Julia, Vote for Me

I am certainly not the first to comment on it, but I am not sure how to react to the Obama-Biden Campaign’s web-ad Life Of Julia.   I literally don’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

If you haven’t seen it, go ahead and click on the link and have a look.  In the style (and intellect) of a children’s cartoon, the site chronicles the life of a fictitious character Julia, recounting how life is all peaches and cream for her because of Obama’s policies:  Head Start program at 3 years old; superb SAT scores at 17 because of Obama’s “Race to the Top” program; college admission at 18 under a Pell Grant; healthcare coverage while in college at 22 because she gets to stay on her parents' healthcare insurance; equal pay for equal work at 23 because of the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act”;  student loans easily paid off at 25 because Obama has kept the interest rates low; at 27, she can rest assured that her health insurance covers birth control and preventive health care; and on and on it goes until retirement when she collects social security and Medicare.  All these wonderful things happen to Julia because Obama is president or his policies are in place.  

By contrast, life would be awful if that evil Mitt Romney or his ideological twin Paul Ryan had their way.

My first reaction is laughter.  I can’t make this stuff up.  They are proudly campaigning on the promise of a cradle-to-grave nanny state, enthusiastically perpetuating an unsustainable status quo that is destined for implosion unless we reverse course or engage in the very sensible reforms that the evil Romney-Ryan duo are proposing.  It is so patently absurd that even children can see through it.

I have of course enjoyed the conservative commentary and tweets parodying this mindlessness:

• David Burge: “At age 28, Julia drops out of the labor force, helping keep the unemployment rate down.”
• Teri Christoph: “I love how the Julia slides end abruptly when she’s 67. Just what does Barack Obama have in store for our older citizens?”
• Casey George:  “Julia died at age 78. She voted Democrat until age 92.”

But the more I think about it, the “Life of Julia” site is not so funny.    The sad fact is that this hilarious nonsense might actually appeal to an increasing portion of our population.  Perhaps there are too many voting age adults who easily fall for what children should see through.  With only about half of the population paying taxes and an ever increasing percentage on the government dole, the cradle-to-grave nanny state is actually something desirable for such an increasing target audience.  It is also frightening to think that a dull and lazy population does not have the intellectual will or character to see through such disingenuous pabulum.

My last thoughts on the subject are the opening lines of an old Beatle song by the same name, which are utterly appropriate:.

Half of what I say is meaningless.
But I say it just to reach you, Julia.