Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Sarah Palin as The Evil Gidget

A scorching rip into the Palin selection as V.P. and her splashy arrival onto the political scene is presented by writer Matt Taibbi and wreaks a verbal apocalypse on her and on American politics. Referring to her Big Moment at the GOP convention, Tiaabi writes:

"It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag."

Here's another shot:

"
She totally reminds me of my cousin!" the delegate screeched. "She's a real woman! The real thing!"

I stared at her open-mouthed. In that moment, the rank cynicism of the whole sorry deal was laid bare. Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed middle-American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin' Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning."


The full essay is here.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:59 PM

    Sure, he's right, of course. We ought to just let Rosie O'Donnell or George Clooney or Bruce Springsteen run the country like People Magazine say they can; go ahead and pay Barack the rest of our money in taxes and let them all set up a government run health care system so we can wait in line for the same kind of sorry ass service that we get from the airlines. Yeah, that would be better - Joe Biden and the E Street Band in charge.

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  2. Anonymous5:29 PM

    All three individuals you mention would make better VP candidates than Palin. No doubt about it.
    All three are self-made millionaires, two devoted to interested in issues outside their own particular lives.
    In a perfect world, names of those who had vote to put Bush and Cheney in office would be getting their bills to pay off this mess we are in, while I live in peace knowing that I am not having to pay off your mistakes with my equally hard earned income.
    Palin is the darling of the Criminally Insane branch of the GOP, hand picked by the Oil/Defense interests who hope somehow McCain can be pushed aside and the country be managed from a couple of board rooms, with her as a sort of Dowager Presidentess.
    I dont particulary like paying taxe smyself. Tell me why I pay more taxes than my brohter who is a father of three. He work harder? He a better man cause he votes GOP and hates Pelosi? No, its a type of Socialism we no longer question but endorse in the name of some "greater good"
    But I sure as hell don't like parting with my earnings because the goverment has enabled special interests to manipulate markets and prices and appropriate the work of my life and call it freedom from government. Like say Gas and electricity prices.
    Your suggestion rates some merit: any of the three of the above would make better leaders that what the GOP is offering us.
    Thanks for the input.

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  3. Entitled "The Lies of Sarah Palin," the piece was so over-the-top with screaming left-wing excrement I was literally shaking my head in disbelief while wading through the article's demonizing slurs - and this is after 9 months of non-stop Democratic assassination politics in which nothing has been considered out of bounds.
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    Brukewilliams
    Social Media Marketing

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  4. Anonymous8:09 AM

    It just keeps getting funnier. Assassination is the right word in Palin's case. It has two references to Asses in it.

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  5. Anonymous8:32 AM

    I should have added that most conservatives and certainly what passes for the wise men of the GOP right now, Palin is considered a diaper load. I am not voting GOP this year, even though my basest desires wants McCain to win and give the fantasy based wing of the GOP what it deserves: to send their kids off to a war that McCain will start just to show people who is really running things.
    The GOP has some bright, capable women: Christine Todd Whitman to name one. I could have respected that choice. But what the GOP offered was a "true believer" who fit a media- myth template that Reagan perfected and they thought could be easily revived. Palin is an insult to women who deserve respect because of what they have contributed to the work of their party and country.
    The more I hear from the GOP the more it says they are mentally incompetent to set the direction for America. Political campaigns require a suspension of disbelief on the voters part. It comes back to haunt you when the actual business of making decisions takes place.

    The article must have hit a nerve with you: it does sound like he was talking about you in general.

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  6. Gosh Joe, you really opened a great discourse on the subject. Personally I think Tina Fey should be slipped in as a substitute. Or even Sara Benincasa.
    Palin is the next 'Dubyah'.. the pawn & simple-minded puppet that the neocons would love to manipulate. I can see Rove running his hand up her back, as we speak.

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