The Politics of Distraction have proven very effective for the GOP yet again. It was sheer brilliance to use the Palin wannabe, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. She broke open immigration reform and, once again upset the proverbial apple cart this week. Check her out on national television complete with her pearls, hair and righteous indignation. Watch out! We might have Sarah Palin 2.0 right before our very eyes. Consider that maybe there is a secret GOP training program for Palin wannabes!
This is scary because Sarah really delivered. Remember she gave new life to the GOP with her little jiggle. She was merciless and successful. Against all odds, she as John McCain's 2008 running mate made her mark. Sarah, sweet Sarah, climbed over the bodies strewn along the road to fame and fortune by using her kids, her husband and even the man who brought her to the national spotlight. She became the Queen of Distraction, and delivered for the forces regardless of how inane she looked and sounded. None of that mattered because she achieved their goals: distract, incite, and feed anger and fear. People took to the streets and a populace movement of discontent was born under the guise of the Tea Party. Words did matter, and so did her jiggle. After all, everyone liked it. Women wanted to look like her, and men wanted a piece of it. The greatest of ironies is that with this new movement, the man who opened the door for her is now fighting for his political life. Guess John McCain fell victim to distraction by the age-old lore of jiggle!
So here we are, and it appears that the GOP went on their recruiting mission, and found Governor Brewer of Arizona. She was ripe for the picking after standing in the shadow of the all powerful and liberal former Governor Janet Napolitano - the only Dem in that whole cast of Arizona elected officials. Well Brewer was going to show them all when she ripped off the band aid on immigration reform. The stage was set because people were angry, folks were out of work, and the economy was still not great. So before the cameras, the Governor signed into law one of the most heinous pieces of civil rights state legislation under the guise of immigration reform.
Clearly she was offered a little bit of the grandeur, spotlight and promises for her next gig, ala the former Governor Sarah Palin. It was quite a performance standing before the cameras of the world doing her very best at conservative mumble jumble and outrage. But most importantly, it was very effective. It kicked off riots, lit a bonfire under immigration reform, and created a whirlwind news cycle. Overnight climate legislation fell off the Senate dockets. Oops, Senator Lindsey Graham the GOP traitor working on that legislation was thrown out in the cold with no safety net. Well that'll teach him to work with the likes of those Democrats. Score big again for the conservatives and the GOP strategists in the proverbial game of political basketball! Let's keep those folks off-kilter working on reform with the Politics of Distraction. Word doctor, Frank Luntz must have been burning the midnight oil to get this right. After all, who else do they have? And boy, oh boy, did he pick a winner. It was complete provoking fear, anger and outrage - a picnic for stirring up trouble.
But the BIG question is how the heck did we miss the signals? Why weren't we ready with our playbook? Do we have to keep on letting Frank eat our lunch, and our dinner too? We knew about Palin and the brilliance of her maneuvers. We knew that she had even pre-empted scary Anne Coulter. We knew that Arizona was ready to explode on immigration. So now we have Arizona bill S1070 that literally breaks the back of civil and human rights in this country. And I say we should have seen it coming. We knew better. Now are we going to wait for the next move from the Politics of Distraction, Dr. Word and the next Sarah 3.0? Or are we going to be ready?
Please see my pearltree below showing many of this article's references.