Right-Wing Ad Tries To Frighten Minorities By Comparing Embryonic Stem Cell Research To Tuskegee Study
Right-Wing Ad Tries To Frighten Minorities By Comparing Embryonic Stem Cell Research To Tuskegee Study
Up for consideration in Michigan is Proposal 2, a measure to permit embryonic stem cell research. As the NIH has outlined, embryonic stem cells offer the most promise for medical breakthroughs. Currently, Michigan has some of the nation’s most restrictive stem cell laws. In its endorsement of Proposal 2, the Detroit News wrote:
Michigan has one of the leading stem cell research centers at the University of Michigan, but scientists there worry that the embryonic stem cell research ban will damage its ability to continue to recruit top researchers. Doug Engel, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the university and head of the department, notes that one of his colleagues, a top stem cell biologist, has already left the university for California because of Michigan’s current laws. [...]
Sean Morrison, who is head of the university’s Center for Stem Cell Biology, has often noted that under current law, it is legal in Michigan for fertility clinics to discard human embryos, but not to use them for medical research to try and help patients. That makes no sense.
Right-wing opponents of the measure have resorted to desperate, “shameless” fear-mongering. A new ad compares embryonic stem cell research to the Tuskegee study, which the Detroit Free Press calls “horribly offensive, race-baiting.” Watch the ad:
There is no comparison between embryonic stem cell research and the horrific Tuskegee study. In the early part of the 20th century, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) took 400 African-American men suffering from syphilis — most of them poor — and promised them “special free treatment.” However, for 40 years, PHS not only withheld treatment so that they could study the disease, but they prevented other agencies from helping them.
As the Free Press notes, the purpose of this comparison is solely “to frighten minority communities into voting against Prop 2 by drawing a false connection with past abuse.” This ad is similar to other dangerous right-wing comparisons, such as James Dobson likening embryonic stem cell research to Nazi experiments. Cure Michigan has more facts on Proposal 2 here.
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Waitaminute – so now they WANT black people to vote in Michigan? What was the point of all those foreclosures, then?
These Republicans need to make up their minds and come up with a coherent strategy already. Sheesh!
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 amFear-mongering, horribly offensive and race-baiting is what the republiscum do. They just can’t help themselves.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 amI’m always somewhat impressed (although appalled) at the GOP attempts to tie two totally unrelated things together for political gain, even though the two have about as much in common as postage stamps and porch swings.
What next — tying cap-and-trade systems for the fight against global warming to the Nazi holocaust to frighten Jewish voters?
I wouldn’t put it past them.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:50 ambut john mcclueless knows how to fix things, win things and save things…
all without specifics!
image that…. just trust us…. um nope!
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 amThe really sad thing is that there are those out there that will believe it.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 am“Not this time”. The people are up to the same old GOP crapola. The more scurrilous their lies and smears the more votes they lose.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:58 am“These Republicans need to make up their minds and come up with a coherent strategy already.”
Well, they’ve at least collectively decided on a “tactic”… They obviously feel that they can’t win on the issues so they’re all just going to lie. It’s gotten so ridiculous.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:58 amNew Orleans – in the months after “reopening” following Katrina, experienced a new kind of insidious hate and violence in parts of the city previously unmarred by such. I fear that when Sen. Obama wins – and he will – we will see more of that, in small towns and large cities through the US – the cowardly, under-cover-of-night agression that starts to go unreported for fear of reprisal.
The GOP have engendered such broad animosity toward anyone “other” – what’s the tipping point at which we push back, stand up and say, “No More”?
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:05 pmGod, it must stink at the bottom of the republican barrel.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:06 pmNovember 5 should be proclaimed “National Shower Day”.
wow
these guys are really sad
really really sad
“Hope Defeats Hate 2008″ – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfZxP3hOCcc
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm———————————————
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October 22nd, 2008 at 12:09 pmProposal 2 can be a better thing for everyone in the world but they are also running ads that say it will cost taxpayer money as in “Proposal 2 Costs Too Much”, although the P2 advocates are running a counter-ad with the statement “the Truth About Proposal 2″ that states that it will not at all. It’s nasty here with that one. Yes I will vote for it. Haven’t seen the Tuskegee ads yet.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:14 pmJames Dobson likening embryonic stem cell research to Nazi experiments.
No, let’s just compare Republicans to Nazis, that would be more accurate.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 pmRanting Tommy, I loved your Obama vid!!
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:16 pmAnd now you guys know what we’re up against just here in Michigan.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:19 pmThis is lower than I thought even the right wingers were capable of going. There is no bottom to thier immoral and borderline illegal capabilities.
These are truly the kind of people who would have worked in the gas chambers of the german concentration camps.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 pmFred Says:
These are truly the kind of people who would have worked in the gas chambers of the german concentration camps.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
______
Or the kind of people who would’ve helped fund the Nazis during their rise to power.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:47 pmhttp://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/31/troubling-flawed-dangerous-telling/
post #38
Yeah, I guess you can see why I misunderstood where you stand on things.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 pmJust when you believe they can’t go any lower, they come out with disgusting items such as this one. The Tuskegee Study was a horrible example of demented people. We must not forget programs like this and make sure they never happen again but to use it to oppose stem cell research is flat out wrong. The names of the ones doing this need to be plastered across the media (yeah, like that will happen!).
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pmmy apologies for post 18. I accidentally posted in the wrong thread. upright is trying to tell me that he that he isn’t a rightie. Funny, they are all bailing now.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:03 pmMore Racist Crap ~ courtesy of your Republican candidate for President of the United States of America.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:21 pmOk, I retract that, let me rephrase:
More Racist Crap, courtesy of your Republican Toads in Michigan.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:23 pm“Just think of them as teeny-tiny sixteen-celled airmen…”
Good God.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pmI wouldn’t mind religious fanatics nearly as much if they would just pay a little more attention to their own dogma. There is no mention of embryos in the New Testament. There is little or no mention of anything like abortion. That’s Old Testament stuff. And, if you want to go Old Testament, let’s not just pick and choose the most convenient passage. The New stuff is all about not judging unless your own house is in order.
And, the bible clearly states God’s opinion as to where life begins – it’s in Genesis, remember? Adam takes the first breath and is alive. There is no sign that Adam was “alive” before God allows his first breath.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 pmOne of the worse times in our history. I’d like to think African Americans are smarter now or at lease look up the information themselves. I was so proud of President Clinton when he stepped forward to apologize to those men who were still alive. Yes President Clinton also honored them and made the rest of their lives wonderful. Like Slavery we did things wrong but we should learn from those mistakes. President Clinton didn’t allow the fact that he didn’t do it stand in the way he stood up representing American and did the right thing. Today we have yet to hear any leader take responsiblity for the crimes done or the crash of the US Treasury.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 pm49erDem #25–Good one, it’s exactly what I use in my debates with bible thumpers and church nazis.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm