I think that this is an interesting topic. I believe that the attack ad by Bush is not wrong in what he put into his advertisement. The fear of crime is something that is not a wrong approach to being president. Also that this is racially motivated or racist in any way is wrong in my opinion. Willie Horton was out on furlough and committed a severe crime. If they put an example of a white man I honestly do not think that it would have been such a controversy and the only thing it would get credit for is that it was one of the first attack ads, and not racist or anything of that nature. I also think that President Donald Trumps ad about the illegal immigrant is not a bad ad either because that man should not have been in the country. I do not know much about the advertisement by President Trump, but it was not racist. Whether it was true or not that the Democrats let him stay, it is not racist to give an example of what Trump's agenda is which is stopping illegal immigration into the country. A lot of the people that are illegally crossing our borders are Mexicans so if you show a video about a Mexican crossing the border that is not racist because Mexicans cross the border illegally all of the time. It would be racist to say that all Mexicans are bad because of race or something like that, but showing a video of a cop killer that is illegally in the country being sentenced is not racist.-Legion001
I think the Willie Horton ad represents stereotyping African Americans, but I agree with you that Trump's ad isn't a bad ad representing stereotypes. If an immigrant is illegal, then it should not be in this country regardless of the race. -lilbaby001
I agree with you that Bush did nothing wrong because the fear of crime had been instilled in every American citizen due to everything that had been happening. Bias is in everyone's mind regardless if they realize it and that can result in taking an ads idea and twisting it to result in a purpose that was not originally intended. -Blues001
First off, this ad very much throws shots at Dukakis. I will say that what happened is not a good situation, but to go to that extent with a campaign ad is over the top. They put all the hype around the “death penalty”, but to be honest Dukakis being against the death penalty did not cause Horton to do this crime when he was out. Dukakis being for weekend passes for first degree murder is what caused Horton to do this crime. Being for or against the death penalty for these candidates has nothing to do with the crime Horton committed. With that being said, I will say that this ad does make Dukakis look like he is soft on crime. This was the big talk at the time and everyone wanted our policies to be “tough on crime” and as we saw, this experiment failed miserably. With the uneducated people at the time, this is all they were worried about and Bush used this to his advantage to get more votes. This is not right, but if that is what he has to do to get elected, then that is what anyone would do. I will agree that this video is very racially divisive and it plays into white fear and African American stereotypes. This is not something that these candidates should be thinking about when they campaign, but like I said they will do what they need to do to win. -lilbaby001
I agree with you about how Bush just did what he needed to get elected. I think that it is a bad thing that candidates will do anything to get elected or re-elected. Some things are too far and should not be done when trying to get elected and playing off people’s fear is one of them. -Legion001
I agree with you about how the death penalty played no role in what happened with Willie Horton. However, I personally disagree with your statement that the video played into African American stereotypes. The reason I say that is because the ad would have had the same effect on the audience and for Bush's "Tough on Crime" approach if Willie Horton was white or any other race for that matter. He was used against Dukakis because Dukakis allowed a psychopath out on a weekend pass, regardless of the color of Horton's skin. -Drums001
I think it is sad how much people of political power use events like the rape and murders committed by Willie Horton as a platform for personally or political gain. The ad shows Willie Horton and tells about his crimes and it assures the audience that George Bush will not tolerate this behavior and will never let something like the Willie Horton incident happen again. Likewise, Bush’s opponent, Michael Dukakis, is depicted as a weak political figure who wants to let serial killers out of prison. Another example of this same thing happening is the CNN article about the political ad. The article basically says that the ad was used to create racial fear and stereotypes, which is not true at all. In fact, not once does the ad mention race or any sort of stereotype. It simply shows a photograph of Willie Horton. Both of these political agendas are just foolish and they skew the truth in order to prove that their political party is the “good” one. Willie Horton murdered and raped people and that’s a fact. Michael Dukakis did not kill and rape those innocent people and George Bush’s ad did not create racism. If people would just take fact for fact, opinion for opinion and stopped judging people by their skin color, there wouldn’t be ads or articles like this. -Drums001
I don't like the way that Bush used this ad in order to gain more votes. Although I do agree that what Dukakis was doing letting murderers out of prison on the weekends was a really bad idea. If there were not any weekend passes from prison Horton wouldn't have committed the rape and second murder. -Ram001
I can understand both point of view in terms to race and how it could have been done differently also, I see the POV from a politics standpoint. I agree that people should just look at the facts as a whole and stop interpreting race into it. As I stated it was just a well done strategic plan that made Bush win. -21Aries001
