Yes and no. Personally, I do not hate Sarah Palin, but she does inspire strong negative emotions.
For good or for ill, almost everything in this country is democratized. We have a democracy of taste, of quality, of aesthetic, of everything. In theory, the ideas and people with the most merit will inspire us. Naturally this is not always the case. Much of the time, though, the aspirations of millions of average people can result in some great people and great ideas.
Sarah Palin represents the worst breakdown of this process that I can recall in my short life. She is not evil, she is not stupid, she is not the embodiment of everthing that is wrong with America. She is ordinary in almost every way. Yet somehow our great marketplace of free enterprise and meritocracy nearly vaulted her to the vice presidency. Her very fame and potential challenge my basic belief that reason conquers all, and that when challenged, democracy produces aspirational outcomes.
I know these breakdowns are nothing new. We have elected some real no-talent assclowns to high office before. Palin inspires me the way she does because rather than read about in a book, I have witnessed the collective madness and I had a real stake in the outcome.
Yeah, I disagree with your stereotypical assertion about conservatives. Conspiratorialism IME is pretty much evenly balanced.
Sure but I think he’s also making fun of the haughtiness of liberals. That’s the brilliance of Stephen Colbert, he can spray everyone with scattershot and still have people laughing with him.
Sure, I just think that the bias cuts both ways, both sides have tools that they support as a result of identity rather than merit.
I have to agree that this is a pretty lame pitting. She’s the Governor of the 47th most populous state in the US. Is she really all that important to you or the country right now? Your guy won!! He’ll be in office in five days for God’s sake.
She tried to defend her family in the press! What a complete bitch she much be! Next thing you know she’ll be feeding her children!!
I know she was the Veep candidate. But she lost, and she won’t ever sniff the Presidency again. You know it, we all know it. Isn’t it enough that your guys won?
Well, more monopartisan than bipartisan (though she certainly has her detractors on the right).
What amazes me is that there are still a number of conservatives who look upon her as a bright new promising face for the GOP’s political future. That’s probably a reason (apart from sheer fun) for the continuing commentary on her lapses. You want to make sure that someone who makes Dan Quayle look like Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius doesn’t resurface at some point and make a run for higher office.
We can ony imagine the snark and guffawing that would’ve ensued from the Right, had the Democrats been dumb enough to name someone like Palin to the veep slot on their ticket.
I think she’s hawt. She could hunt my moose, drive my snowmobile or fly my helicopter any time she wants, ifyaknowwhudI’msayin.
Yeah, the democratization thing is kind of irritating. People don’t give enough thought as to where to draw the limits of their scope of involvement.
She lost didn’t she?
Sure, understandable, she’s a great character. That was why I made my joke about what she represents after posting that quote from, ‘La Societe du Spectacle’. So much of our lives are reduced to the process of competing brands, where it is more about the brand than anything else. So Sarah Palin as signifier of the spectacle is more what I was getting at. What’s sort of funny about it is that her fame continues mainly due to her detractors continuing to feed the Troll. The RO displayed here will precisely give her more Gravitas in the future.
"How about a bizarre contra-historical thought exercise: How would Palin have been treated if she’d ended up as Barack Obama’s running mate? Palin says, “I think they would have loved me as a candidate … we would have seen an absolutely different and a … much prettier profile of Sarah Palin and the Palin family and my administration.”
Obvously. But that does not change my feelings about her. I am just deeply relieved that she did lose.
No, she is not a great character. She is mediocrity in every way. That is why this is not such a good spectacle. Wacky politicians can be good spectacle, but Palin is all too serious. Mike Huckabee, Dennis Kucinich, and of course Ron Paul are all characters. Palin is barely an entity at all.
Nonentities appear on the headlines of newspapers all the time. Our society would probably be better off if we never discussed them all. But that’s democracy for you.
…a philosophy which almost immediately and in tragi-comic fashion, crumbled into dust. If you think “RBC” is anything other than a mocking of these idiots, well… it doesn’t say much about your own thinking skills.
That’s your opinion. Democracy in action. Just like people who think they live in the reality-based community have self-affirming opinions. Quel surprise.
