Oct 092012
The Obama campaign is running this ad in several swing states highlighting Romney’s plans to gut Medicaid:
It would be nice if the ad featured some kids and adults with disabilities, but I get that most voters probably know or knew an elderly person living in a nursing home. The prospect of Grandma being thrown out on the street is more likely to provoke a reaction than the neighbor kid with cerebral palsy losing his attendant services. I’m just glad to see that the future of Medicaid is finally getting some attention as a campaign issue. Medicaid, more than any other major entitlement program, is vulnerable to devastating cuts if Republicans win the White House and Congress.
I have SMA as well. I was curious to know what your thoughts are on representing people with disabilities in political ads. Do you think it’s a politically smart thing to do?
It seems that that image — the image of the disabled person — is sort of up in the air as to who can use it politically. Images of seniors and minorities are used all the time by either side while nobody knows who has “the rights” to images of disability (politically speaking).
It’s sort of a Red Queen’s race where both sides are implicitly daring the other to put hands on that image. Yet if either side makes a grab for it they can be painted by their rivals as exploiters and bloodsuckers.
I remember back when Obamacare was all the rage. There was a local news story concerning a little girl with SMA. Her parents were expressing relief that the ACA got ride of lifetime caps which meant that they didn’t have to worry about, you know, going bankrupt.
It was a terribly sterile news story. It had some element of political edge, of course, because of the implications. But it never really “went there.”
Do you think that political use of this important image — a purportedly powerful image at that — will ever occur?