Political Exploitation

As primaries approach to select the Republican candidate that will run against President Obama in 2012, many key players vying for that position are doing everything they can to publicize their viewpoints. One of those players, Michelle Bachmann, hosted a book signing for her autobiography recently. It went as most booksignings go: Bachmann sat behind a table where fans and supporters could bring their book to be permenently marked by Bachmann's signature. However, one young boy present at the signing didn't recieve the same treatment that most other attendees did. Upon getting up to the table, greeted by a cheery hello from Bachmann, the boy said this: 

“My mom is gay and she doesn’t need fixing.”

Pretty powerful stuff for such a young child to say, or to even comprehend. Bachmann, taken aback, quickly shooed him away, as this was a pretty blatant attack on certain political and religious beliefs of hers.

A video, embedded below, was posted online capturing this moment. At first viewing, I was impressed with this boy’s bravery. It’s very intimidating, even for an adult, to go up to somebody and defy them. However, after watching the video a second time, I began to wonder how much of this was of the boy’s own accord and how much he was induced to approach her and say such a thing.

I believe the point was powerful, no matter whose head it may have actually been formulated in. But is it fair to exploit children for political aims? Probably not. Now, I don’t know for sure whether or not he was being exploited, but it is evident in the video that he had to be coaxed quite a bit to approach Bachmann in the first place, and it’s oh-so convienet that somebody’s camera caught this scene as it happened. Undoubtedly, this was planned, but by the boy or by his gay mothers? Or by somebody else entirely?

If the boy did not say this by his own motivation, is his message somehow degraded? Or does that not matter- is the point itself more important?

By: Rachel Blumenstein

(Photo by Cary Bass under a Creative Commons license)