At the risk of shredding my creds as an independent, moderate, and newly senior, citizen, I offer for your reading pleasure a snippet from Mike Taibbi's column on Sarah Palin in the October 2nd issue of Rolling Stone Magazine. (Yeah, I know, to some it's a liberal/left leaning glossy that panders to hormone afflicted adolescents like me. So, get some guts and read the article. I don't necessarily accept everything in it but I feel like I learned something.)
The column is preceded by a cartoon caricature of Presidential candidate John McCain holding a leashed pit bull with the face of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In his other hand, Senator McCain is holding a tube of lipstick (you know,"the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull",etc.) By the way, the caricatures in RS are the best. I quote from the column:
"Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more that that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV--and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be (expletive deleted) by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation."
Why this commentary? Because I am pissed beyond comprehension that any political organization would arrogantly and negligently subject US to the possibility of a President Palin. (Whatever happened to putting the country first?) Because I am concerned that too many members of the media ("she's rallying the base"???--what's that about?), and too many of us, are failing to express appropriate outrage over this orchestrated ascendancy of one so obviously unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the leadership of the free world. Many would seem to disagree, so be worried. She is consistently drawing 15,000 to 20,000 people to her rallies--check them out to see if you are learning anything. (You can fool most of the people most of the time?)
We all need to take the mask off this young lady and take a good hard look at who she is, what she really represents. You have to ask yourself: if Sarah Palin was Samuel Palin, would anybody even talk to or about him? More importantly, if Sarah becomes President Palin, what would she do? And, that is the really scary part. At a time when we need to come together nationally and internationally, we get a pit bull instead of a problem solver. Regardless of your political persuasion (I am a recovering Republican in search of that party's lost principles and values--you know, the ones that I am told existed when Honest Abe was President) this is madness. We should expect more from our elected representatives and more from ourselves. Because of who is manipulating her and because of her obvious willingness to embrace the attention as well as the manipulation, and because the manipulators and the manipulatee have a plan for her to eventually be President Palin, she represents the most frightening political personality of my lifetime, which includes Barry Goldwater, may he rest in peace.
Read the article. If you see anything in the article that is untrue, let me know. Really. Unlike Ms. Palin, I like to read, I like to learn, and I welcome opposing viewpoints.
Dad/Chip
The column is preceded by a cartoon caricature of Presidential candidate John McCain holding a leashed pit bull with the face of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In his other hand, Senator McCain is holding a tube of lipstick (you know,"the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull",etc.) By the way, the caricatures in RS are the best. I quote from the column:"Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more that that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV--and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be (expletive deleted) by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation."
Why this commentary? Because I am pissed beyond comprehension that any political organization would arrogantly and negligently subject US to the possibility of a President Palin. (Whatever happened to putting the country first?) Because I am concerned that too many members of the media ("she's rallying the base"???--what's that about?), and too many of us, are failing to express appropriate outrage over this orchestrated ascendancy of one so obviously unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the leadership of the free world. Many would seem to disagree, so be worried. She is consistently drawing 15,000 to 20,000 people to her rallies--check them out to see if you are learning anything. (You can fool most of the people most of the time?)
We all need to take the mask off this young lady and take a good hard look at who she is, what she really represents. You have to ask yourself: if Sarah Palin was Samuel Palin, would anybody even talk to or about him? More importantly, if Sarah becomes President Palin, what would she do? And, that is the really scary part. At a time when we need to come together nationally and internationally, we get a pit bull instead of a problem solver. Regardless of your political persuasion (I am a recovering Republican in search of that party's lost principles and values--you know, the ones that I am told existed when Honest Abe was President) this is madness. We should expect more from our elected representatives and more from ourselves. Because of who is manipulating her and because of her obvious willingness to embrace the attention as well as the manipulation, and because the manipulators and the manipulatee have a plan for her to eventually be President Palin, she represents the most frightening political personality of my lifetime, which includes Barry Goldwater, may he rest in peace.
Read the article. If you see anything in the article that is untrue, let me know. Really. Unlike Ms. Palin, I like to read, I like to learn, and I welcome opposing viewpoints.
Dad/Chip
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