Don Blankenship’s Ad was Brilliant Actually
Making fun of what you do not understand is a very dangerous thing to do. Perhaps no other part of the country is understood less than Appalachia. This leads to things like the most brilliant political ad of the cycle being mocked by those who don’t understand what it was they just saw. Let me be clear, I in no way support a racist coal baron for West Virginia Senate. That said, Don Blankenship is a highly intelligent, wealthy man with a team of professionals around him. He knows exactly what he is doing, and you mock him at your peril.
Blankenship is wearing Appalachian culture on his sleeve. He labels himself as Appalachian on his social media and campaign material. His use of banjo music in the background of his ad is part of this. The banjo is a traditional regional instrument that has been stigmatized outside of Appalachia. As a result, most politicians are going to shy away from it, but not him. The banjo is basically Blankenship flipping a bird to those outside of Appalachia for the entire ad.
Blankenship’s use of the term “China-people” is racist, but from a dialectic standpoint, it is sound. Adding -person to the end of a word to describe someone as though it is one word is a cutesy regionalism. He knows exactly what it sounds like, but to West Virginia voters it will sound very different. China-people are people from China. West Virginia-people are people from West Virginia. West Virginia voters will hear the regionalism, but not the racism. Non-Appalachian people will hear the racism, but not the regionalism. He wants outsiders to “misunderstand” what he said. It is not a dog whistle in the traditional sense, but a fake dog whistle. You are meant to hear something that isn’t technically there and attack him for it.
Portraying Mitch McConnell as a Chinese agent is a Democratic Party staple in conservative states. If you live in a more Democratic-dominated state, you might not be as familiar with it, but if you live in a conservative one during a senate campaign, you have heard this hammered at length. I’m not going to get into the details of it all here, but what is worth noting is Don Blankenship is attacking McConnell with a Democratic Party tactic in the Republican primary. He is asking for crossover votes, and he might just get them.
The final touch is the random kids at the end. Are they his? Are they his grandkids? An aid’s? It doesn’t matter. This is meant as a self-aware “Oh! I’m running for office here, so I guess I have to flash some kids.” It is the sort of anti-politics politics that Appalachian voters will eat up.
I have no way of knowing if Don Blankenship will come out of the election as the Republican party’s nominee. What he has done though is make that a lot more likely. Mocking him only makes him stronger.
Greg Ganues is just some dude. He has opinions and an asshole. He has been illicitly published by a foreign website. He has advised Hillary Clinton, written about Generation X, and resurrected Klaus Nomi to sing bumper music at the end of an essay. He will happily argue with you on Twitter.
