This is going to give me nightmares
My friend Coop just sent me this Obama video which was linked on Reason’s Hit & Run blog. I watched it. I wish I hadn’t. Click play if you dare:
Maybe I’ve just payed too much attention to politics in my life, maybe I’m just too cynical, but anytime I see parents pushing their views on children I cringe. If you don’t think there’s anything wrong with that video, pretend it’s a room full of young impressionable children singing about marriage only being something between a man and a woman, or about how awesome Guantanamo Bay is. Think about how you’d feel if instead of wearing Obama t-shirts they were wearing something like this:
The message doesn’t make this kind of thing OK. In fact it fact it hurts the cause these people are trying to support. Using children to push your political, religious, or any other kind of ideals is just wrong. I’m really kind of disgusted.
18 Comments, Comment or Ping
Jason D-
That’s some terrifying ass shit.
Sep 30th, 2008
mike
Obama is turning out to be The Big Let-Down of ’08.
Obama kept insinuating that He is The Second Coming but every time we’ve held our breaths waiting for him to change water into wine, we’ve been disappointed. Obama kept telling us to ‘tune in next week!’ and he never delivers, the miracle never comes. There is nothing there.
Obama’s has a problem with clarity. I have systematically studied both his autobiographies and I still don’t know what kind of man I’m dealing with. When he was first showcased on TV, my interest was aroused. I used to find Obama enigmatic, but now he just comes off as vacuous, empty.
Obama’s two books address the questions of “Journey of Discovery to Where?” and “Who Am I?” We can all relate to such pondering. But Obama does not give us an answer. If he has found the answer since publishing those two books two years ago then he hasn’t told us yet.
McCain has been on a longer and harder personal journey. There can be nothing more extreme than surviving daily torture for five years. Can you imagine that? To be beaten day-in and day-out, starved, your hands and legs bound by chains? McCain already knows what he can take, and humbly knows where he breaks. Every man and woman has a breaking point. It is very human. McCain already knows his, even though he held out as long as he could.
What trials or stories of human devastation has Obama endured? I can’t imagine being Black in America is an easy thing. But Obama was raised in Polynesia by white grandparents and then went on to Harvard, community service, the Senate, and now the presidency. Obama’s journey seems to have been very easy. His skin color opened all the right doors for him instead of slamming them shut. Obama didn’t march against segregation. Obama didn’t fight for affirmative action. He planted no tree. He carried no water for that tree. Obama has just come along and picked the fruits. That is easy street. This is not a great American story. This is not a triumph of will over adversity. This is a story of baby-boomer entitlement. This is the story of the yuppy next door. These stories are a dime a dozen on aisle 3 at Whole Foods.
You may agree or disagree with McCain but at least you know where he stands. He has a long track record to judge him by. McCain has a long list of hits and misses. He has made mistakes (like us all) but that is because he had been trying to do things and change things all his life. Obama markets himself as the candidate with an unblemished record, but that is only because he doesn’t have a record. We have nothing to judge Obama by. All he gives us is his word and we are supposed to put all our trust in his future promises. But these promises keep changing: Obama has produced two contradictory promises on Iraq, two contradictory promises on NAFTA, and two contradictory promises on taxes. Are we supposed to judge him by the original promise he made, or by his most recent one? The candidate who flows with the changing winds of polls is the lightweight. That much we know.
I feel very embarrassed for buying into the Obama phenomena. Maybe now that the weather is changing I see things in a new light. I feel sheepish for falling for the marketing pitch. Where do I go to get a refund?
I think that many voters like me are looking for clarity in our next president. I feel I know what kind of man McCain is, and that I can trust him. McCain gets my vote.
Sep 30th, 2008
ttrentham
I read the description on the YouTube page for context. It’s hard to know who did more on this, the kids or the parents. I guess I’d feel less weird if some kids had just done it on their own. It kind of smacks of hollywood types with too much time on their hands (HD video fer chrissake?).
Kids have a tendency to parrot their parents’ views. Mine are no different, but I wouldn’t have them participate in anything like this. It smacks too much of a cult. I think their intentions were in the right place, but it really came off creepy and weird.
I don’t even like going to the school assembly when I drop my kids off at school.The pledge (the national one and the completely idiotic Texas pledge), the school song, it all smacks of indoctrination and mindless repetition. We just show up late to avoid the issue.
Sep 30th, 2008
Nicholas
Freaky.
Sep 30th, 2008
Brady Westwater
Some of the kids were as young as five years old. And they will have to live with this scary cult-like video for the rest of their lives. Child abuse may be too strong a term, but it’s certainly in that neighborhood.
Sep 30th, 2008
mack
Hell, I’m voting for the guy because it’ll take the alternative far fewer than eight years to finish destroying our beloved United States of America, but it still gives me the thermonuclear heebie-jeebies.
Reminds me of the little Nazi kids in “Cabaret” heiling Hitler and singing, “Tomorrow belongs, tomorrow belongs, tomorrow belongs to MMMMEEEEEEE.”
Sep 30th, 2008
jm
I was going to post a comment here but my thoughts are such that I might just blog it separately later on.
Despite grey areas I’d weigh in any discussion of whether or not it’s irksome to create such a thing with children, or what the idea of working with young performers means in general, the largest problem with this piece of performance storytelling is the way it’s shot and presented makes it commercial propaganda.
Some of the adult celebrity Obama singing was already slightly… annoying. This is controversial since children are involved.
I’m constantly concerned with messaging. I don’t take it lightly, even when I’m working on something light.
Sep 30th, 2008
josh
this is los angeles home of every child actor outside of nyc.
people are getting outraged over a bunch of kids whose parents enlisted them to sing a sappy song when kids are used to shill consumer goods all the time.
for sure, negative points for style.
but do you feel this way about the children who are in commercials for auto insurance?
Sep 30th, 2008
josh
One more thing — I think I have met the person who put this video together. She teaches music to kids but it’s usually a-political children’s music (hence the sappy melody).
Obviously she thought she was helping. Obviously she was mistaken.
Sep 30th, 2008
kathy
I can’t stand kids singing. Groups of ‘em are even worse. That’s my only complaint about this really. Nails on a chalkboard.
Well, that and the typical knee jerk Nazi/Hitler responses and comparisons. Um, yeah, sure.
I guess if people (ie Obama supporters) want to get together and make videos like this more power to ‘em. I’ve seen worse parenting and politics in my life than this.
Sep 30th, 2008
Sean Bonner
Josh - yeah, using kids in marketing bugs the hell out of me and I’ve talked about that before. That said, it’s marketing and generally people who see commercials with kids in them know the kids are actors and were paid to be a part of that commercial. 20 years later it’s a slim chance someone is going to say “OMG you were in support of that car insurance company? How could you!”
Using kids in politics like this is 100x worse because they are trying very hard to make it seem like these kids are expressing their own feelings, rather than what they were just told to sing. Do you think those kids were given copies of both candidates foreign policy and economic proposals and on their own they read them and came to the conclusion that Obama was their man? Doubtful. And that’s why this is so ugly, the adults are pushing their views on the kids and making the kids out to be the flagwavers of things they don’t understand.
Look at that kid above in the KKK outfit, do you think that she really feels that white people are superior to other races, or is it just that parents views being touted around on their kid. What do you think would happen to that kid, all grown up, if that photo surfaced at her workplace? I’m guessing she’d be very embarrassed through no fault of her own. She trusted her parents to do what was right.
Same with the kids in the video above, they trust the adults around them to do whats right and have no idea they are being used for political propaganda.
Sep 30th, 2008
Brian Carmen
I think I just threw up in my mouth…yup, I did.
Sep 30th, 2008
COOP
’slurp slurp’ “This kool aid is DELICIOUS!”
Glad I’m not the only one seriously creeped out by this.
Sep 30th, 2008
ttrentham
Mike,
I know who McCain is now and he’s not the guy that I respected in 2000. He’s someone who’s completely changed and compromised his views and principles in order to get elected. He’s kowtowed to the Christian right. He’s changed his views on abortion. He sucked up to Falwell. He’s not a maverick. He never really was. He endured torture that I can’t imagine and now supports the policies of an administration who’ve redefined it such that if the same thing were to happen to him today, they’d call it fair game and perfectly within reason.
I would’ve thought that we’d be better off with McCain than Bush, but now I’m not sure. He’s chosen an utterly unqualified running mate, a clearly irresponsible choice. She’s even worse than George Bush. She’s practically his doppelganger without the privilege.
And that campaign stunt last Friday for the bailout? Please.
On top of that, he’s also 72 years old. I don’t think anyone should be President at that age. It’s too old. Period.
I realize that politicians make compromises, but he’s gone too far. I’m not happy with everything Obama does either, but I can’t see how anyone who looks at the two choices and the events of the last eight years and says “Yeah. I want more of that!”
Sep 30th, 2008
Clintus
Damn, I’ll have to try and find the video else where. Looks like it was taken down.
Oct 1st, 2008
josh
I dunno. Parents indoctrinate their kids. I don’t see anything wrong with that as long as the parent’s ideology isn’t harmful to society.
KKK — harmful to society
Republican/Democrat — generally agreed to be less harmful than the KKK (i couldn’t bring myself to say “not harmful”)
Didn’t your parents not try to indoctrinate you in their beliefs? Mine took me to anti-abortion rallies, made me attend church, and punished me when I broke the “no tv on sunday” rule. Yes, it was not my ideal. But that’s what my parents were into, so that’s what I was into. I grew up to be very different from them.
Later in life, my friend who got an abortion wasn’t mad at me for going with my parents to anti-abortion rallies. Everyone knows it’s the parents views.
I agree using kids to sell anything is obnoxious. And on that point alone this video sucks. I just don’t using kids to sell vanilla politics is any worse than using them to sell vanilla air freshener (i think they both stink).
I really don’t think that this is going to have any long standing effect on these kids lives. Other than the death threats their parents might get. Some other blog comments are nuts.
Oct 1st, 2008
sean bonner
“harmful to society” depends 100% on which society you are trying to preserve.
People in the KKK teaching their kids to be racist are not doing that because they are trying to be harmful to society, they are doing it because they think they are trying to preserve some society they see as ideal.
I’m certainly not going to put myself in the position to be able to cast judgement on every single viewpoint expressed by anyone on the planet to decide if it’s harmful to society or not. You attending anti-abortion ralleys with your parents is very different then them using you in commercials and signs and advertising about their beliefs.
Oct 1st, 2008
jm
…did they remove the vid?
Oct 4th, 2008
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