Culture Zohn: Pod Palin

Do you remember in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the best one, with Kevin McCarthy) when they open the trunk of the car and you get your first glimpse of the pods? And then when you actually see one oozing and growing in the closet overnight?

That's how I felt watching Sarah Palin. Tina Fey is her pod person and has taken over her body so completely that nobody can actually believe the winks and zany circumlocutions anymore, and there is no alternative but to laugh.

The problem is, it's not funny.

Palin stayed on script, the way Fey does when she's reading the teleprompter on SNL. There was not one thought or line original to her. Except maybe the doggone.

How is it possible that someone potentially president would have to be "handled" for every visit to the Hill (which by the way, the senators were none too happy to hear she would be taking over) or to meet with a delegation from Russia?

Did you hear how she says the word 'foreign' and really makes them sound like they, too, are from another planet?

But let us not separate style from substance.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist or even a high school biology teacher to tell that if John McCain and Sarah Palin were to be elected there would be further erosion of so many aspects of basic progress we've made in the last fifty years.

They postulate that a woman's body isn't her own, that her children need protection from terrorists but not from disease, that our courts would act as parental surrogates, dispensing home-style justice, that teaching evolution could be reality-optional, that librarians could be sacked for not being willing to remove certain books from shelves, that gays would risk being severed from their property, real and otherwise, that guns are the chic thing to model for our children, that defiling the environment with snowmobile racing is ok, that people in the north country like Alaska, are the real deal while those from the south, like Mexico, are somehow worth less.

We call these culture wars because they represent supposedly differing constituencies in our diverse society.

But they are really quite a bit more than that.

These attitudes are bred by fear and by religious belief, a toxic combination that in their ultimate iterations have produced things like the Inquisition.

In talking with people from the other side of the aisle, I haven't been able to make much progress, alas: they are reluctant to bash Palin overtly since they think she is helping the ticket.

It has put into ever harsher relief the gross, seemingly growing schism in our country, one where the right wing camp is withdrawing further and further into a bunker mentality, lobbing cultural grenades without really looking because they are afraid to stick their heads up to really see what is going on.

Kind of like Sarah Palin. Though she was told to look Biden in the eye and supposedly disarm him by calling him Joe, he was right back at her with great to meet you. In other words, here was a guy who'd been in government for thirty plus years who never had laid eyes on this woman.

Don't let them tell you this is a good thing, that regular joes can run the government as well as any professional.

Would you like to go to your doctor or lawyer and find Sarah Palin there instead?

What is going on is nothing less than incubating a pod person.

I'd rather have Tina!

Read more reactions to the Biden-Palin Vice Presidential debate from HuffPost bloggers

Comments

[desdemonadd]

In reading this column and the comments, I'm struck by how well it captures one of the major issues of our time--the conflation between political figures and media personalities. This is a phenomenon that started with Ronad Reagen. Zohn reminds us that we live in an image veil which obscures and distorts our sense of reality. A recent New Yorker cartoon shows two New York women walking in central park with one saying to the other, "I'm going to vote Republican just so Tina Fey will keep impersonality Sarah Palin." That says it all. Remember that Freud said there are no jokes in the unconscious!

[RealityBaseCamp]

After the debate, Andrea Mitchell was outside doing a standup report, and behind her was somebody with a TINA FEY 08 sign. Good people out there.

[darker]

I'll vote for Tina Fey.
But since she's not running, I'll really
VOTE FOR OBAMA-BIDEN!

[skippypicasso]

It's all so awful. Just watching those maver-icks Governor Winken' her buddy Senator Blinkin' make me sad for our country.

[TRYKER]

So we have Winken, Blinken and Pod?

Only the REPUBLICANS (emphasize always) could bring us disaster plan #2, to follow their disaster #1 with Bushco the Bloody.
That a-w-f-u-l party shows in far too many ways how they really HATE America, our once beloved country brought LOW by them.
Like Palin Person said last night, they are unapologetic! They are proud of what they did and plan to DO IT AGAIN!
Only SHE will be a more powerful VP than Cheney, she tells us.
What...the Pit Bull turned Fraidy Cat turned French Poodle turned Octopus? What?
Off with their heads if they steal THIS election too. Not again.
All in all though, it is beautiful, the whole unraveling of this miserable pitiful Republican party, the rich elite, the millionaires...those of many houses. We of so few.
We pay...they don't pay, that will have to change now.
This ridiculous excuse for a party declares these 2 weasels are the top of their ticket! Thats their very best.
They should rule us?
In the REAL world, we prefer intelligent, thoughtful, stable scholarly leaders...equal rights for all and an adherence to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
We prefers diplomacy to wars, we prefer an honorable nation to menacing the world.
The GOP is MIA.

