Tag: Sarah Palin

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The Mouse Brings the Cheese

There is an interesting article here about why many poor, working-class Americans vote for the party whose policies are clearly against their own self-interest.  [Dead link– sorry.]

They vote for the party that fought the Iraq war to benefit the same companies that are now gouging them at the pumps. They vote for the party that weakens regulations that protect their health and safety. They vote for the party has steadfastly refused to shore up the one great government program that benefits them directly: social security.

I’m not sure I totally buy it but it made me realize that criticism’s about Palin’s lack of qualifications will only fall on deaf ears. To many of these voters, the idea that Palin has no experience or knowledge relevant to the job of president is a wonderful thing, because they don’t get what’s so complicated about “cleaning up Washington” of all those vaguely evil people who, for example, messed up this wonderful privatized health care system so that it actually is more expensive and less accessible than almost any other nation’s government-run systems. “I’ll be damned if I’ll vote for a health care system that makes me wait for treatments I could get right away if I actually had a decent insurance plan…”

Russians Unhappy with U.S. Involvement in Georgia

Georgia on my mind… how would the U.S. respond if Putin starting holding high-level meetings with Mexican officials to negotiate some kind of strategic alliance? Hmmm. Or if they tried again to put missiles in Cuba? Well, hell, let’s go for it. World War III– here we come.

Why do the Republicans always act as if the so-called Main Stream Media isn’t allowed to reach the conclusion that– especially this time around– is obvious to any rational person: Obama is the better candidate. The Republicans constantly howl that the media is “biased” because they know, in fact, that their outrage will frighten many journalists into giving them more favorable coverage.

What’s wrong with the media having an opinion about the issues they cover? The media are, compared to Joe Six Pack, relatively well-informed about the issues. Many of them have spent considerable time with the candidates. Why, oh why, shouldn’t they have a preference?

So it’s just possible– just possible– that Sarah Palin really is a lousy candidate.

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Brief Self-Serving Acknowledgement

Told you.

I wrote in an earlier rant on Dobson that if McCain ever shows any signs of making a competitive election of it, Dobson will find some flimsy excuse to let bygones be bygones and suck up to him.

Well, Sarah Palin’s nomination as VP gave him the opening that he needed. Not that he’s alone– the rest of the agents of intolerance are all lining up behind him, lips puckered…

McCain, desperate for any kind of help in an election year in which Americans have shown clear signs of wanting a change, caved in to the Christian right and held several meetings at which he suddenly expressed his craven admiration for the likes the John Hagee and Dobson, leading Phil Burress, an organizer in Ohio for religious groups, to announce that McCain had won him over because– wait for it– he couldn’t be “pressured” into changing his position.

At least, not the other position.

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Sarah Palin

The funny thing about John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for VP is how utterly, purely ideological it is. Imagine, for a moment, if you will, Dr. James Dobson announcing that, while he liked Ms. Palin, he couldn’t endorse her because there is nothing in her record or experience to indicate that she is ready for the most powerful job on the planet.

Imagine…

But that would require James Dobson to apply consistent standards to all politicians, regardless of party.

Surprise: though you might have read otherwise, the hard Republican right doesn’t care about competence at all. Not at all. The only thing that matters is ideological purity. Ms. Palin hates abortion, loves guns, and ready to open up any part of the country to those beautiful oil wells. Best of all, as a true Bush Republican, she just rustled up a $500 million subsidy for a Canadian pipeline company. Free enterprise? Taking a risk and then working hard so you can be rewarded for your initiative and hard work? Obviously, that’s just for schmucks. Real capitalists suck at the government teat and Governor Palin, like Bush, pardon the image, is more than happy to provide it.

Ms. Palin– she does accept the “Ms.” for some incomprehensible reason– is also in favor of abstinence-only sex education and we all know how well that works. Come to think of it, Ms. Palin appears to have intimate experience with the failures of that approach, but conservatives never let failure stand in the way of ideological purity and, besides, most of the Republican’s most militaristic leaders never served in the army, so I suppose we shouldn’t be shocked when its most passionate advocates of abstinence…. (Her oldest son, Track, was born April 20th, 1989. She eloped August 29th, 1988. Do the math.) But this is also consistent with Republican sexual morality: John McCain, Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Henry Hyde, and so and so on, all “fooled around”. This list, of course, doesn’t include the Republicans who didn’t get caught.

Is the essence of Republicanism to persuade others to not do what you did?

The other thing is this: Palin has five children, including a child with Down syndrome who is less than a year old. But she clearly and willingly represents a constituency that thinks young mothers should be at home with their children. This is not a job in the secretarial pool. Would they mind if she was paid less than male vice presidents? It’s like divorce and military service. The Republicans are bravely and conspicuously hypocritical. She will fight to deny other women the right to enjoy the benefits of fifty years of feminist activism.

To her credit, she did not seek an abortion for her fifth child though she knew he had Down syndrome. Bravo. But statistics show that over 90% of parents who receive that diagnosis– regardless of political philosophy– do opt for an abortion. That means another fair chunk of the right wing constituency says do as I say, not as I do, but not Palin.  Fair enough.

 

Watching Jon Stewart the other day, something struck me… his sarcasm can be a bit relentless and sometimes seems to fill in for analyses — the best satire is really witty analysis– but think for a moment about the one thing even Jon Stewart dare not mock— that’s right: the sponsors.

Are these people crazy? Irving Kristol appears to have met the good witch of the west. Does any single rational person doubt that if Obama had picked someone of Palin’s experience and qualifications for VP, Irving Kristol would be leading the charge against?