Illinois Senate Ad Links Candidate To Shady People, Popular Stereotypes

No matter how much UNICO may be complaining, shady Italian-Americans have become the anti-culture of choice in our modern pop culture, largely thanks to MTV’s Jersey Shore. What was once considered an embarrassing, unmentionable stereotype– that of the “guido”– has been embraced for its entertainment value and, shockingly, its accuracy. Much like a stock Joe Pesci character, no one can legitimately hate Snooki. So why is the Illinois Republican party throwing nearly every Italian-American stereotype (and Rod Blagojevich!) at Greek-American Democratic senatorial candidate Alexi Giannoulias?

In the above ad, you will find the Illinois Republicans equating Giannoulias with a reality show star (Blagojevich), a shady character who became vaguely famous for a year for being a Republican campaign prop (Tony Rezko), and a goofy Italian “business owner” caricatured to oblivion with an ongoing Scrabble game in The Godfather font. The narrator sounds like he is serving 30 years in a New Jersey correctional facility for a combination of embezzlement, money laundering, extortion, and mail fraud. The ad is reminiscent of a Republican ad from the 2008 Missouri Congressional elections that inadvertently made Democratic candidate Kay Barnes’ “San Francisco Values” extremely appealing by explaining them over footage of a gay dance party and casino video game music. The shameless and inaccurate stereotyping would be offensive if it didn’t make Giannoulias so likable. Knowing nothing about this election before watching this ad, I feel compelled to support Giannoulias based solely on the fact that his only two friends seem to be the second greatest Elvis impersonator of our generation and a guy who goes by “Jaws.” After all, who better to replace holiday poet and mausoleum enthusiast Roland Burris than someone who “would make Tony Soprano proud”? That Senate seat gave us Barack Obama– it deserves a few years to goof off.

Chances are the people who gave us Blago, Burris, Rahm Emanuel, and a near-infinite cast of colorful characters would appreciate a candidate who the Republicans must necessarily defile on a moral basis, rather than attack on policy. While opponent Mark Steven Kirk is leading by six points according to the latest Rasmussen poll, Blagojevich is not even a major topic in the election to pick his successor, and reports are that, despite his abysmally low approval ratings while governor, he is still personally popular. Blagojevich has always maintained that his approval ratings were a reflection of national economic turmoil, not disapproval of his own personal performance. Tony Rezko was already proven to be a meme that doesn’t stick in 2008. And everyone loves bad Italian stereotypes now. If the Republicans do win, they won’t have this ad to thank.

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