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 than 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 jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.
"It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag"
A fine rant by Matt Taibbi:
Tags: big brother, doomed
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41 Responses:
This country is on the razor's edge of getting exactly what it deserves.
Buckle your seatbelts.
Your first choice of metaphor concerns me much more than your second.
What? We've gotten exactly what we deserved for the last 8 years: the worst President in US history, 3 extra trillion dollars debt (now approaching 10 trillion debt!), concentration of wealth, decrease of real wages for everyone below the 95 percentile of wealth, the world hates us, highest gas prices on record (even adjusting for inflation), corruption scandals of a degree not seen since the 20s, civil liberties quickly going down the shithole - I could easily go on.
People keep comparing the situation of the US to the long slow decline of the Roman Empire. Well, the Celts just sacked Rome. Woe to the conquered.
Exactly. And if a plurality of the electorate willingly chooses eight to twelve years of the same, the idea of America itself will finally become a completely indefensible concept.
If we (and in a democracy there is only we) elect a doddering, lying, ogliarch-by-marriage who selected a right-wing, fundamentalist, crypto-soccer-fascist as a gesture to appease the conservative Right that he claims to rail against, then there are truly no escuses for us, and we will be truly doomed.
Thing of the current situation, exacerbated by twelve more years of denial, greed, and hypocrisy.
Imagine another twelve years of expanding war.
Imagine the return of the USSR, and a resurgence of the Cold War, with Vladimir Putin at the helm.
Imagine a Great Depression without an FDR, without a New Deal, without a solution..
Imagine President Palin.
If we choose this, if we allow this, then it's exactly what we deserve.
Don't forget Peak Oil!
And a meter of sea rise!
Your search - crypto-soccer-fascist - did not match any documents.
I can't be the first to describe the concept.
Give Google's bots a couple of days; Years from now, they'll say the phrase was born on JWZ's blog.
I take it the figure of 12 years is based on the expectation that McCain won't make it 8 years on his own?
Is there a reason 911 isn't on your list of things America deserved?
Yes. Because it was a warning that we heeded in exactly the wrong way.
"But it was hard not to recognize the genius of wedding that faltering brand of institutionalized greed to the image of the suburban American supermom."
Exactly what I thought when they announced her. I knew she was an idiot, but I also knew about the vetting process and that she certainly couldn't be -that- dumb. This was a skillful chess move.
A perfect chess move, no doubt.
And I'm surprised no one yet made a comment about getting jacked off by Palin, an how they'd gladly give up their liberty for such an incentive.
-bZj
Folsom was this weekend. Right now for everyone in some parts of San Francisco, the term "jacked off" brings to mind a heaving sweaty sea of oily flaccid bouncing cock.
Give it a week, try again.
no, i think that's exactly what he meant.
I'm genuinely disturbed by how sexualized the criticism of Palin inevitably seems to become.
I loathe her for her politics, her corruption, and her inexperience.
But I haven't seen much criticism of her that doesn't pivot on a sexualization of her, or as a thinly veiled contempt for her gender.
Disquieting.
There's plenty to dislike about her without some stuff which makes you wonder exactly how enlightened some of what we laughingly refer to as progressive or liberal Americans actually are.
Exactly. A lot of what I hear is along the lines of:
"Well, she accepted the nomination, she's asking for it.
Unilaterally, the comments written by left-wing females that I've read regarding Sarah Palin are valid analyses of her gender's role in the election. and the wide margin of them have seemed offended that the conservatives were chauvanistic enough to assume that Demo women were that easily manipulated.
But the majority of the left-wing male commentators seem to have the same sexist hostility and a need to denigrate (not Mrs. Palin, but her gender) as the conservatives that they criticize for that precise reason.
I mean, I've read male posters, liberal as all hell, and at least moderately intelligent call her (with no irony, and obviously intending the literal definitions) a 'slut and a whore';
Hypocrisy is ugly.
The reason for the sexualization is that Palin's selection seems to hinge in part on her "cute factor." The moment McCain (or his handlers) chose Caribou Barbie for his running mate, I recognized that it was to give the campaign some literal sex appeal, which also helps inoculate against voter defections, because the same men who wouldn't vote for Hilary because she's threatening will vote for a ticket which includes Palin because she's, y'know, cute.
