Perhaps it was in honor of the Halloween season that residents of Mississippi have been treated to a gay-baiting political advertisement from Republican Senator Roger Wicker.

Wicker, who is locked in a surprisingly close race with former governor Ronnie Musgrove, has resorted to the tried and true tactic of portraying his opponent as a terrifying “other” in a desperate attempt to pull out a win.

The ad in question tries its hardest to tie Musgrove to the Democratic Washington establishment and liberal social causes  — crazy causes like equality and privacy, the horror! The highlight comes when a group of Village People look-alikes show up to support Musgrove, representing the Human Rights Campaign, which they call “the largest gay rights group in the country.”

The gay cowboy smirks at the camera, hands over a briefcase, and does everything but shout “Boo!” at all the Mississippians Wicker hopes are now hiding their children in fear of the gay boogeyman.

One problem: Wicker’s claims are not true. Musgrove is a pro-life moderate who has never received a dollar from Friends of Hillary, NARAL, HRC, or any other group mentioned.

The gross inaccuracies and transparent scare tactics of the spot would be funny if the message behind them weren’t so concerning. Sen. Wicker has reached a point of desperation, and he’s demonstrated his willingness to resort to the culture war tactics of elections past to try and squeak out a win.

I can’t say I find that surprising.

We’re two weeks from an election we’ve spent two years anticipating, and it isn’t looking good for the Republican Party. (And yes, for all you superstitious types, I knocked on wood, crossed my fingers and spat after typing that.) Barack Obama has 259 electoral votes all but locked up, and another 27 from states that are strongly leaning blue.

Throw in a handful of toss-up states, and it’s a blowout.

Obama’s successes, combined with a progressive trend nationally, are putting traditionally red states in play and the jobs of incumbent Republicans in jeopardy.

We’re two weeks from the election, and, unsurprisingly, those incumbent Republicans (let’s call them “bitter”) are starting to rely (perhaps even “cling”) to the culture war scare tactics that have proven so effective in recent elections. Wicker’s ad is a prime example—he’s not going to win on issues of defense, or the economy, or government reform. Even in Mississippi, voters are turning to the Democratic Party to feel safe.

What Wicker can do is try to undermine that sense of security by rekindling the culture wars that have yet to take center stage in this election cycle. Taking a cue from Republican successes in the past few elections, Wicker is conjuring a gay boogeyman to underline a simple message: Americans hate the gays; my opponent loves the gays; Americans should hate my opponent.

(Substitute “abortion” or “atheism” in for “the gays,” by the way, and the formula has proven equally effective.)

Part of what makes Wicker’s ad seem so surprising is that it departs from the larger narrative of the current campaign cycle. With a few notable exceptions — Proposition 8 in California and Proposition 2 in Florida chief among them — culture war rhetoric has not been central to the debate.

Obviously, that hasn’t always been the case. Focusing on wedge social issues like choice and marriage equality worked extremely well for George Bush and his fellow Republicans in 2000 and 2004. Rovian politics forced our most divisive issues to the front of our political consciousness, until we arrived at a point where someone’s party affiliation could just as likely be based on their opinion on school prayer as on taxes.

But this election has been different. Until, that is, Republicans started to get desperate.

The Wicker ad has unfortunately not been unique in its attempt at reintroducing a culture war narrative, and such attempts are getting more blatant.

The Ohio Republican Party has embraced gay-baiting as part of its strategy for this cycle. Earlier this month, the state party sent out a mailer attacking Democratic House candidate Ray Pryor for supporting gay adoption.

Just last week, they sent out a piece in support of Republican candidate Michael Keenan, touting that his first priority in office would be to keep “marriage between a man and a woman.”

And then this past weekend, the true desperation of Republican candidates was revealed when Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin stated her strong support for a federal amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

I can’t help but notice a pattern, and wonder if Palin’s declaration was purposeful.

Out of all the failing Republican candidates in this country, no one is failing quite so spectacularly as the McCain/Palin ticket. Is it possible that Palin’s assertion was a last ditch effort to reenergize the social conservative base of the Republican Party? Was it Palin’s attempt at creating an October surprise?

Despite the resurgence of these tactics — tactics that seem designed to create a gay threat lurking just outside our political consciousness — I’m not particularly concerned about the outcome of this election on any level.

It is desperation, pure and simple, that is leading Republican candidates to try and rekindle the culture wars of election cycles past. And the reason they are feeling such desperation — the American people’s basic distrust of their ability to handle the critical issues facing our country at this crossroad — won’t go away just because they conjure up the threat of the gay boogeyman.

Jenna Lowenstein is a progressive activist and freelance writer who writes about LGBT issues and the intersections of politics and pop culture. She works at Media Matters for America, and lives in Washington, DC.