't fucking care about what the people of this country want. Promising "CHANGE" but through his few actions,offering more of the same. I completely detest McCain and cannot even believe his VP pick..an insane,hypocritical,inexperienced Christian!? We have all had our fill of that scum..though Bush obviously just played Christian on tv. It's as if none of these people running have any FULL experience and do they even need any? Do THEY even do anything? I really don't think they do.
Either way I am scared for my own well being living in this country. It's going down the toilet. I would only HOPE that Obama is somewhat genuine and is being influenced and handled by the wrong crowd..perhaps there is the smallest chance that he could come to his senses when president or at least put some level headed people in his administration(not like fucking Joe Biden).

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't worry about 'Obama is slipping in the polls' rumours - this is often a vital thing to stop voters getting complacent and not showing up. The worry, as with all politicians, is that they sound great on the way in, but once empowered they are eager to prove they are 'world players'. They hang around with damaging people, listen to vested interests, 'get tough' and so on. In effect, daily paranoia runs their decision-making.

[(Anonymous)]

I honestly doubt Sept 11 would have happened if Bush hadn't been in power. There are too many financial connections between the Bin Laden family and the Bushes, and too much of a "I couldn't take the father but I can take the son" overtone, a sense of revenge. Western backing for Israel hadn't toughened that specifically. The west had actually been to war to help Muslims, in Bosnia. I see no reason for it to happen when it did apart from a desire to spear one man.

[(Anonymous)]

George W Bush was elected on 7 November 2000.

The attackers who acted as pilots entered the US and began their training in early 2000, and the attackers acting as "muscle" applied for US visas during summer and autumn of that year. The 9/11 Commission traced early planning for the attacks back to 1996.

No matter what you, me or anyone else thinks of George W, either the attacks had nothing to do with his being in power, or Bin Laden should be playing the lottery with that kind of foresight.

[(Anonymous)]

"The people voting against Obama are from the states that lost the civil war." If true, though not doubting, Then it would be safe to say "The Conservatives are morden day Confederates, which in turn would make the Liberals the Union. I would like the readers to look at the definition of these words in the order written here this is important cause it brings out the truth of the direction Politicians according to their Party and their parties agenda are leaning. 1) Conservative- tending to conserve,preserve established institutions,etc.;opposed to change,moderate;cautious. 2) Confederacy- united in an alliance of the confederacy,NOUN. Confederate States of America,rebel states,the old south, dixie. This is what the republicans chose to preserve, not just four more years of the last eight, but for fifty eight minus a few years that were prosperous in there own way. 3) Liberal- generous,ample abundant,not literal or strict,tolerant;broadminded,favoring reform or progress. 4) Union- a uniting or being united;combination,a grouping together of nations, etc. "Now there are saints and sinners in all things and every man has sinned before the eyes of The LORD OF SPIRITS" so take notice of the words "The WORD" being first creation" and how these words play a BIG part in your life. One Life, One Love, One King, Love is Love, The LORD OF SPIRITS LOVE you and I do Too. May the Righteous be Blessed it's through them in which we live.

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

Hey I think I saw you on the subway the other day asking for change.

John McCain sent you $10 for your birthday...

[foggy-eyes.livejournal.com]

http://johnmccainisyourjalopy.com/ (http://johnmccainisyourjalopy.com/)

Even scarier than is old age is the prospect of Palin taking over if he dies.

[scythrop.livejournal.com]

These are insightful and the "it's the economy" meme really bears repeating, but I fear the rest (Michael Moore?? c'mon!) just wouldn't play with the voters who need to hear them.

I wish Democrats were better at talking about religion, because there is a lot to be pointed out to those who are charmed by Palin's bible-thumping. Here is a perspective I share (http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/politics/faith_and_politics/a_religious_liberal_looks_at_c.php), and I think it suggests some good talking points.

[loveishappiness.livejournal.com]

I think more memes aren't the solution, because one of the main problems with anything newsworthy is information overload. If you have too much information on a subject it makes sound decision making difficult and this probably is behind the 'spite votes' that someone was talking about above. Giving people the correct information isn't enough. If they don't like you, they won't believe it.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't believe in 'nations', but I'd be interested in a Kucinich write-in meme. There, I just helped kick it off. Vote Kucinich, vote for riddum. (re: his speech at the DNC).

The problem with elections is the passive mindset that engenders 'strategic voting'. I could rant for ages about that. But I won't.

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

Hey, maybe an aging McCain, like an aging Japan, will usher in that "slow life" we're all so fond of! Ganbaranai, get to know your neighbors, maybe go moose hunting with them over the weekend.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Maybe some americans believe that the president candidate named McCain is the one McCain producing all those frozen vegetables and fries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCain_Foods_Limited). Though that McCain is based in Canada.

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

I do think you've rather skewed that poll result to indicate a "four-to-one majority of people in the world who want to see Obama win". Judging by that pie chart, there's 49% in favour of Obama and 12% for McCain. But there's also a poignant 39% of either/neither/no difference, don't know, other, etc, which can hardly be interpreted as an endorsement.

So, I'm not sure that the world does massively want Obama to win. Judging by the Russian response in that poll (18% for Obama, 7% for McCain) or the Indian (24% for Obama, 15% for McCain), there's a profound scepticism over what the result really matters to them at the end of the day. America will win regardless.

I was talking with an American couple the other night, both UK residents. They'd voted Democrat before, weren't sure it was worth the effort this time around as their extra-national vote in their state wouldn't count so much in the end. He suggested that the Democrats should ditch featureless Biden as potential VP and replace him just before the election with Bright Shiny Thing. A large piece of aluminium foil should do the trick for a couple of days.

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

If McCain wins, I'm moving to Alaska to join that secessionist party.

On the other hand, now that Obama has unleashed the 527's maybe we'll hear more about Palin's ties to that group, her crazy religion and so much more.

Lipstick on a pig. Indeed.

[(Anonymous)]

Why didn't you move back in 2004?

Hollow words.

[kementari2.livejournal.com]

I'd like to point out that the Republican party was founded in 1854 primarily to be the anti-slavery party. For over 100 years during and after the Civil War days, Union states were Republican (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Republican_Party) and Confederate states were was Democratic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Democratic_Party). Yes, the party platforms have changed since then, and so have the issues, and so have the people. But it's of limited use and factuality to identify Republicans with the Confederate South.

The Civil War is also not such a "huge divide" or "wound" anymore. Living in Virginia, a swing state in this election and originally a Confederate state, there's so much history for hundreds of years before and after the Civil War and Reconstruction that I've never known anyone to harp on the issue.

[andrewloog.livejournal.com]

Well, I like them. And aside from realities about broadcast time, there must be someone reading this who can at least develop YouTube versions from your ideas. Anyone handy with a camera and iMovie?

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

http://bravenewfilms.org/ (http://bravenewfilms.org/)

[skazat.livejournal.com]

This is worth watching:



The meme being, "Vote for McCain, or *he'll never tell us how to capture bin Laden*"

you, like everyone else, forgot

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

WOMEN'S RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!
WOMEN'S RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOMEN'S RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!

Oh silly Hanna, when will you learn to give up?

Everyone KNOWS abortion is for sluts who don't wear promise rings!

Women who get raped and want to report it deserve to pay hundreds of dollars for a rapekit that's supposedly needed as evidence in the US because women aren't trusted as witnesses, even though most of them are never actually used because hardly any of the cases are followed through!

And besides, there's a female VP running! Isn't that enough feminism for you, you bonerkilling feminazi?

Re: you, like everyone else, forgot

[crowjake.livejournal.com]

too fucking right.

[le-cloitre.livejournal.com]

thank you for this entry.