Yesterday, during some sporting event, Coca Cola aired an adorable* commercial celebrating America's diversity: And predictably, the Not Racist At All conservatives lost their collective shit. Not just random idiots on Twitter, or the commenters at Fox Nation; Allen West, Breitbart.com, and Right Wing News have all posted horrified reactions. And Fox's own Todd Starnes had a mini-meltdown on Twitter:
Couldn't make out that song they were singing. I only speak English.
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) February 3, 2014So was Coca-Cola saying America is beautiful because new immigrants don't learn to speak English?
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) February 3, 2014Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border. #americaisbeautiful
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) February 3, 2014Querido Coca Cola, ¿es políticamente incorrecto para cantar America the Beautiful en el idioma que fue escrito en? Por favor, Todd.
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) February 3, 2014The WH pulls an MSNBC -->RT @davidplouffe: Looking forward to RNC banning Coca-Cola products at 2016 Convention.
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) February 3, 2014The thing is, they just can't help it. The lesson here: when you don't do policy any more--when all you've got holding your coalition together is a collection of reactionary impulses--there is no keeping those impulses in check, even when strategic considerations would call for suppressing them.
Update: Glenn Beck gets in on the action.
Other Update: And at the other end of the spectrum, here's a perfectly valid liberal critique of the ad.
*It's perfectly legitimate to hate this ad, or any ad that tries to co-opt general feel-good sentiments for purely mercenary purposes, for its manipulative nature. But that's another conversation altogether.
