Conscious Choice: Stay Out of Iraq, Mr. Bush, or You'll Get Spanked

November 2002

Stay Out of Iraq, Mr. Bush, or You'll Get Spanked

by Philip Sorenson

Editor’s note: since this article originally appeared, the web site referred to (spankbush.com) is no longer the site described herein. It is now a sexually explicit site that has nothing to do with George W. Bush.

A new Web site debuted last month that lets you spank the president. That’s right, spank him. His pants are around his ankles, and as you paddle away, he pleads for mercy.

True Majority, an online progressive advocacy group (www.truemajority.org), operates the Web site and hopes that it will be useful in recruiting more members. This past September, True Majority, which was founded by Ben Cohen (of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream fame), staged a rally here in Chicago to protest the Bush administration’s call for military intervention in Iraq.

This, like many of True Majority’s rallies, blended elements of farce with high seriousness. Activists donned pig noses, and "snorted" at the Bush administration. Hybrid electric and natural gas cars, that were under lit with neon, spouting bubbles, and decorated as pigs or adorned with seven-foot tall trees, paraded through the streets. All the while, the "True Crew" passed out fortune cookies containing messages about military budgets, and the environment to the crowd. SpankBush.com follows this same formula, handling real issues with a light touch.

The idea for this Web site came from Jason Salzman, author of Making the News, which details different ways that non-profit organizations can improve their public relations techniques. Salzman, who has been a member of True Majority since the beginning, had heard of Web sites that provided visitors with the opportunity to vent frustrations by "bombing" the White House. He liked the concept, but didn’t like the over-the-top violence.

"The biggest problem that we face is getting people to participate in the political process," Salzman said. "SpankBush won’t bring about any systemic change, that can only come through pressures on all kinds of levels over a long period of time. But, we feel that this sort of thing, humorous, pop-cultural expressions of political beliefs, are important, because they may attract people, and get them involved."

If nothing else SpankBush.com is humorous. Visitors to the site are offered three possible implements that they may use to spank the president, including a fish, a hand, and of course, a paddle. After an object has been chosen the visitor is prompted to select a reason for the spanking, ranging from the president’s environmental record, and corporate welfare, to the looming conflict with Iraq.

Then the spanking begins.

When the spanking is over (you decide when it is over) the image of Bush’s reddened backside, and the reasons for the punishment are e-mailed to the White House. Whether the president will ever receive the message is questionable, but Salzman says, this doesn’t matter. What matters is creating opportunities for individuals to get involved, even in silly ways.

The silliness, he says, decreases the level of hostility that most people feel toward the political process. It makes getting involved fun, not laborious. "This site has great P.R. value. It’s a way to show our opposition without having to go to a rally or write a letter, which most people have a really adverse reaction to."

Yet what about the people who agree with the ideas but have an "adverse reaction" to this site’s sense of humor? What about the people who find it offensive? Some definitely will, according to Andrew Greenblatt, one of the True Majority principals. "This site will turn some people off, but I think that it will seek out the people who will really appreciate it."

Greenblatt compares SpankBush.com to the voter guides that are regularly handed out by the Christian Coalition in churches around the country. The site, he says, is a way for people with a common set of beliefs to be united, even if in a virtual way, by an event and an agenda.

Moreover, Greenblatt believes the site has great potential for effecting change. "Fifty million people agree with our core set of values," he says. "If you get one percent of those people involved you’re already looking at 500,000 people. If you get 10 percent you’re looking at five million. With those kinds of numbers, you can have a real impact in Washington."

While the site focuses mostly on Iraq right now, its content is open for revision, depending on what issues involving the president seem most pressing at any given time in the future.

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