The ad that was shown during the time of the 1988 election was an attack against Michael Dukakis. In my opinion I think it was wrong for Bush to use that kind of attack against his opponent. The article says that the Willie Horton ad was one of the most racist political ads, but that's not the message that Bush wanted to give with this ad. Bush was trying to win more votes by showing everyone that his opponent was being soft on crime. And with this ad he had to have won a lot of votes especially from whites. The Willie Horton ad is stereotypical and racially decisive due to how they portrayed an African American as a murderer. Dukakis allowed first degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison. Allowing murderers to get out of prisoners for weekends is a bad idea. The weekend pass was what allowed Horton to commit another crime. Had he stayed in prison he would have never kidnapped the couple, stabbed the man and raped the woman. Ultimately this ad led Bush to victory later on that November. Donald Trump was hoping that he would get the same outcome for his campaign with a video that he tweeted. This video showed Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican man who was deported but returned to the U.S. and convicted of killing two deputies in California. Like Bush, Trump wanted to use this ad to gain more votes. That video was also stereotypical with how they portrayed a Mexican man as a criminal. The candidates shouldn't have to resort to using these types of methods to gain popularity and support. -Ram001
i agree with you, i don't think that candidates should use tactics like this on their rivals. i don't understand why so many news networks try to label this as racist however. Horton was a mentally unstable African American male who committed a horrible crime. that doesn't mean that he represents the whole African American community. no one in a healthy state of mind thinks that. it doesn't matter what race, religion, or sexuality you are, a crime is a crime. i just want people to stop looking at race and start seeing each other as fellow humans. S_i_B 001
I agree that this was not the idea Bush was trying to push. I believe is was more of a vote for me because I am tough on crime idea. I do not think it is fair to his campaign to say it was racist just because an attack ad featured an African American. In my opinion it could have been anyone featured in the advertisement. He is just another human like anyone else. Jackrabbit001
This ad along with the article were interesting to say the least. The article claimed that this was more of a racist political advertisement and painted a bad image of African Americans. I personally didn’t see that as the case. I saw that Bush was calling out the opposing candidate for letting a mentally ill and unstable criminal terrorize the streets. I don’t think that it was a racist attack, but I also don’t think that it was right for Bush to use this against Dukakis. Dukakis may have been governor at the time of Horton’s release, but he did not participate in the parole board then let Horton out. I think that it is unfair to hold all the blame on Dukakis like that. I personally have mixed feelings when it comes to parole, but I think that Horton should never have been allowed to leave prison. Bush made this ad to show how weak Dukakis was with crime. He mentioned that he gives first degree murderers weekend vacations. Prisoners are to be locked in prison until they have payed their debt to society. The whole punishment is that a criminal does not get to go back out to society. Horton was an easy face to put with this whole “weak on crime” agenda. I think it was a bit of a cheap shot on Dukakis though. Sexy_in_bikini 001
I agree that this ad gave African Americans a bad image. This ad was shown millions of times on millions of tv screens and had two white candidates running for office and they showed one of the worst black men in history. That just simply isn’t right and is a racist ad. -Celtics001
The Willie Horton ad is one of the most controversial ads of all time. It was used by president Bush in his campaign race agains Dukakis in 1988. The ad talks about how Bush is tough on crime and supports the death penalty, and how Dukakis is soft on crime and doesn’t support the death penalty. They talk about weekend passes in the ad and how Willie Horton was gave 10 weekend passes until he snuck out and killed more people. The ad basically says that if we elect Dukakis into office then there will be more people like Willie Horton who abuse weekend passes. Bush on the other hand will have these type of people killed because he supports the death penalty. An ad like this would never be seen in todays society because it really does look racist, whether Bush intended it to be or not. In 1988 this ad was perfect though because it helped Bush destroy Dukakis in the election. This ad uses a scare tactic with showing Willie Horton, who is already a scary looking individual, and describing the horrible things that he had done. When people see a scary looking man like Willie Horton and hear that one of the presidential candidates supports a policy that allowed him to kill more people, they probably aren’t going to vote for them. Bush used this ad perfectly to secure his win against Dukakis, but the ad itself is racist in my opinion. I’m glad that as a society we have went away from using ad tactics like this. -Celtics001
I agree with how Bush used the whole racial aspect to the ad to scare people into not voting for the Dukakis. Then there is the comment you made about how now a days we don’t have ads like that. Trump has always made remarks on how most illegal immigrants are criminals and are here because of previous democrats. taco001
This video really played into the tough on crime idea. I find it entertaining that the video had said "weekend passes" almost repetitively. You could definitely tell it was an attack video. I believe this video would still be effective if used in the right situation today. The CNN article talked about how the video was racist. I personally do not see any racism, but I do understand how many people would think that. I can see how someone would believe that they chose a black man to be in front of a smear campaign. But I also believe that anyone could have been in front and that his story just fit the bill perfectly. I understand that the way people thought was different and that brings me to the thought of maybe I am just ignorant of the fact of it because I really do not see any racism. I have not seen the Trump campaigns advertisement that is also racist. I suppose the video for Bush could be seen as racist if you already believe that he is racist. I could believe that Trump put out an offense video that under the same circumstance could be seen as racist in today's society because many already believe him to be racist. That would be one of the few ways that I could relate this video to something that a campaign would do in today's day and age. Jackrabbit001
