We're in Big Trouble
We're talking to ourselves.
And we're not saying anything that's going to help win this election.
Everyone who cares knows that Sara Palin is a born again, right wing Republican. That she's a right-to-life, anti-gay, anti-global-warming, book-banning kind of gal.
No one seems to care.
The package and not the content is what's attracting interest. How cute she is when she says it. How cute she is when she skins a caribou. How cute are those barely grown expectant children of hers.
My first instinct was to scream from the roof tops that no self respecting woman was going to fall for this McCain manipulation. But apparently, plenty have. Plenty share her views and the crowds and the TV ratings are growing. The same way they grow for American Idol and other reality shows. Seems like we would rather watch ourselves, however diminished, on TV and in the public eye than people watch people with actual skills and talents. Watching people just like ourselves eating bugs and falling into vats of peanut butter has become a favorite American past time. And apparently, we would rather have an ill informed, inexperienced leader than one with experience and education. Experience has been denigrated to the level of liberal as a word. It's to be laughed at and ridiculed. And a lot of people are buying it. And we're supposed to slink away, like the nerd in high school being attacked by the football player.
But this isn't high school and we're supposed to know better. We have got to take back these words and what they stand for. Leaders need to be chosen from the most talented among us, not from the bottom of the barrel. And we shouldn't be afraid to say so.
What kind of misplaced chivalry would keep the Democrats from calling Sarah Palin what she is? An ignorant, misinformed, inexperienced, bigoted fraud. And unless we find a way to do it, she will be running the country before we have time to turn around.
This will not be easy. I spent hours on the telephone to Ohio Democrats last presidential election. There was no way I was going to convince these working class Democrats that they were wrong to vote for Bush. Kerry scared them. And no manner of logic would turn it around. They voted against their own economic interests, against college for their kids, against their own medical care, against their first amendment rights. Why, because they had been told that Kerry was going to challenge their belief systems. He was "for abortion", "against the troops."
We're going to have to frame the argument in the same way. Who is Sarah Palin? A woman for sure. The package is nice, but the content is out of date and spoiled. If she gets anywhere near power we can expect global warming, the destruction of the constitution, the end of Choice, and books banned in our libraries. And we've got to make people understand this. And even if we can frame it this way, the question remains, are there many Americans who would care? Enough to sustain the constitution? Life as we know it?
I am terribly afraid that we are counting on good sense, and decency and it has gone the way of the ten cent subway ride. We are not thinking about each other. We are thinking about ourselves. Why else would we even consider a woman who tried to get her brother in law fired from his job for daring to divorce her sister. Who tried to get a local librarian to remove books she disapproved of from the library.
Politeness is not in order. We need to be scared. Terribly scared. We need to pull out all the stops. She's not going to self destruct in front of an audience who likes these things about her. Who abhors the clarity and thoughtfulness of Obama. There is no drama in it. There's drama in teenage pregnancy, political scandal and moose hunting.
McCain seems to have known just what he was doing. Now the question remains, do we?
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Part of the problem is constitutional. The president is our Head of State as well as our head of government. For head of government we need an inspirational, intelligent figure like Barack Obama. If you remember George W Bush portrayed himself as someone to have a beer with after the ballgame. Many people want their Head of State to be someone with whom they can associate and as they cannot associate with inspirational intelligent figures but they can associate with the Sarah Palins of this world he think he is wonderful. The fact that the Sarah Palins of this world are incapable of being head of government never crosses their minds.
Yours is a well-written article Ms. Foner. Reasoning and critical thinking are simply not in vogue these days. What is happening is almost impossible to rationalize. Right is wrong, up is down, in this current kaleidoscope of Alice (Sarah) in Wonderland; wonder, as in: I wonder how things got this topsy-turvy out of kilter.
Unfortunately, the reflection of Ms. Palin’s in the looking glass reflects the majority of the voters who prefer to wallow in the known problems resulting from the GOP’s control, rather than to venture out of that rabbit hole into a real world of opportunities of another, possibly improved, administration.
Good luck figuring out how to change the electorates’ minds to not vote against their own best interests and that of giving world peace a chance.
My first words after seeing & listening to Palin was that she was "scary". That's why Barack supporters HAVE to GET BUSY!! I urge you to go by your local Obama hdqtrs/Dem office, get a clipboard, go register voters, or get on the phones. We ONLY have THREE WEEKS left to register voters. We MUST have the numbers @ the polls! Go to Obama website, click on "Events" put in your zip code & find volunteer efforts going on in your neighborhood. If these Rethugs manage to "STEAL" this election, make sure you will be able to honestly say that you did ALL you could to help elect Barack Obama. Not just posting on blogs.