[daddigrace]

This mininster makes the same case the Sarah Palin. Please check this out too. This is REALLY good!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al_y3g77ZsA

[PaulL2]

While attempting to explain the financial bailout, George W. looked and sounded like a pod person, too.

[MoMerz]

Thank you for coming out and being so honest. Watching this Palin Process has been like watching bad reality television. Seriously, "The Grooming of Sarah Palin" would make amazing reality tv. I am just waiting for Ashtun Kutcher to announce that this whole thing has been the world's biggest episode of Punk'd.

Come on America, we can do better than this. Let's give ourselves a little more credit and self-worth.

[Clavis]

Read John Dean's "Conservatives Without Conscience". In it, he discusses the studies that indicated that people who desire to be controlled by authority tend to be more conservative. It seems that we have an instinct to follow, and to protect and defend our leaders (our "alpha males"), and that the people who obey those slavish instincts more tend to be Republicans/conservatives.

The same attitude of "LA LA LA I can't hear you!" that you get when you try to ask a fundamentalist Christian why they believe what they believe is the attitude you get when you ask a Republican to defend their double-standards or hypocrisy...

[TRYKER]

That study also said that conservatives were more frightened, and liberals were less frightened...thus braver. The frightened want Daddy Bush to scare away the boogie man and that is how he ruled them all these Threat Level Orange 8 years.
We didn't have any real enemies, so George told us those evil leaders "over there" were THINKING of causing us harm. He reported they WANTED to kill us all. Thats what they call projection. He thought, he wanted...and he needed to scare us, so he could rob us blind right in our faces. And he did.
The lead talking point is always fear. A talking head on TV has to say: "I'm scared to death..about...(fill in the blank)" ..every day to keep the pump primed.
Now Obama can revive what is a better way of life...."the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" and take away the pitiful republicans reason to follow like fraidy cat sheep to the slaughter...voting against their own interests chanting USA USA and popping six-packs..
Maybe they'll wake up.

[IHIRB]

I agree with the majority of your statements, but I would like to argue against one point: snowmobile racing is the anomaly. As a Minnesotan, I have to tell you, that most people who snowmobile just ride. On designated trails. Supported by a blue-state DNR. And snowmobiling in general is not exactly defiling the environment. (Although I'm sure someone from the Sierra Club will fight me on that point.) I know lots of Democrats in northeastern MN who snowmobile, despite the redneck associations with the activity outside of the region. Of course, I am not familiar with Alaska's regulations - so it could be quite detrimental there wheras in MN it is a universally accepted and regulated activity.

Anyway, I hate to be nitpicky, but it struck a chord with me. Last night a friend said "oh, I know people who are fully supporting Palin due to her husband snowmobiling". After that my head exploded and all I could heard were pops buzzes and snaps. I can't believe so many in a demographic ("joe six-pack" or as I know him "lunchbucket Democrat") would cut off their noses despite their faces just because of an activity that Todd Palin participates in.

Holy sweet hannah, if that is all it takes to get the support of middle America, I hope the coasts can save us. Yikes.

[davidray]

we don't need snowmobiles, we need miracles and miracles don't need motors.

[IHIRB]

Could you elaborate on that? I'm not quite sure where you're coming from in your response.

[cbeenthere]

If we want to bring back the past, how about a good old fashioned sleigh ride?

[Glenn1441]

Zohn writes:

'It has put into ever harsher relief the gross, seemingly growing schism in our country, one where the right wing camp is withdrawing further and further into a bunker mentality, lobbing cultural grenades without really looking because they are afraid to stick their heads up to really see what is going on.'

Well done! That paragraph has been sitting on the tip of my tongue for years now. Thank you for helping to scrape it off!

[ConcernedCitizeninVa]

Good job, you are dead on with this piece.

[jeskiley]

I'm so sold on Biden, he is such a great example of a modern day experienced politician. Gives us much to strive for.

[jpopphan]

In all honesty, I'd much rather see Tina Fey as vice president than Sarah Palin. She's certainly more qualified!!