The use of the term, "weekend passes," was one that caught my attention as well. When initially watching it you may not see it as much, but by making furlough sound much more colloquial in speech, Bush was completely attacking Dukakis and his overall intelligence associated with crime, and punishments associated with criminal activity. -psych001
I agree with your belief that this ad was not tied to anything racial. I watched both ads next to each other and they are similar in both the images shown and how they are ran and it is clear political attack. -Lobster001
The Willie Horton ad used by President George Bush in his 1988 presidential campaign is one of much controversy. After reading the article used to compare Bush and Trump, in terms of questionable campaigning, it dawned on me that the Willie Horton ad was racially motivated. While watching the short clip racism didn't even really pop into my head. Off the bat, I just thought Bush was jabbing at Dukakis' lax position on crime in our nation. I now see though the play on race. Out of all the murderers names that could have been plastered everywhere, the Bush administration decided to use a black man's. Horton had raped a white woman, and stabbed her partner while furloughed from prison under Dukasis' governing. Bush then used this incident as a way to panic white women all over the United States. Racial tensions may have been high before, but this Willie Horton ad being played everywhere had to make white women in America jump every time they saw a black man around. Whether or not these women were aware of it, if they hadn't had that fear before they did now because of these ads. To many women of that time it probably became implicit, they probably didn't even understand why they all of a sudden felt more fearful around black men. THAT is the power of a political agenda and the power of subliminal messages used through media. We, as a country, are constantly being manipulated by media and by politically driven agendas. Be skeptical of everything you see, everything you read or hear. Do your own research, dig deeper before believing any bit of information you are presented with. -psych001
I think using Willie Horton as political ad to win a campaign is and was wrong. Granted what he did was wrong and horrible there could have been other ads made for political reasons. There were probably more people in prison who committed even worse crime than Horton did however, it was the fact they he commited the crime while out on a “weekend pass” and possibly the fact that race comes into place as well. Why they thought weekend passes was a good we will never know. That takes away time from the sentence you are supposed to be serving. Even though it was wrong to use him as example for a campaign, I can see the strategic plan behind it. The plan from my point of view was to show that it was all Dukakis fault. In reality It's not his fault, it's not his fault that Horton committed that crime however, I think people didn't have anybody else to blame for it so therefore they started to blame Dukakis. That plan worked and allowed bush to win against Dukakis. Without that ad is possible that Bush wouldn't have won? 21Aries001
I agree with what you had to say. I think it was wrong for Bush to try to use this ad to his advantage. I do not think that he was thinking racially at all when he did this but I do think he should have thought over it again before doing so. The fact is that Bush just wanted to have an advantage by saying the Michael Dukakis was soft on crime. -Anchorman001
The article talked about both sides of the republicans and democrats. Bush which a republican pushed towards the death penalty for 1st degree murders. While Dukakis, a republican that was letting inmates in prison have “weekend passes” that were getting abused. That let the republican party take advantage of the opportunity to use it against them. As always parties always try to make the opposing parties seem soft. Even in today, Trump uses it against the democrats when it comes to criminals that are illegal and keeping them out of the country. When it comes to being tough on crime I think that the death penalty would have been a good idea for certain offenses. It was mentioned in the article that there were mandatory sentencing for drugs in the 80’s. Having the death penalty would scare criminals to stop but yet I think it isn’t ethical to have in the courts system. I think that if there is 100% proof that someone is convicted for a crime that deserves the death penalty, they shouldn’t get any good time or as they would have said “weekend passes”. For criminals that have repeatedly committed offenses that are a threat to the community have a harder chance to be able to get out of prison on parole and do it again. I think that being tough on crime doesn’t exactly mean killing those who have done killing themselves but teaching them a lesson while still being alive. taco001
Political ads can be sometimes controversial but this one featured a very bad crime committed by Horton. The ad seemed to lose focus at its original target about the death penalty because as the second part of the ad begins it talks about how Horton was on a weekend release, which is something that Dukakis supports. While the ad did a good job at getting people to believe Dukakis was soft on crime it just goes to show that politics are all about trying to gain the upper hand against your opponent. I do not think there is anything wrong with Trumps ad about how the illegal immigrant murdered 2 officers because that is just the game of politics that they all play. The issue at hand during this time was to "get tough of crime" and who could get tougher and for Dukakis to allow for a crazy man to be allowed to roam free and end up running away to murder and rape most definitely showed he was not tough enough for the American people. American people wanted the man who appeared tougher on crime because of the fear of more Horton incidents occurring but this whole situation played out as politics. Trumps ad was not a racially charged ad but people's bias can make that seem like it was, it is simply Trump having an ad to show something he is against and something the opposite party is for. The scare tactic used did work but it used an event that was very tough on the both victims families in order to gain an upper hand in an election so it understandable to see the controversy behind it. -Blues001
