Produce a critical interpretation of the geographies represented in a Dissertation

Produce a critical interpretation of the geographies represented in a selected advertisement, set of advertisements, or advertis - Dissertation Example A critical geography of the advertisements reveal that, underneath the moralistic overtones and admittedly positive social messages, there is insidious propaganda and micro-politicking at work designed to advance specific partisan agendas. Having the moral high ground is of unimaginable importance in politics. Being associated with values has been a major success for the Republican party in America: Democrats can win an advantage in the perceptions of being able to handle domestic and economic issues, but the Republicans are associated with a strong moral compass provided overwhelmingly by traditional Christian values. This itself is an immense propaganda success. First of all, as Gallup has pointed out, in fact Republicans and Democrats are often dead-even in public perceptions of their values, and certainly Republican scandals have not helped the party in securing a consistent values victory: The fact that it is a political bromide that Republicans won the values war shows itself h ow good the Republicans have been in terms of presenting a mystique of a values-based party (2006, p. 526-527). â€Å"For example, the persistent claim that President Bush’s re-election was the result of a â€Å"moral values† revolt by Christians has been seriously overblown. After all, Bush actually received more votes (and a higher percentage of votes) from those who said terrorism was the most important issue than he did from those who identified moral values as the key to their electoral behavior† (Wise, 2005). To be clear, then: The commodity these adverts try to sell is values. They try to get voters and Christian viewers to associate themselves with conservative channels, and they are part of a political campaign. Their analysis in terms of critical geography has to be like political advertisements, which are also carefully controlled to be disagreeable to as few people as possible within the selected geography or micro-geography while energizing the base sufficiently. These adverts play well in heartland Republican America, red states away from the coasts. America as a space, both outdoors and indoors, city and country, is represented as a place of uniform and unchanging values; a Christian nation with a strong bedrock of decency. Second, a fact that we will return to, it is simply not the case that evangelicals or people with religious values vote Republican: White evangelicals do. Black evangelicals and devout Latina/o Catholics, as well as Jews and Catholics in general, far more strongly trend Democratic. â€Å"The racial voting gap was especially pronounced among evangelical Christians. This isparticularly important, given the inane pronouncements about how evangelicals were responsible for Bush’s victory. Fact is, only white evangelicals elevate their provincial moral concerns above classical conceptions of self-interest. Black evangelicals — a sizable group to be sure — voted against Bush by margins of a t least four to one, despite often agreeing with conservatives on certain issues like abortion, gay rights or prayer in schools. But white evangelicals and â€Å"born again Christians† voted 78-21 for Bush, a huge increase from the 62 percent average received by the Republican candidate in the two previous Presidential contests† (Wise, 2005). In fact, the race gap is a far bigger gap in terms of predicting votes in American elections than the geographic, gender, and even class gap! Third: Democrats have