With incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr holding on to a slim lead in polls against former Democratic state legislator Deborah Ross, the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with former Bush White House political aide Karl Rove, is accusing Ross of disrespecting the American flag.
The charge is bookended with an incredulous Vietnam War veteran, who begins the ad talking about his reverence for the American flag: "The flag is everything to me... I've seen flag wrapped around coffins as they're being brought home." Then after a narrator slams Ross, the veteran reacts: "I think that's just totally disgraceful. She's failed us as veterans."
The accusation comes with a footnote sourcing the claim to a 2016 newspaper article, making it seem like a recent action she has taken. The ad doesn't mention that the episode comes from her 1994-2002 stint with the state ACLU chapter.
A representative of the ACLU wrote him back to acknowledge he may have a constitutional case, but it would be "difficult to prove" and the chapter didn't have the resources to pursue the case. Such nuances are cast aside in "Disgraceful" in favor of juxtaposing an image of Ross next to a burning flag.
Will this attempt at jingoistic, smash mouth politics work, 28 years after George H. W. Bush campaigned at a flag factory and questioned Dukakis' support for the Pledge of Allegiance? If not, we'll know that times really have changed.
Super PAC Questions Deborah Ross' Support for The US Flag
In an ad that feels like it belongs in the Cold War-era, "Disgraceful" claims Ross "refused to help a veteran who was threatened with a lawsuit for flying the flag, but Ross does defend the right to burn the flag."The charge is bookended with an incredulous Vietnam War veteran, who begins the ad talking about his reverence for the American flag: "The flag is everything to me... I've seen flag wrapped around coffins as they're being brought home." Then after a narrator slams Ross, the veteran reacts: "I think that's just totally disgraceful. She's failed us as veterans."
The accusation comes with a footnote sourcing the claim to a 2016 newspaper article, making it seem like a recent action she has taken. The ad doesn't mention that the episode comes from her 1994-2002 stint with the state ACLU chapter.
Ad Puts Deborah Ross Next to a Burning Flag
In that role, she opposed flag burning bans on First Amendment grounds (a view upheld by the Supreme Court in 1989, in a decision supported by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.) But in 2001, a veteran asked the state chapter for help when he was accused of violating a deed restriction banning the use of flagpoles and displaying flags of any kind.A representative of the ACLU wrote him back to acknowledge he may have a constitutional case, but it would be "difficult to prove" and the chapter didn't have the resources to pursue the case. Such nuances are cast aside in "Disgraceful" in favor of juxtaposing an image of Ross next to a burning flag.
Will this attempt at jingoistic, smash mouth politics work, 28 years after George H. W. Bush campaigned at a flag factory and questioned Dukakis' support for the Pledge of Allegiance? If not, we'll know that times really have changed.