I thought that this was very interesting. I thought it was interesting to see how Bush used this to his advantage to attack Michael Dukakis. In my opinion, I thought it was wrong for them to put Willie Horton’s face up like that. In my opinion this could rub someone the wrong way and cause issues. One of the adds stated that the ad was used to create some type of racial fear which was definitely not the case and it for sure did not do that. It just seemed that way to some individuals. It was also not stereotyping anyone in any way, shape or form. Bush just was trying to get an advantage and to show everyone that Michael Dukakis was not a strong leader and was easy on crime. Bush was trying to be hard on crime.The fact that Bush used the ad to gain political power and just gain more votes in my opinion looks bad on his part. Yes Willie Horton murdered innocent people. Yes Willie Horton raped people. These are both very well known and are both truths. The mistake was made when the government let Willie Horton out of prison. The problem though is with racism and stereotyping individuals for their skin color. In my opinion, I can see where Bush thought this would be the route to take to receive more votes, but most of his votes were probably majority white. This article should not have been released to the public. If it would not have been made, then no one would have been saying anything about stereotyping or racism in general. -Anchorman001
This article talked about the prison system and politics that were associated with it. You clearly could see what both sides wanted which was that the republicans (Bush) pushed for the death penalty for first degree murders. While the Dukakis was letting inmates uses weekend passes which were obviously abused. It is all for propaganda that each side can use against their opponent. America was still running on the tough on crime principle and people who supported that would clearly side with Bush. The death penalty is a great tool for deterrence but I also think it is good to have in the system anyway. Getting back to the weekend passes, what are they thinking. That is one of the worst things you can do. The reason for prisons is to keep the bad in away from society. Not just for five days a week but for as long as there sentence requires. But that does not mea. it was others fault for letting Horton out where he committed other terrible crimes, but it is easy to point the blame.-Purdue001
The ad used by George Bush involving Willie Horton has a lot of skepticism. I can understand how it is an attack on his political rival when it came to the election race, but I don't really see any racial views of this. Bush is one of the people who has pushed for the death penalty for awhile, and Dukakis merely was trying to find alternate solutions to the death penalty. The example of Mr. Horton used in the ad is crude because it was a random occurrence they could not foresee, Horton had been a model prisoner so there is not a clear way the board of the prison and Dukakis could have seen what would happen. Personally I believe that the death penalty is something that should only be used on extreme crimes such as 1st degree murder, anything involving serial rape crimes, and/or murder of a member of law enforcement. It is the final punishment that really should be saved for the worst of the worst. -Lobster001
The Horton ad used by George H.W. Bush's campaign team was a tactic to reinforce the white American people’s fear of minorities. Reading just the first brief description of the of the Horton ad reminded me of many of President's Trumps tactics for gaining supporters. Trump and Bush both trying to gain the support and votes of small town citizens that already hold biases against people of color. Both presidents used this already existing prejudice to their advantage. They saw where there was fear, and they gave the people of their someone to blame for that fear; the soft and ‘overly tolerant’ democrats. By making it seem as though people in the Democratic Party were solely to blame for the actions of first Horton and then Bracamontes, swing states likely went red. I also believe that these political ads overlooked the power that the individual states had in deciding their sentences and citizenship statuses. Ads that completely overlook large facts like these can be externally frustrating for informed viewers because the informed individual is also likely to realize that the their uninformed counterpart will not look further into that matter and take the ad at face value. Believing exactly what you are being told in a political campaign can be dangerous to voters. This serves as a perfect example as to why informed votes are always preferable, no matter which way they are voting. If someone completely understands their cause and their beliefs then they can do their best to make the right decision in the voting booth. It is when voters do not take the time to investigate potential nominees that’s election season becomes a minefield and blatantly racist campaigns become somehow tolerated. -Waterboy001
Overall, I do see how this campaign could be seen as racist. It would strike fear into the heart of a white, but it is a harsh reality. They could have used a white man, but what would the difference have been? The reality is that Willie Horton was a murderer given weekend passes, and on this weekend passed, killed again and committed the crime of rape. For one, he should have never been let free for the weekends. That is ridiculous. If they had aired it differently, I feel it could have been manageable. But to air it in the way it was portrayed is also somewhat wrong. To use it in a campaign ad in the way it was portrayed, when you are supposed to be the one wanting our country, is somewhat immature in my opinion. Regarding the new Trump ad, I can see where this would be wrong. Since being in enough, Trump has concentrated much of his stereotypical behavior on the Mexican population and illegal immigration. Trump has been seen to be somewhat of an immature man, and it is shocking that one such as he is running our country. There is no professionalism in ads such as these. When running a country, I feel professionalism should be key when you are in a position of such respect and authority. Perhaps if ads such as these were not aired, or people of all color were made out to be the same, racism would not be such an ongoing problem. Everyone in America is an American, and I just pray for a time that is seen to be true. A time free of ridicule and discrimination of race would be pretty cool! -freckles001