I haven't read/heard anything which expresses a thinly-veiled contempt for her gender, just about how putting her in office would set gender politics back 50 years or so.
Really, the most shocking thing about it is that no once can verify that she was vetted at all. In fact, every attempt to ascertain that she was has failed. For example, when independent journalists visited the archives of her hometown newspaper, which has no online archives, to do research on her after the nomination they were told that they were the first to come asking for them.
It's ridiculous that to think anyone with two years experience in government would be ready.
Clearly you need *four*.
Or maybe four years of federal government experience, plus six years of state experience, plus twelve years teaching constitutional law, plus a degree in political science, plus a law degree qualifies you more than two years of state government experience, plus six years of small-town government experience, plus a bachelors degree in communications.
But what's his armor class?
Fuck that. What's his saving throw against institutional, societally-ingrained racism?
his 'ground game' is an unprecedented thing, and that's what will very possibly get him 2 terms, not just one.
Amen. We can certainly hope so.
Twelve years of teaching constitutional law and then promoting ideas that fly in the face of the constitution?
That has fail written all over it...
Either you have a concrete example or you're a Libertarian whackjob that thinks that being crosseyed is unconstitutional.
I'm interested in the former. Unless it's about gun control.
"Unless it's about gun control"
lol, but in a sad way.
...said the pundit, on his blog.
Oh please. It's not a fine rant at all; it's just a bunch of meaningless hyperbole. I'm surprised there's no comparison to Hitler in there.
Here's my rant: She's not an idiot; she's just not fucking qualified. McCain is a dumbass for picking her, and it shows that senile dementia is already setting in. And while she may not be an idiot, it's clear the world in her mind was no bigger than the Alaskan boundary until a few weeks ago.
Republicans aren't going to vote for Obama; it's the 18 million Hillary voters McCain (or maybe just the Republican party leadership) thought he was going for. Typical sexist thinking, that women are basically interchangeable.
The Hillary vote wasn't the target of the Palin choice; it's worse than that.
Aside from larger matters of drumming up excitement for his campaign, McCain chose Palin to shore up votes from his own party. The guy has simply not been a Republican for the last decade; his winning the primary was a fluke, a mistake, and he was a fish out of water.
Whenever I read "X is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States." a little bit of my cries.
funny, i don't see much difference replacing her name in that rant with practically anyone other big political player's name.
let's organize something that puts a pitchfork in the hands of anyone willing to march on Washington, and then do it. ultimately, the pitchfork is the best symbol for getting across the fact that some of us are at the point that we are ready for revolution if that is what it takes to actually get some true change. imagine over a million people, all with pitchforks, marching in front of the white house, in front of the washington monument, et cetera... all peaceably of course.
Lack of specificity might make it a bad argument, but it doesn't make it a bad rant. I still think it's an entertainingly-written expression of anger. Who cares if it doesn't convince anyone. It amused me.
You know who also liked to rant?
you sure you responded to the right person, cuz i don't remember calling it a bad rant?
I would hope if anyone responds to me it is about the march of the pitchforks idea.
I'm into the pitchfork idea as long as it takes place at night torches are included in the mix. Might as well do it right.
haha, good addition... maybe burning or tar/feather some sort of effigy would suffice and quench your peasant's rage as well? =P
im serious though, i think its a good idea...maybe has holes in it at th emoment, but could be molded into an excellent idea by people who are experienced more in alternative protests and such....cuz honestly, normal protests are easily ignored and kinda useless in my opinion.
I'm pretty sure a mob carrying real, live actual pitchforks would meet with the teargas and tazers quite rapidly in this day and age. Possibly even if they were specifically toy pitchforks with the tines safety-orange.
But a mob carrying cardboard cutouts of pitchforks would make an appropriate metacommentary.
well, how bout those not willing to put much sacrifice on the line can carry fakes/toys/cardboard cut outs, and the rest of us will carry real ones! =P
and i'm not lookin for 'metacommentary', i'm lookin for results...thus the REAL pitchfork. of course, to be effective it would require a huge turnout, and since there are a lot of just doped up or 'hippy' types in the scene of those willing to organize and such that means most probably wouldn't follow through, or they'd pussy out somehow.
i'm not talking about 'impeach bush' or some bullshit thing like that either btw, i'm talking about change the sytem, not just 'change the figurehead of the system at the moment'