She is the VP
Maybe your losing the race because your actually trying to run for President. I am sure if Obama wants to be the VP the Republicans will gladly push Palin aside if it means a McCain presidency and Obama the VP
hey we will even throw in a new rug in that basement office he will occupy
LOOK here! I agree that Palin has been adding some ZIP to a really 'ZIPPERLESS' campaign. That ZIP was only added less than a week ago. Since then, through the weekend, the McCain/Palin roadshow was out, rehashing their convention speeches. There was NOTHING new said. I hear that McCain went over like a lead balloon with the AARP on Social Security.
"We" were running around tearing out our hair right before the Democratic Convention too. 'WHERE IS he?", we asked. "WHY doesn't HE respond to the McCain attacks?", we wondered. "Oh woe and lamentation-we're gonna lose", we CRIED. What happened? Obama got a SIX POINT bounce before the Convention was over. Then he got another 2 points AFTER his speech. Point is: We've had our ENERGY for nearly the last two years! McCain's only had his for the last three days. Guess what? THIS 'Adrenaline rush' isn't going to last. McCain/Palin are NOT going to be joined at the hip for the next two months. IF we are so concerned about how 'we're gonna lose' , Then let's just pack it up and go home. Fact: There are MORE 'community organizers' in the Obama campaign that can 'fire up' the REAL base to form a 'welcoming committee' for McCain OR Palin ANYWHERE they go in this COUNTRY! And guess what? HILLARY'S out there now TOO!
It's GOOD that the Dems are taking Palin seriously. It's BAD that we're putting on the sackcloth and ashes already!
** GOP storyline: The Handmaiden's Tale. Be afraid. Be very afraid. **
Have you ever read The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood? If not, buy a copy, read it, lend it to a friend to lend to a friend. This dytopian novel depicts what life would be like in a Palin-like America. A country controlled by dominionists.
If you don't know what a dominionist is, google it. Now! They are America's own xian Taliban. They're part of the military, FBI, local and state police . . . you're closer to the end of our Republic than you can imagine. Atwood has done the imagining for you.
The Obama pacs should buy The Handmaiden's Tale by the box load and hand copies to every media person they know. Palin is exactly the sort of gender traitor the GOproto-fascists need to create a xian Iran under xian imams, xian thugs, and their corporate overlords. It should scare all but the most devoted acolyte of ultra-right totalitarianism -- "wrapped in the flag, carrying the cross."
Get Palin linked directly as a nasty foretaste of xian dystopia, Gideon -- McCain is just along for the ride. Palin is the real and present danger.
bipolar2
Voters are dumb anyway....the whole "common sense" candidate idea we Democrats had going this year was too good to be true. Just hope McCain doesn't draft my teenage brothers for his war against Iran in a year or so
Until Americans really understand what our Executive Branch of Government has become -- after the Supreme Court (3rd Branch) appointed the last Chief Executive -- and chooses to get active in retaking our Democracy -- we have no right to dictate to other Nations and are rapidly on the path to banana republic status the rest of the world already believes we are on. The selection of Sara Palin, w/out scrutiny and a Constitutionally-protected PRESS refusing to provide critical analysis -- makes the case.
If we survive this debacle -- the MSM and financial industries KNOW they will be reregulated. Americans deserve better and ARE better. Our free press should never have been hijacked by a handful of strictly for-profit PR/corporate BARONS -- w/undisclosed agendas.
We ARE in big trouble, because the lifeblood of our Democracy and the Republic itself, as the Founding Fathers envisioned it -- has been debased by our MSM/Press and Financial institutions.
The news blackout, replaced by PR SPIN of Sarah Palin, is their second MASTERPIECE. Palin is elevated to star status w/out knowing WHO she is and all efforts to find out seem to be thwarted and accepted as normal by MSM.
Virtually no pushback by the Press, conflicts coming and going w/some parent cos. being actual war profiteers, etc. An elite crew of journalists more in the Barbara Walters mold -- spent more time elevating THEIR PROFILE and socializing in Manhattan with those they were supposed to cover -- became the norm. Instead of news, we had news STARS.
The Middle has been shifted to the right for profits, as the decision re MSNBC this weekend makes clear. The White House infects and affects news gathering and profits determine what we know -- or not. Rupert, who became an American Citizen for profits -- has fused w/Karl Rove's Republican strategies and is permitted to function w/out standards or criteria that the other networks cannot. Mark Penn/Burston just hired Karen Huges because he is well aware of how PR fuses w/MSM. No investigative journalism, here. No more Pentagon Papers. Bob Woodward only functions as a journalist -- for profitable publishing of books.