I think that this is an interesting topic. I believe that the attack ad by Bush is not wrong in what he put into his advertisement. The fear of crime is something that is not a wrong approach to being president. Also that this is racially motivated or racist in any way is wrong in my opinion. Willie Horton was out on furlough and committed a severe crime. If they put an example of a white man I honestly do not think that it would have been such a controversy and the only thing it would get credit for is that it was one of the first attack ads, and not racist or anything of that nature. I also think that President Donald Trumps ad about the illegal immigrant is not a bad ad either because that man should not have been in the country. I do not know much about the advertisement by President Trump, but it was not racist. Whether it was true or not that the Democrats let him stay, it is not racist to give an example of what Trump's agenda is which is stopping illegal immigration into the country. A lot of the people that are illegally crossing our borders are Mexicans so if you show a video about a Mexican crossing the border that is not racist because Mexicans cross the border illegally all of the time. It would be racist to say that all Mexicans are bad because of race or something like that, but showing a video of a cop killer that is illegally in the country being sentenced is not racist.-Legion001
ReplyDeleteI think the Willie Horton ad represents stereotyping African Americans, but I agree with you that Trump's ad isn't a bad ad representing stereotypes. If an immigrant is illegal, then it should not be in this country regardless of the race. -lilbaby001
DeleteI agree with you that Bush did nothing wrong because the fear of crime had been instilled in every American citizen due to everything that had been happening. Bias is in everyone's mind regardless if they realize it and that can result in taking an ads idea and twisting it to result in a purpose that was not originally intended. -Blues001
DeleteFirst off, this ad very much throws shots at Dukakis. I will say that what happened is not a good situation, but to go to that extent with a campaign ad is over the top. They put all the hype around the “death penalty”, but to be honest Dukakis being against the death penalty did not cause Horton to do this crime when he was out. Dukakis being for weekend passes for first degree murder is what caused Horton to do this crime. Being for or against the death penalty for these candidates has nothing to do with the crime Horton committed. With that being said, I will say that this ad does make Dukakis look like he is soft on crime. This was the big talk at the time and everyone wanted our policies to be “tough on crime” and as we saw, this experiment failed miserably. With the uneducated people at the time, this is all they were worried about and Bush used this to his advantage to get more votes. This is not right, but if that is what he has to do to get elected, then that is what anyone would do. I will agree that this video is very racially divisive and it plays into white fear and African American stereotypes. This is not something that these candidates should be thinking about when they campaign, but like I said they will do what they need to do to win. -lilbaby001
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about how Bush just did what he needed to get elected. I think that it is a bad thing that candidates will do anything to get elected or re-elected. Some things are too far and should not be done when trying to get elected and playing off people’s fear is one of them. -Legion001
DeleteI agree with you about how the death penalty played no role in what happened with Willie Horton. However, I personally disagree with your statement that the video played into African American stereotypes. The reason I say that is because the ad would have had the same effect on the audience and for Bush's "Tough on Crime" approach if Willie Horton was white or any other race for that matter. He was used against Dukakis because Dukakis allowed a psychopath out on a weekend pass, regardless of the color of Horton's skin.
Delete-Drums001
I think it is sad how much people of political power use events like the rape and murders committed by Willie Horton as a platform for personally or political gain. The ad shows Willie Horton and tells about his crimes and it assures the audience that George Bush will not tolerate this behavior and will never let something like the Willie Horton incident happen again. Likewise, Bush’s opponent, Michael Dukakis, is depicted as a weak political figure who wants to let serial killers out of prison. Another example of this same thing happening is the CNN article about the political ad. The article basically says that the ad was used to create racial fear and stereotypes, which is not true at all. In fact, not once does the ad mention race or any sort of stereotype. It simply shows a photograph of Willie Horton. Both of these political agendas are just foolish and they skew the truth in order to prove that their political party is the “good” one. Willie Horton murdered and raped people and that’s a fact. Michael Dukakis did not kill and rape those innocent people and George Bush’s ad did not create racism. If people would just take fact for fact, opinion for opinion and stopped judging people by their skin color, there wouldn’t be ads or articles like this.
ReplyDelete-Drums001
I don't like the way that Bush used this ad in order to gain more votes. Although I do agree that what Dukakis was doing letting murderers out of prison on the weekends was a really bad idea. If there were not any weekend passes from prison Horton wouldn't have committed the rape and second murder.
Delete-Ram001
I can understand both point of view in terms to race and how it could have been done differently also, I see the POV from a politics standpoint. I agree that people should just look at the facts as a whole and stop interpreting race into it. As I stated it was just a well done strategic plan that made Bush win.
