Mediaboss Marketing

Fear is the great motivator in politics. It's always easier to scare someone to the polls to vote against your opponent than it is to persuade them to the polls to vote for you.

Lyndon Johnson's campaign strategists understood that in 1964 when they conceived the infamous Daisy Girl ad, which hinted that the election of Johnson's opponent, Barry Goldwater, would result in a Dr. Strangelove dystopia filled with nuclear mushroom clouds.

Manuel Medina understands this, too. That's why the Bexar County Democratic Party chairman launched a new Spanish-language ad last Thursday on Univision, implying that tea party Republicans rank up there with ISIS as the organization most likely to behead us in our sleep.

The Univision airtime was bankrolled (to the tune of $25,000) by personal-injury attorney Thomas J. Henry, who has also made a big splash in the Bexar County district attorney race by donating more than $1.2 million to Democratic candidate Nico LaHood.

The Univision ad begins by showing the United States and Mexican flags waving next to each other, with a narrator saying, These two flags represent friendship, liberty, opportunity and justice.

That image is quickly replaced by the tea party's Don't Tread on Me banner.

This flag, the narrator warns us, is muy peligrosa (very dangerous).

It's the flag of the tea party Republicans. They are radical terrorists and they want to take matters into their own hands, affecting our children and families with violence and firearms on the border and in our cities.

That accusation is accompanied by photos of Texas militia members in camouflage uniforms and a worried woman holding tight to her child.

Before we get to this ad's fear-mongering message, there are a few elements to untangle.

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Democratic ad brands tea party Republicans radical terrorists