The MSM licenses spectrum from the American people. Those licenses come with CRITERIA, and standards which specifically require content distribution associated with Elections. Bush/Clinton/Bush deregulation of MSM loosened requirements -- and standards. Perversely, instead of increasing children's programming and more free election news, information and debate -- MSM has rearranged the tables to force Candidates into a MONEY RUSH which all goes to -- you guessed it -- MSM, for an advertising juggernaut.
Deregulation was largely driven by the Reagan/Bush/Clinton eras -- for both finance and MSM. We are now seeing the results. Rupert Murdoch, not even an American Citizen in the 1980s, applied for and received citizenship largely to allow OWNERSHIP in a multiplicity of municipalities and cross-ownership/control of t.v./print NEWS DISTRIBUTION, strictly limited by the re-regulation eras. Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC, Westinghouse/CBS were acquired by Viacom, Time Warner/CNN, General Electric/NBCU were all very profitable DEALS during the aforementioned eras. Various newspapers were snapped up as part of the INTENT to control NEWS FLOW and political discourse (a kind of mega-lobbying series of firms on steriods) for parent companies various agenda(s). No criticism of the parent cos. and promoting various business initiatives (PR) vertically and laterally -- among this elite CLUB of a few men -- repositioned and redefined our Constitutionally-protected Press Freedoms.
The Iraq War was their collective MASTERPIECE.
'For the past 10 days a war on censorship has been occurring in Wikipedia. The war to most goes unnoticed. If you lookup the Wikipedia article for Sarah Palin you will see a small gold lock in the right hand corner every other politician has a silver lock. This color of a lock to most means nothing but in reality it is a major issue'
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-80477
Any information source that can be edited anonymously no questions asked is not one I would place much confidence in - however - the attempts to suppress so much other information shows a disturbing pattern.
SArah Palin's best trait is she can baldface lie while looking into the camera. Democrats love to panic, but what they really must do is reinsert reality into the hype around Palin. After all McCain has no plans for anything that any middle class person with real problems faces. All this great leader crap, even his Sarah Palin choice shows a willingness to shoot from the hip and not get the facts. McCain has to be humanized to the core traits that make a good president, being a pain in the ass is not one of them, having a volcanic temperment is not one of them, and sucking up to the right to get nominated and to get elected shows a clear lack of integrity. I say Dems go out and say whats on peoples minds not the mamby pamby.
So Average Joe wants someone to "relate" to and the Repubs give them McCain and Palin. They want to think that their candidate is someone who could sit down and have a beer with them. All the while people yearn for a real leader. Where are the Lincoln's, the JFK's, or the MLK jr's of our time?
Guess what folks - you aren't going to get one if you continue to want someone to "relate to." Save thoughts of sharing a beer with Larry the Cable Guy and vote for a real leader with intelligence and vission. That would be Obama - not GI Joe or Alaskan wilderness Barbie.
I may not want a president who openly acts like he or she is better than me - but I do want one that actually IS better than me. Palin is not! In fact, I graduated Summa Cum Laude from WMU, was president of my high school Junior Achievement company, and live in Michigan, giving me foreign relation experience. That puts me pretty darn near close to Palin's credentials. Of course it's a joke! That's the point.
All of a sudden a sitting Gov. is not qualified to be VP! Since when? Most of our PRESIDENTS have were chosen from this pool. Gov. Palin was not educated in the east, is that the problem? This position exemplifies your elitist and arrogant attitude. Get over it. You would love her if she was a liberal.
We might love her if she embodied true feminism and liberal ideas like saving our environment, but I still wouldn't think she was ready for such an office. Your own guy, Karl Rove verbally belittled the idea of Gov. Tim Kaine as a potentail VP pick for Obama, saying he was totally unqualified. Why? Because he had only been Gov. for 3 years and mayor of the small city of Richmond (pop. 200,000). Palin doesn't even measure up to the GOP's own tests. And we are supposed to buy that 20 months of "executive" experience tops 14 years of legislative experience.
Just answer me this - how many years of leg. expierience would? Otherwise, reverse your tickit or throw out the "Obama's not ready to lead" crap once and for all.
You just hit the bull's eye. Absolutely the most constructive article I've seen in the post-Palin insurgence era. I wonder if Obama campaign has seen this. They should make it their mantra and follow it word for word.
PALIN IS WHAT EVER SHE NEEDS TO BE TO GET WHAT SHE WANTS !!!!!
DON'T BE FOOLED.
She left a town of 9,000 with $28, 000,000.00 in debts when she came to office there was NO DEBT.
Legal issues about building a huge project without even owning the land with LAWYERS still making money off the MESS.
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