Delete-21Aries001
The ad that was shown during the time of the 1988 election was an attack against Michael Dukakis. In my opinion I think it was wrong for Bush to use that kind of attack against his opponent. The article says that the Willie Horton ad was one of the most racist political ads, but that's not the message that Bush wanted to give with this ad. Bush was trying to win more votes by showing everyone that his opponent was being soft on crime. And with this ad he had to have won a lot of votes especially from whites. The Willie Horton ad is stereotypical and racially decisive due to how they portrayed an African American as a murderer. Dukakis allowed first degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison. Allowing murderers to get out of prisoners for weekends is a bad idea. The weekend pass was what allowed Horton to commit another crime. Had he stayed in prison he would have never kidnapped the couple, stabbed the man and raped the woman. Ultimately this ad led Bush to victory later on that November. Donald Trump was hoping that he would get the same outcome for his campaign with a video that he tweeted. This video showed Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican man who was deported but returned to the U.S. and convicted of killing two deputies in California. Like Bush, Trump wanted to use this ad to gain more votes. That video was also stereotypical with how they portrayed a Mexican man as a criminal. The candidates shouldn't have to resort to using these types of methods to gain popularity and support.
ReplyDelete-Ram001
i agree with you, i don't think that candidates should use tactics like this on their rivals. i don't understand why so many news networks try to label this as racist however. Horton was a mentally unstable African American male who committed a horrible crime. that doesn't mean that he represents the whole African American community. no one in a healthy state of mind thinks that. it doesn't matter what race, religion, or sexuality you are, a crime is a crime. i just want people to stop looking at race and start seeing each other as fellow humans. S_i_B 001
DeleteI agree that this was not the idea Bush was trying to push. I believe is was more of a vote for me because I am tough on crime idea. I do not think it is fair to his campaign to say it was racist just because an attack ad featured an African American. In my opinion it could have been anyone featured in the advertisement. He is just another human like anyone else. Jackrabbit001
DeleteThis ad along with the article were interesting to say the least. The article claimed that this was more of a racist political advertisement and painted a bad image of African Americans. I personally didn’t see that as the case. I saw that Bush was calling out the opposing candidate for letting a mentally ill and unstable criminal terrorize the streets. I don’t think that it was a racist attack, but I also don’t think that it was right for Bush to use this against Dukakis. Dukakis may have been governor at the time of Horton’s release, but he did not participate in the parole board then let Horton out. I think that it is unfair to hold all the blame on Dukakis like that. I personally have mixed feelings when it comes to parole, but I think that Horton should never have been allowed to leave prison. Bush made this ad to show how weak Dukakis was with crime. He mentioned that he gives first degree murderers weekend vacations. Prisoners are to be locked in prison until they have payed their debt to society. The whole punishment is that a criminal does not get to go back out to society. Horton was an easy face to put with this whole “weak on crime” agenda. I think it was a bit of a cheap shot on Dukakis though. Sexy_in_bikini 001
ReplyDeleteI agree that this ad gave African Americans a bad image. This ad was shown millions of times on millions of tv screens and had two white candidates running for office and they showed one of the worst black men in history. That just simply isn’t right and is a racist ad. -Celtics001
DeleteThe Willie Horton ad is one of the most controversial ads of all time. It was used by president Bush in his campaign race agains Dukakis in 1988. The ad talks about how Bush is tough on crime and supports the death penalty, and how Dukakis is soft on crime and doesn’t support the death penalty. They talk about weekend passes in the ad and how Willie Horton was gave 10 weekend passes until he snuck out and killed more people. The ad basically says that if we elect Dukakis into office then there will be more people like Willie Horton who abuse weekend passes. Bush on the other hand will have these type of people killed because he supports the death penalty. An ad like this would never be seen in todays society because it really does look racist, whether Bush intended it to be or not. In 1988 this ad was perfect though because it helped Bush destroy Dukakis in the election. This ad uses a scare tactic with showing Willie Horton, who is already a scary looking individual, and describing the horrible things that he had done. When people see a scary looking man like Willie Horton and hear that one of the presidential candidates supports a policy that allowed him to kill more people, they probably aren’t going to vote for them. Bush used this ad perfectly to secure his win against Dukakis, but the ad itself is racist in my opinion. I’m glad that as a society we have went away from using ad tactics like this. -Celtics001
ReplyDeleteI agree with how Bush used the whole racial aspect to the ad to scare people into not voting for the Dukakis. Then there is the comment you made about how now a days we don’t have ads like that. Trump has always made remarks on how most illegal immigrants are criminals and are here because of previous democrats. taco001
DeleteThis video really played into the tough on crime idea. I find it entertaining that the video had said "weekend passes" almost repetitively. You could definitely tell it was an attack video. I believe this video would still be effective if used in the right situation today. The CNN article talked about how the video was racist. I personally do not see any racism, but I do understand how many people would think that. I can see how someone would believe that they chose a black man to be in front of a smear campaign. But I also believe that anyone could have been in front and that his story just fit the bill perfectly. I understand that the way people thought was different and that brings me to the thought of maybe I am just ignorant of the fact of it because I really do not see any racism. I have not seen the Trump campaigns advertisement that is also racist. I suppose the video for Bush could be seen as racist if you already believe that he is racist. I could believe that Trump put out an offense video that under the same circumstance could be seen as racist in today's society because many already believe him to be racist. That would be one of the few ways that I could relate this video to something that a campaign would do in today's day and age. Jackrabbit001
ReplyDeleteThe use of the term, "weekend passes," was one that caught my attention as well. When initially watching it you may not see it as much, but by making furlough sound much more colloquial in speech, Bush was completely attacking Dukakis and his overall intelligence associated with crime, and punishments associated with criminal activity. -psych001
