A Political Ad I'd Like To See

I've long had a problem with the GOP's strategy of claiming that we all must be very afraid of al Qaeda, and I'm not merely talking about the fact that taking such a position makes it harder for Republicans to argue that they are doing a great job of dealing with terrorism. My problem with the strategy stems from the fact that al Qaeda's main weapon is fear, and the GOP simply aids and abets the Evildoers every time it brings up how fearful we must be of al Qaeda.

The most recent example of this can be found in the Republican National Committee's latest ad, which features quotes from bin Laden showing how intent he is at causing us harm and that "What is yet to come will be even greater." The ad concludes: "These are the stakes. Vote November 7."

The Democrats' response ad practically writes itself. It should simply show a bit of the RNC's ad, mention that spreading fear is also the favorite weapon of bin Laden, and then close with something like this:

al Qaeda doesn't need operatives in the U.S. to spread fear through the American population, because the Republican National Committee seems more than happy to do al Qaeda's dirty work on that front. What do you call it when you repeatedly provide aid to an enemy?

And yes, the Democrats' response ad should end by accusing the RNC of acting like a bunch of traitors. After all, as blogger Marc Lynch notes (via Kevin Drum), the GOP is starting to act like the terrorists:

This is not just a video which suggests that Republicans will be better at fighting terror. It actually very closely resembles real al-Qaeda videos....This video would not look out of place on a jihadi forum, and it wouldn't surprise me if it actually gets posted on them and admired (although the production values are a bit low for an actual al-Sahab product).

Anyone involved in analyzing or combating al-Qaeda's media strategies has to be astounded that the Republican National Committee has financed, produced, distributed on the internet, and aired on US television what is for all intents and purposes an al-Qaeda recruitment video. The video, if it works as intended, will frighten the American people and influence American politics... just like al-Qaeda's own videos. Bin Laden couldn't be prouder, or more grateful, especially since it didn't cost him a thing.

Kevin Drum thinks that the Democrats should respond by running an ad "showing a mushroom cloud over the Korean peninsula and asking how George Bush let things get to this point." That's a good idea, but it doesn't attack the RNC ad head-on and then raise the stakes. My ad would.