The new television ad that was released by Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) campaign, based on Simon and Garfunkel’s song “America,” is the most brilliant and appropriate campaign ad of the year so far, and may be the most important campaign ad since President Reagan’s “Morning in America” ad.
{mosads}The ad perfectly captures the vision and spirit of the Sanders campaign and the mood of an America today that is the stuff of diverse people yearning to come together for common dreams and aspirations, at a time when many voters are hurting and hungering for a better life. The ad brings together music and video behind the Sanders message in a way that is fun to watch and memorable in substance and tone.
In his ad, Sanders, like Simon and Garfunkel in their song, paints a portrait of a people seeking a better and nobler and more hopeful nation. There is a poetry and romance to the ad, as there is a poetry and romance to politics at its best — something we see far too rarely in our politics of negativity, insults and attacks. There is no romance or passion to Hillary Clinton, Sanders’s rival for the Democratic nomination, attacking Sanders for supporting single-payer healthcare, which most Democrats support, and becoming the candidate of ObamaCare. There is nothing uplifting when Republican front-runner Donald Trump campaigns by insulting disabled people and calling women names such as “slobs” and “bimbos.” There is a romance, passion, poetry and music to Sanders offering a long list of ways he wants to lift up America and change our politics, bringing it all together in a 60-second ad based on an iconic song with a video that shows Americans looking for America together.
The “America” ad is one that voters will want to see many times, unlike most political campaign ads, and it projects a message that is positive, uplifting and unifying, which embodies the spirit that we Americans want in our politics and our country.
When you watch the ad, think about it. I bet you will watch it more than once, as I did, and while they will not admit it, the campaigns of other candidates will wish they had thought of it themselves.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Chief Deputy Majority Whip Bill Alexander (D-Ark.). He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at brentbbi@webtv.net.