DeleteI agree with your belief that this ad was not tied to anything racial. I watched both ads next to each other and they are similar in both the images shown and how they are ran and it is clear political attack. -Lobster001
DeleteThe Willie Horton ad used by President George Bush in his 1988 presidential campaign is one of much controversy. After reading the article used to compare Bush and Trump, in terms of questionable campaigning, it dawned on me that the Willie Horton ad was racially motivated. While watching the short clip racism didn't even really pop into my head. Off the bat, I just thought Bush was jabbing at Dukakis' lax position on crime in our nation. I now see though the play on race. Out of all the murderers names that could have been plastered everywhere, the Bush administration decided to use a black man's. Horton had raped a white woman, and stabbed her partner while furloughed from prison under Dukasis' governing. Bush then used this incident as a way to panic white women all over the United States. Racial tensions may have been high before, but this Willie Horton ad being played everywhere had to make white women in America jump every time they saw a black man around. Whether or not these women were aware of it, if they hadn't had that fear before they did now because of these ads. To many women of that time it probably became implicit, they probably didn't even understand why they all of a sudden felt more fearful around black men. THAT is the power of a political agenda and the power of subliminal messages used through media. We, as a country, are constantly being manipulated by media and by politically driven agendas. Be skeptical of everything you see, everything you read or hear. Do your own research, dig deeper before believing any bit of information you are presented with.
ReplyDelete-psych001
I think using Willie Horton as political ad to win a campaign is and was wrong. Granted what he did was wrong and horrible there could have been other ads made for political reasons. There were probably more people in prison who committed even worse crime than Horton did however, it was the fact they he commited the crime while out on a “weekend pass” and possibly the fact that race comes into place as well. Why they thought weekend passes was a good we will never know. That takes away time from the sentence you are supposed to be serving. Even though it was wrong to use him as example for a campaign, I can see the strategic plan behind it. The plan from my point of view was to show that it was all Dukakis fault. In reality It's not his fault, it's not his fault that Horton committed that crime however, I think people didn't have anybody else to blame for it so therefore they started to blame Dukakis. That plan worked and allowed bush to win against Dukakis. Without that ad is possible that Bush wouldn't have won?
ReplyDelete21Aries001
I agree with what you had to say. I think it was wrong for Bush to try to use this ad to his advantage. I do not think that he was thinking racially at all when he did this but I do think he should have thought over it again before doing so. The fact is that Bush just wanted to have an advantage by saying the Michael Dukakis was soft on crime. -Anchorman001
DeleteThe article talked about both sides of the republicans and democrats. Bush which a republican pushed towards the death penalty for 1st degree murders. While Dukakis, a republican that was letting inmates in prison have “weekend passes” that were getting abused. That let the republican party take advantage of the opportunity to use it against them. As always parties always try to make the opposing parties seem soft. Even in today, Trump uses it against the democrats when it comes to criminals that are illegal and keeping them out of the country. When it comes to being tough on crime I think that the death penalty would have been a good idea for certain offenses. It was mentioned in the article that there were mandatory sentencing for drugs in the 80’s. Having the death penalty would scare criminals to stop but yet I think it isn’t ethical to have in the courts system. I think that if there is 100% proof that someone is convicted for a crime that deserves the death penalty, they shouldn’t get any good time or as they would have said “weekend passes”. For criminals that have repeatedly committed offenses that are a threat to the community have a harder chance to be able to get out of prison on parole and do it again. I think that being tough on crime doesn’t exactly mean killing those who have done killing themselves but teaching them a lesson while still being alive. taco001
ReplyDeletePolitical ads can be sometimes controversial but this one featured a very bad crime committed by Horton. The ad seemed to lose focus at its original target about the death penalty because as the second part of the ad begins it talks about how Horton was on a weekend release, which is something that Dukakis supports. While the ad did a good job at getting people to believe Dukakis was soft on crime it just goes to show that politics are all about trying to gain the upper hand against your opponent. I do not think there is anything wrong with Trumps ad about how the illegal immigrant murdered 2 officers because that is just the game of politics that they all play. The issue at hand during this time was to "get tough of crime" and who could get tougher and for Dukakis to allow for a crazy man to be allowed to roam free and end up running away to murder and rape most definitely showed he was not tough enough for the American people. American people wanted the man who appeared tougher on crime because of the fear of more Horton incidents occurring but this whole situation played out as politics. Trumps ad was not a racially charged ad but people's bias can make that seem like it was, it is simply Trump having an ad to show something he is against and something the opposite party is for. The scare tactic used did work but it used an event that was very tough on the both victims families in order to gain an upper hand in an election so it understandable to see the controversy behind it. -Blues001
ReplyDeleteI thought that this was very interesting. I thought it was interesting to see how Bush used this to his advantage to attack Michael Dukakis. In my opinion, I thought it was wrong for them to put Willie Horton’s face up like that. In my opinion this could rub someone the wrong way and cause issues. One of the adds stated that the ad was used to create some type of racial fear which was definitely not the case and it for sure did not do that. It just seemed that way to some individuals. It was also not stereotyping anyone in any way, shape or form. Bush just was trying to get an advantage and to show everyone that Michael Dukakis was not a strong leader and was easy on crime. Bush was trying to be hard on crime.The fact that Bush used the ad to gain political power and just gain more votes in my opinion looks bad on his part. Yes Willie Horton murdered innocent people. Yes Willie Horton raped people. These are both very well known and are both truths. The mistake was made when the government let Willie Horton out of prison. The problem though is with racism and stereotyping individuals for their skin color. In my opinion, I can see where Bush thought this would be the route to take to receive more votes, but most of his votes were probably majority white. This article should not have been released to the public. If it would not have been made, then no one would have been saying anything about stereotyping or racism in general.
