A Political Ad We Need Now

By FRANK LINGO

Here’s the script for a political ad I’d like to see during ball games and on top-rated shows, not on CNN or MSNBC.

Scene: Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift and Morgan Freeman stand together in front of a large map of the United States.

Hanks: We’re in show business but we’re not acting now.

Freeman: We hope you like us and trust us enough to listen to our message.

Swift: The survival of our democracy is at stake.

Hanks: If you believe everything Donald Trump says, maybe our message isn’t for you.

Freeman: Might be a good time to go grab a snack.

Swift: But if you have an open mind about what happened in last November’s election, please give us a listen.

Hanks: After the election Trump’s lawyers and supporters filed at least 60 lawsuits around the country claiming voter fraud.

Freeman: ALL of those lawsuits were dismissed by judges for lack of evidence, and some of those judges had been appointed by Trump. Even the Supreme Court denied Trump’s claims.

Swift: Trump had appointed Christopher Krebs as Homeland Security’s director of election security and he said it was the most secure election in American history.

Hanks: So Trump fired him and then continued to say that the election was stolen.

Freeman: Hey, Trump isn’t the first president to lie, but he’s the first president to undermine our democracy because it didn’t go his way.

Swift: When presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, lie to the American people, it can have terrible consequences, including getting our country into wars we shouldn’t be in.

Video clips:

President Johnson: I will not send American boys to fight an Asian war.

President Nixon: I am not a crook.

President Clinton: I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

President George W. Bush: The Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.

Hanks: But no President has ever lied like Trump. Journalists have documented over 30,000 lies he told while he was president.

Freeman: Trump lied to us about the Coronavirus even though he privately spoke with author Bob Woodward about the dangers of the virus.

Audio clip with still photo of Trump with Woodward. Trump: It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus. This is deadly stuff.

Video clip of Trump: It’s going to disappear one day, it’s like a miracle, it’s going to disappear.

Swift: Trump’s lies about the virus caused people to disregard the dangers, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans who had trusted him. That ‘s how dangerous a president’s lies can be.

Hanks: Now, our nation, our union is in terrible peril. Millions of people believe the election was stolen — all because one person, Donald Trump, has lied about it with no facts or foundation.

Freeman: Trump’s lies have so much power that he even incited a mob to storm the Capitol Building and try overturning the election. That was an insurrection and it never happened before in over 200 years of American elections.

Swift: Our union is not set in stone. It can be destroyed if we don’t protect it from the tyranny of one man who cares more about his own power than about fair elections.

Hanks: Trump is like a spoiled brat we knew as kids. If the brat didn’t get his way, he would ruin things for everyone else.

Freeman: But now the brat is perfectly willing to nullify a free election and destroy our democracy just to hold onto his power.

Swift: Most Republican politicians support Trump in the Big Lie that the election was stolen, even tho many Republicans were re-elected in the same vote. In every other election in our history, the results were accepted and there was a peaceful transfer of power. It’s up to us to call them out on the lie so this attack on democracy never happens again.

All three: Thank you for listening.

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2021

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