At first, it seemed a joke. Like something from The Onion. Especially the editorial cartoon that modern-day Mad Magazine gives its readers every week: so over-the-top bad, so over-the-top dated and moldy, that the joke is on the artist, not the reader.
But this was no joke.
Apparently there's a radio spot "in support of" French Hill that's so over-the-top bad, so over-the-top outrageous that one wonders just what, exactly, the producers were thinking. We say apparently because the ad isn't featured on the stations we listen to. And we put "in support of" French Hill in scare quotes because the ad cannot be doing him any favors. And, to his credit, he seems as outraged as everybody else.
The ad came to our attention, as most things do, from the papers. It features two women talking about how they need to support French Hill for re-election to Congress, and the Republican Party in general, because if they don't, black men will be lynched. We infer from the conversation that it has something to do with the Brett Kavanaugh case, and how some Democrats, especially on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wouldn't give him the presumption of innocence.
"If the Democrats can do that to a white justice of the Supreme Court . . . ."
We can't go on. Or won't. To quote the ad, at length, in this space would get close to validating it. Suffice it to say that those putting together the radio spot don't know enough to distinguish between a justice of the United States Supreme Court and somebody nominated to it. But the ad made it clear that if a white woman and the Democrats can get close to taking down such an important white man, then imagine what the Democrats could do to a black man.
We're left speechless. Almost.
Apparently the ad was commissioned and paid for by some outfit called Black Americans for the President's Agenda, which might have done a lot of damage to the president's agenda. Apparently, central Arkansas isn't the only place where radio spots similar to this one are running. So the effort is a national disgrace.
If one were the type to believe in conspiracies, you might think the radio ads were paid for by French Hill's enemies. The better to tarnish him. But no, other reports show Black Americans for the President's Agenda really is a political action committee on the starboard side of politics, but how black its donors are remains to be seen.
The best thing said about the whole matter might have come from French Hill himself: "I condemn this outrageous ad in the strongest terms. There's no place in Arkansas for this nonsense."
He's right. But that doesn't mean there won't be more of this nonsense in the next couple of weeks. Nov. 6 can't get here soon enough.
Editorial on 10/20/2018