ReplyDelete-Anchorman001
This article talked about the prison system and politics that were associated with it. You clearly could see what both sides wanted which was that the republicans (Bush) pushed for the death penalty for first degree murders. While the Dukakis was letting inmates uses weekend passes which were obviously abused. It is all for propaganda that each side can use against their opponent. America was still running on the tough on crime principle and people who supported that would clearly side with Bush.
ReplyDeleteThe death penalty is a great tool for deterrence but I also think it is good to have in the system anyway. Getting back to the weekend passes, what are they thinking. That is one of the worst things you can do. The reason for prisons is to keep the bad in away from society. Not just for five days a week but for as long as there sentence requires. But that does not mea. it was others fault for letting Horton out where he committed other terrible crimes, but it is easy to point the blame.-Purdue001
The ad used by George Bush involving Willie Horton has a lot of skepticism. I can understand how it is an attack on his political rival when it came to the election race, but I don't really see any racial views of this. Bush is one of the people who has pushed for the death penalty for awhile, and Dukakis merely was trying to find alternate solutions to the death penalty. The example of Mr. Horton used in the ad is crude because it was a random occurrence they could not foresee, Horton had been a model prisoner so there is not a clear way the board of the prison and Dukakis could have seen what would happen. Personally I believe that the death penalty is something that should only be used on extreme crimes such as 1st degree murder, anything involving serial rape crimes, and/or murder of a member of law enforcement. It is the final punishment that really should be saved for the worst of the worst. -Lobster001
ReplyDeleteThe Horton ad used by George H.W. Bush's campaign team was a tactic to reinforce the white American people’s fear of minorities. Reading just the first brief description of the of the Horton ad reminded me of many of President's Trumps tactics for gaining supporters. Trump and Bush both trying to gain the support and votes of small town citizens that already hold biases against people of color. Both presidents used this already existing prejudice to their advantage. They saw where there was fear, and they gave the people of their someone to blame for that fear; the soft and ‘overly tolerant’ democrats. By making it seem as though people in the Democratic Party were solely to blame for the actions of first Horton and then Bracamontes, swing states likely went red. I also believe that these political ads overlooked the power that the individual states had in deciding their sentences and citizenship statuses. Ads that completely overlook large facts like these can be externally frustrating for informed viewers because the informed individual is also likely to realize that the their uninformed counterpart will not look further into that matter and take the ad at face value. Believing exactly what you are being told in a political campaign can be dangerous to voters. This serves as a perfect example as to why informed votes are always preferable, no matter which way they are voting. If someone completely understands their cause and their beliefs then they can do their best to make the right decision in the voting booth. It is when voters do not take the time to investigate potential nominees that’s election season becomes a minefield and blatantly racist campaigns become somehow tolerated. -Waterboy001
ReplyDeleteOverall, I do see how this campaign could be seen as racist. It would strike fear into the heart of a white, but it is a harsh reality. They could have used a white man, but what would the difference have been? The reality is that Willie Horton was a murderer given weekend passes, and on this weekend passed, killed again and committed the crime of rape. For one, he should have never been let free for the weekends. That is ridiculous. If they had aired it differently, I feel it could have been manageable. But to air it in the way it was portrayed is also somewhat wrong. To use it in a campaign ad in the way it was portrayed, when you are supposed to be the one wanting our country, is somewhat immature in my opinion. Regarding the new Trump ad, I can see where this would be wrong. Since being in enough, Trump has concentrated much of his stereotypical behavior on the Mexican population and illegal immigration. Trump has been seen to be somewhat of an immature man, and it is shocking that one such as he is running our country. There is no professionalism in ads such as these. When running a country, I feel professionalism should be key when you are in a position of such respect and authority. Perhaps if ads such as these were not aired, or people of all color were made out to be the same, racism would not be such an ongoing problem. Everyone in America is an American, and I just pray for a time that is seen to be true. A time free of ridicule and discrimination of race would be pretty cool! -freckles001
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