Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Dino Rossi, True Republican and True Hypocrite (no, they are not necessarily redundant)

I was driving north on Division street today, and I saw a billboard advertising Republican Dino Rossi's current gubernatorial campaign. In huge letters, it said (of course) DINO ROSSI. What it said underneath made me roll my eyes: "Don't let Seattle steal this election."

First of all, this billboard represents the triumph of Karl Rovian innuendo--implying that Seattle stole the last election when current governor Christine Gregoire narrowly defeated Rossi. (On an aside, how a city can steal an election is beyond me. For instance, Florida did not steal the 2000 election--the Supreme Court stole it.) This billboard also plays to the class-based politics Republicans are known for, because, as every redneck Spokanite knows, Seattle is the bastion of the wine-and-cheese set, a place where they do NOT cling to religion and guns...rather, they cling to spirituality and tofu. We patriotic, gun-toting evangelicals in the inland northwest cannot let those effete west-siders boss us around.

Second of all, I had a feeling Rossi was being a little disingenous about his choice of villain. I knew he was not from the east side, but I didn't know where he WAS from. So, I checked his website and found that Rossi:

was born in Seattle
went to high school in Seattle
went to Seattle University (where he is still on the Dean's Advisory Board for the business school)
has worked and lived in or near Seattle his entire life
currently lives 15 miles east of Seattle

So, in sum, Rossi is a Seattle-ite through and through. That means that we should understand his billboard message for what it is: a hypocritical and cynical attempt to exploit east-siders fear of the elite...in other words, Rossi is a true Republican.

4 comments:

The McGuffin said...

Excellent post.

I saw this billboard yesterday...and said the same exact thing. I also noticed that the word "steal" is underlined making that word the subliminal point of the whole message.

What would the Republican do if they couldn't keep their base in fear?

Anonymous said...

First... Hello again.

Second, I too had a similar "reaction" to this Rossi ad. I rolled my eyes and drove on wondering to myself, how many of my fellow Spokanites would read this and feel motivated enough to rise up and put a band of citizens together and go ROUND UP this Seattle, fella.

Shit, the ad is just STUPID... but, I guess it works.

-Jake D

Anonymous said...

I hope that the Rossi sign was on the right side of the street of Division.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you all but please both sides play this game.

Jim