'Daisy Girl' is Still Counting: A Push for START Ratification

As someone who watched Lyndon Johnson's 1964 original "Daisy Girl" campaign ad in her high school history class, the reappearance of this motif in the American Values Network newly produced commercial is a jarring reminder that history repeats itself.

The ad is an aggressive attempt to underscore the imperative need for the ratification of START (the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) during the Senate's post-election season. The treaty would require Russia and the United States to reduce their nuclear arsenals to no more than 1,550 strategic warheads each -- 30 percent below current restrictions. Daryl G. Kimball from Arms Control Now notes:

If the Senate fails to act on the treaty, it would block the re-establishment of an effective U.S.-Russian inspection and monitoring system, enable Russia to maintain a far larger strategic nuclear arsenal, undermine U.S. nonproliferation leadership, and jeopardize U.S.-Russian cooperation to contain Iran's nuclear program and improve nuclear materials security programs that are needed to prevent terrorists from acquiring the bomb.

Watch the ad here and take action today:

Hannah Lythe is a policy and outreach associate at Sojourners.

+Ask your senator to support passage of the New START -- the right step toward nuclear non-proliferation and a world that honors the dignity and human rights of all people.