"Whose Job Is Next?" -- The Republican Campaign Ad Copy

I was listening to the radio the other day, and a guy from the Midwest called in to a talk show where they had been talking about labor -- it was, after all, Labor Day.

The guy was a coal miner, and had been a Democrat all his life until Hillary Clinton stupidly said during the 2016 presidential campaign that she was going to try to eliminate lots of jobs in the coal mines and put coal miners out of work.  Now, she was pandering, as usual, in this case to the environmental wackos that seem always to win out when, on the left, environmental issues clash with organized labor (private sector) and actual working people.

I won't say that her coal-miners comment was what finally won the election for Donald Trump; after all, he won West Virginia by some 40 points.  While it certainly affected the final tally, he would have won the state regardless.  But it sure cost her votes and surely didn't gain her any.

At any rate, this caller was going on about that, and apparently he is now not only a Republican and a Trumpian, but he is out there proselytizing for Republican candidates among his co-workers and friends.

What he told the radio host, was that he was saying this to them:

"The Democrats wanted to take away my job in the mines.  Whose job are they taking next, buddy -- yours?"

I heard that, and I thought that little piece of messaging was precisely what was needed to influence the 2018 election on behalf of Republican candidates for the House and Senate.  After all, it was the Democrat standard-bearer for president just two years back, who declared that her party's policy was to eliminate jobs that didn't comport with their environmental policies.

So I immediately saw the commercial in my mind's eye and ear.  Here goes:

Start with a video clip.  It's Hillary Clinton herself, declaring to a crowd, "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" -- and the crowd cheers (you have to hear the cheering, because it carries the message that the Democrat party agrees with her).  Cut to a coal miner, dirty and tired but with a look that conveys "I'm proud to work."  The miner looks at the camera and says, "I heard Hillary Clinton say that.  I knew the Democrats were coming to take away my job.  My living.  My home.  Whose job are they coming for next -- yours?"  As he walks back to the mine, the voice-over says, "Since the Republicans started making America great again, we have the lowest unemployment among black, Hispanic and other workers who were abandoned by the Democrats.  [name of House or Senate candidate] will protect your job, and you can be sure of that.  Vote for jobs.  Vote for [candidate].

That, my friends, is a winner.

Copyright 2018 by Robert Sutton
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