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\u201cWhy should the devil have all the best tunes?\u201d asked General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, in explaining his organisation\u2019s use in the late-19th century of popular music to popularise its Christian mission. Not that I am in any way comparing Peter Dutton to Beelzebub, but this pearl of wisdom came to mind when the Yes campaign unveiled John Farnham\u2019s iconic power ballad You\u2019re the Voice<\/em>, which it hopes will drown out the chorus of negativity that has dominated so much of the referendum campaign.<\/p>\n The newly unveiled advertisement, for which it provides the stirring sound-bed, features history on fast-forward. The 1967 referendum, supported by almost 91 per cent of the Australian people. The Mabo decision. Cathy Freeman\u2019s \u201c400 metres of reconciliation\u201d. Kevin Rudd\u2019s national apology to the stolen generations, a day of solemn atonement that was so joyfully received. Spliced into the video are other high points of the national story, carefully curated to give it broad cross-party appeal. There\u2019s prime minister John Howard\u2019s gun reforms in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre, and victory for Australia II in the 1983 America\u2019s Cup.<\/p>\n Broadcast through television sets that are upgraded over time, the ad shows all this history being watched from the sofa of a suburban lounge room \u2013 the spiritual home of post-war Australia \u2013 by a family that we see mature and multiply as the decades unfold. In a country often resistant to reform \u2013 as the national stockpile of failed referendums can attest \u2013 the aim presumably is to show that change is not just possible for First Nations peoples but ultimately historically inevitable. The ad invites us to get on the right side of history by voting yes.<\/p>\n Usually, of course, this is a genre famed for its cynicism and negativity. Perhaps the most infamous ad was aired in 1964, when the Lyndon Johnson campaign sought to highlight the extremism of the Republican presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, by portraying a young girl plucking the petals off a daisy while a mission-control-style countdown continued ominously in the background which ended in an atomic explosion.<\/p>\n Here, though, the positivity of the Yes campaign recalls the upbeat framing of Ronald Reagan\u2019s celebrated \u201cMorning in America\u201d ad, which crystallised perfectly the country\u2019s newfound optimism in the mid-80s after the long national nightmare of Vietnam, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis. Climaxing with a smiling tableau of Americans peering skyward, as the Stars and Stripes was run up a flagpole, it looked like a Norman Rockwell painting and felt like a Frank Capra movie. So hard did it pluck at the patriotic heartstrings that it was said to have reduced members of Reagan\u2019s Secret Service detail to tears.<\/p>\n What makes the Voice advertisement so politically compelling is its harnessing of nostalgic nationalism. Over the past decade, this kind of sentimentalism has been the great cudgel of the right. Donald Trump demonstrated its vote-winning effectiveness in 2016 with his \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d slogan. So, too, did the Brexit campaign, with its promise of the restoration of British greatness. The Voice ad, by contrast, is a statement of progressive patriotism. It counters the notion that the Yes campaign is driven by a loathing of Australia and feelings of elite white guilt. Voting yes, it suggests, is an expression of national pride. \u201cMorning in Australia\u201d rather than \u201cMourning in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n Enlisting Farnham as a balladeer is obviously a great boon. Already a darling of the masses, his recent battle with cancer makes him even more of an Aussie battler. And You\u2019re the Voice<\/em> is hardly some aria of the inner-city elites. It is the anthem of Middle Australia. It takes a brave politician to take on Farnham. Even Trump has been reluctant to attack Bruce Springsteen.<\/p>\n By seizing on the lyrics of the song, Dutton thinks the Yes Campaign has scored an own goal. The line \u201cYou\u2019re the Voice, try to understand it\u201d highlights, he reckons, the lack of specificity. But every time the No camp resorts to its go-to slogan, \u201cIf you don\u2019t know, vote no\u201d, it also seems to be endorsing political illiteracy and giving voters a pass for not learning more.<\/p>\n