The Right State

I like Michael J. Fox.  He is what I call a John Wayne type of actor.  Instead of becoming the part like many great actors, the part becomes him.  In the movies, Teen Wolf and Back to the Future, Fox acted as himself.  This is not to say Fox is not a good actor, he is just a different type of actor.  But like so many of those in Hollywood, he has gotten mixed up in politics and then believes because he is a victim no one will challenge his motives.  Note to Fox: being a victim does not insulate you from the right of others to question your motives.  Quite the opposite is true.  Francais Edward Smedley wrote in Frank Fairleigh that “All is fair in love and war.”  What Fox did not remember is that politics IS war.

Michael J. Fox thought he could interject himself into politics in the short term without having to suffer any of the consequences.  How wrong he was.  Most people know that Fox made a commercial for Democratic candidates in Maryland and Missouri.  He used his disease as a reason for supporting these candidates because they support embryonic stem cell research which he says could cure his disease (In truth, no disease has ever been cured by embryonic stem cells).  In the ad Fox is flailing around as someone who has Parkinson’s usually does.  One of those who questioned Fox’s motives for making this commercial was Rush Limbaugh saying Fox looked like he was off his meds.  Fox’s response to Rush’s criticisms is misleading at best.  It is most likely an outright lie.

In a response to charges by conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, Michael J. Fox defended his appearance in recent political campaign ads, saying he was neither acting nor off his medication for Parkinson’s disease.

On the contrary, he had been overmedicated, the actor said during an interview aired on Thursday’s “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.”

“The irony of it is that I was too medicated,” Fox told Couric, adding that his jumpy condition as he spoke to her reflected “a dearth of medication — not by design. I just take it [the medication], and it kicks in when it kicks in.”  (emphasis added by TRS)

What Fox is saying by implication is that he took his meds and did not think he would still be having any outward signs of the disease.  What a crock!  He knew full well that displaying symptoms of Parkinson’s disease would have a greater impact on the viewing audience than if he showed none.  Later on he says he does not get in to politics and yet he has made a commercial supporting Democratic candidates and has campaigned in the past for Republican Arlen Specter because of his support for embryonic stem cell research.  Its just more kosher for Fox to say he does not get involved in politics.  That way he is not seen as having an agenda.

By making a commercial supporting Democrats and purposefully allowing the symptoms to be seen and then lying about it is forgetting a well known phrase from Sir Walter Scott:

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!

Politics is war.  Deception is also a part of war.   But to deceive in politics is fair game for anyone to challenge.    Michael J. Fox has tried to dupe the American people and now he is challenged for his attempted deception. Victimization only goes so far.

Tags: Democrats, Bias, Politics by Chuck
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The political posturing by Harold Ford over the latest ad portraying him as a playboy is brilliant—if you are a Democrat.  This is a situation where Ford’s Republican opponent can not win.  One part of the ad showed a white playboy bunny asking Harold Ford to call her.  The purpose of the commercial is to point out some of the Ford’s discrepancies.  He says how important church is to his life and that he has never been to the playboy mansion.  And then later on when he is pressed on the issue, he says he has been to a playboy party.  I really don’t care that he has been to any kind of party except for the fact that he says church is so important to him.  He is single and he likes to date.  There is nothing wrong with that except that he is running away from who he is.

But instead of facing the issue head on, Harold Ford decides to portray himself as a victim.  See, the playboy bunny asking Ford to call her is white.  His campaign says the ad is trying to show that Ford, who is black, is after the white women.  Huh?  The Senate election in Tennessee was never about race–until Ford made it an issue.  If the Republican Party had shown a black playboy bunny, Harold Ford would have been sure to ask if white women were too good for him and played the victim that way.  This is a no win situation for his opponent, Bob Corker.  As a ‘victim,’ Ford is immune from as any scrutiny from the mainstream media.  As a ‘victim,’ Ford is deflecting from the issue.  It is a common tactic of Democrats.  Ford does not want to talk about the issues and so he portrays himself as a victim of race-baiting whites.

In this race, Harold Ford is running as a conservative Democrat.  But there is one problem, race-baiting and playing victim is a common tactic of the Democratic Party—usually by liberal Democrats.  Where Republicans try to empower people, the Democrats see victims.  Where Republicans allow people to help themselves, Democrats see more government as the answer.  Ford is playing himself off as a victim, because he is the ‘black’ candidate.  What Ford should have declared that all politics of personal destruction are off limits.  It worked for Bill Clinton.  Instead Harold Ford engages in one of the basest and lowest forms of victimization in order to win votes—race baiting—and in the process, he belittles those who truly are victims.

Tags: Democrats, Politics by Chuck
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