By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: November 6, 2013 11:28 AM

Now that the 2013 election is over and we are happily, fully engaged in the 2014 election, it is time to pay our respects to the “Detroit Virginia” television ad that made such a splash in that commonwealth’s election.

Those not paying attention to the election results down in the capital of the Confederacy perhaps did not catch that Democrat Terry McAuliffe narrowly defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli for the governor’s race (though Mr. McAuliffe had held a very comfortable lead in the polls going into the election).

A conservative group called Fight for Tomorrow is claiming that it helped make the race tighter with a television ad that ran in the last week of the campaign which urged voters not to “Detroit Virginia” by electing Mr. McAuliffe.

The ad actually takes a swipe at much of U.S. geography, as it charged that Mr. McAuliffe, backed by President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and other “extreme liberals” were trying to bring “Chicago-style politics” to support an “ex-New Yorker” running in Virginia. California, Hollywood and Washington, D.C., were also mentioned and not in a positive light.

Besides surrendering to the absolutely annoying practice of verbifying a noun, the phrase “Detroit Virginia” was intended to imply that under Democratic rule, Virginia might go bankrupt.

“We won’t let you Detroit us with taxes and debt,” the ad said.

Since the phrase was quoted in at least one letter to the editor of a Virginia newspaper, and since the ad was played on a number of conservative radio shows, including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, it clearly had some resonance.

So while we may remember the ad in passing with the election, one should probably expect Detroit as a verb will be used for future political fodder. How nice.

Herewith, the ad: