The GOP Ads Are Just Getting Embarrassing

It's an election year, which means we all have to put up with all sorts of unsavory ads, but this year those vitriolic attack ads aren't even the worst of it. The worst are the ads the GOP is using to try to appeal to young women, and their latest texting ad only continues that trend. Guys, just stop.

The new spot, which is aimed at getting people to vote Republican in the Wisconsin governor's race, is not quite as bad as their "dating game" ad or their "wedding dress" ad. Though, to be fair, there is nothing quite as bad as their wedding dress ad. It has been deservedly mocked all up and down the Internet. As was their "Republicans Are People" ad in which all the Republicans were stock photos. In fact, all of the GOP's attempts to appear youthful and diverse are worthy of critique

But hey, when your party consists mostly of old, straight, Christian, white men and you're not interested in actually changing that fact, it can be hard to seem like you're remotely relevant in the diverse country that is America in the 21st century. So they have to try something.

And the latest effort at "trying something" seems to be showing two female hands — both white, of course, and one with a wedding ring, the other with pink nail polish — talking about the texting habits of gubernatorial candidates. Because young people love texting. And if we put texting in an ad, that will make us seem like we understand young people. And if we put women's hands in our ads that will make it seem like we care about women. Or at least their hands. Or something.

Are we supposed to assume this is a metaphor or are we actually supposed to be outraged that a, presumably very busy, candidate for governor didn't get into an in depth text conversation with a random constituent in an obviously fictional story?

Add that to the fact that Mary Burke never supported tuition increases in the first place according to PoltiFact, and I'm beginning to think that maybe they just want us to get distracted by the shiny wedding ring one of the women is wearing. Which is actually, upon further inspection, on the wrong hand. Doesn't that mean she's a widow? Is this secretly a tragic story of a young woman who lost her first husband heartbreakingly young because of rampant fake tuition increases? Or did the costume department just screw up?

And hey, now I'm distracted by the shiny wedding ring!

But the fact remains that at this point the GOP ads are getting downright embarrassing. Get it together, people.