The hot new approach to tackling controversial issues: Don't target the adults who can actually do something about those issues. Target their kids instead.
Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe used this tack when he visited a New Hampshire high school, ostensibly to give a lecture on "democracy and the political process". Instead, he launched into a bizarre anti-Bush diatribe, all for the benefit of listeners not yet old enough to vote:
During the presentation, McAuliffe told students that due to Bush’s mismanagement of the country, 70 percent of college graduates will not be able to find a job upon graduation. He also told students that if the war in Iraq continues as it has, there could be a reinstatement of the draft.
As Instapundit put it so well: "Talk to some kids who mostly can't vote. Generate bad press for the Democrats nationwide among those who can. Brilliant. "
(And don't miss Darren Kaplan's fisking of Terry's comments.)
PETA plans to follow the same path with their new anti-fur campaign. Nope, they're not targeting women who wear fur; they're going after the children who have accompanied a fur-coat wearing Mommy to performances of The Nutcracker across the US:
Animal rights advocates will single out small children at performances of "The Nutcracker'' in the next few weeks by handing out fliers saying "Your Mommy Kills Animals'' to youngsters whose mothers are wearing fur.
"Children can't look up to a mom in a battered-raccoon hat or a crushed coyote collar,'' said Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Maybe when they're confronted by their own children's hurt looks, fur-wearers' cold hearts will melt.''
Frankly, Ingrid, I'd teach my kids not to look up to a woman who says:
"Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it."
or
"There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They're all mammals."
or
"Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughter houses."
At least their mothers have hearts to melt, Ingrid; I'm not so sure about you. Anyone who can compare chickens to Jews, rats to boys, and wish AIDS on those who are (literally) dying for a cure is missing at least her heart, and quite possibly her brain.
The fliers include a color drawing of a woman plunging a large bloody knife into the belly of a terrified rabbit. The fliers urge kids to "ask your mommy how many dead animals she killed to make her fur clothes.
"And the sooner she stops wearing fur, the sooner the animals will be safe. Until then, keep your doggie or kitty friends away from mommy - she's an animal killer.''
Brookline child psychologist Dr. Carolyn Newberger called the tactics "terribly dangerous to children.'' "
It's using children in the worst possible way,'' she said. "If (the activists) want to legitimately work to protect animals from destruction for fashion, they have every right to. But to do so by targeting children and making them feel their mothers are murderers is absolutely unconscionable.''
Posted by kswygert at December 17, 2003 02:33 PM