Sales tax ad calls Wichita conservatives communists; hilarity ensues | Opinion
Wichita Forward has caused quite the kerfuffle in recent days by launching an ad across local TV, implying that being against their plan for a 1% sales tax makes you a fellow traveler of the Communist Party.
Technically, the ad was accurate. The Communist Party of Kansas, a group with potentially dozens of members, has indeed come out against the sales tax increase to be voted on by Wichitans on March 3.
But the ad linking the Red Menace to the “vote no” campaign sparked outrage in Wichita’s conservative circles, where “taxation is theft” zealotry runs strong.
For example, KNSS radio host John Whitmer blasted the ad at length on his conservative talk show Sunday night, calling it “Cold War cosplay.”
“This ad campaign sounds like it’s being run by a guy who still thinks the Cuban Missile Crisis is breaking news,” he thundered. “It isn’t messaging, it’s Red Scare fan fiction.”
Whitmer’s show ran after several days of social media posts and comments by Wichita right-wingers, upset over being called communists.
I’ve read hundreds of comments on this subject and this one won the Internet: “The Kansas Communist Party has controlled the state for too long! Look what they did to Towne West!!!”
Ad pulled, Kansas Republicans should sue anyway
Feeling the backlash, Wichita Forward hastily withdrew the controversial ad, and issued a half-hearted, sort-of apology starting with: “We are aware of a video that was recently aired on broadcast television.”
They ought to be aware of it, given that they made the ad and then paid Wichita TV stations thousands of dollars to run it.
Conservative Republicans of Kansas have every right to be outraged. Like Marty Mork, a self-described freedom fighter and conservative Republican who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2004 and 2006; Wichita mayor, 2003, 2011 and 2019; and City Council, 2013.
“That’s the commercial I was talking about,” Mork wrote in a Facebook comment. “I’m glad to see they are taking it off. They should be sued for false advertisement or slander.”
Mork’s partially right. Wichita Forward ought to be sued — but for trademark infringement.
False accusations of communism are a mainstay of the Kansas Republican playbook and have been for years (Whitmer by the way, is party chairman for Sedgwick County).
Conservative indignation over being called communists essentially boils down to this: “You can’t say that about us. Only we can say that about you.”
That, and how dare Wichita Forward use their own tactics against them?
‘Highly organized communist terrorism’
Point of fact, the Kansas Republican Party has been throwing the word “communist” around a lot lately to describe anyone who disagrees with them over anything.
They did it not once, but twice this past weekend, after the Wichita Forward ad kicked up a fuss.
On Saturday, the party shared a video on Facebook from right-wing provocateur Andy Ngo, captioned: “Communist, socialist and far-left protesters held another anti-ICE, anti-American direct action march. They were joined by Democrats.”
The original source video showed thousands of ordinary and orderly New Yorkers marching, but Ngo cut it down to two guys amid the throng carrying a banner for something called the “Maoist Communist Union.”
The Kansas GOP embellished the lie with this: “When Democrats show you who they are and what they support, believe them. It doesn’t matter if they’re in NYC or Kansas.”
A day later, the party was at it again, following the fatal and extremely questionable shooting of a Veterans Administration nurse by immigration agents in Minnesota. On Sunday, the Kansas GOP called protests by Minneapolis residents against the ongoing occupation of their city “highly organized communist terrorism.”
Back to the Whitmer show, he had this to say: “fatal flaw here was assuming modern voters are stupid, I mean, really stupid, that we would fall for this by branding every skeptical taxpayer a communist.”
To be clear, he wasn’t talking about his own party’s Facebook account.
He was talking about Ben Davis, a fellow ultra-conservative Republican, campaign consultant for hire and the mastermind behind Wichita Forward’s campaign.
“You don’t build coalitions by insulting people,” Whitmer said. “You don’t win votes by bullying . . . by calling Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and independents communists.”
Twenty minutes later, he called me a communist.
I can’t help but laugh.
