I'm a politics hound, all over current affairs and the state of things from day to day from Washington and abroad. Thanks to the superlative onslaught of all things stupid that is Election '08, I'm officially over it. Well, for a while at least.
I'm ready for this thing to be done. I'm crying uncle. The McCain/Palin ticket represents all things that are insidiously wrong with our political system and the only thing that drives me more crazy is their audience. I've sat and watched this ticket tell lie after lie after relentless lie as people clap and cheer. In other words, they're barely listening and are obviously not checking into anything. God steady me if they win.
I don't think I could take another 4 years of unabashed idiocy, willful ignorance, insane personal agendas and dangerous decisions. I'm not saying an Obama administration would be flawless, but I literally can't perceive Obama putting out the sheer volume of dumb that I've watched being exported from the McCain/Palin campaign like plastic stuff from China.
By the way, it wouldn't kill me to have a President that is at least half-way sophisticated and well-spoken enough to herald back to "those days." Yeah, you know what I mean.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Cheering for Mediocrity
Sarah Palin's speech was an outstanding example of John McCain's dismal judgement when it comes to ultra-critical decision making.
The McCain/Palin campaign demands that the world keep off the Palin family. Even Obama himself said, "I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics." So we're all in agreement then? I guess not, since Palin saw fit to invoke the deployment to the middle east of her son and her nephew to prop up her patriotism (which is needed direly with revelations of the Palins secessionist involvements).
She went further to discuss each of her family members, making sure to highlight her son Trig with Down Syndrome while simultaneously politicizing him by making a campaign promise to the parents of special needs children: "I pledge to you that, if we're elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."
She noted her husband Todd, including his membership in the United Steelworkers Union. I'm confident we won't hear the cries from detractors of socialism on this little tidbit. After all, this is just inconvenient.
She discussed her parents, thanking her for one of their lessons being that "this is America, and every woman can walk through every door of opportunity." of course, nobody else is supposed to invoke her gender or they will be flamed by the GOP dragon.
While she meandered through her small-town story meant to further - and hopefully - invoke her love of America, she paused to mention, "I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." Subtext being she is a dangerous attack dog, which is what most people (don't) want to be second in line for Commander in Chief.
Then she trots in the first of what is to become an elitist and condescending attitude toward the Americans in need and the Americans who help them, saying, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."
Mocking among the finest of ourselves, those who selflessly extend a hand to people on their last leg when most of us are drowning in our superficial dilemmas helps us define the Republican psyche of today's GOP. Only a soul tortured by the fruits of self-focus would think it's not only acceptable to think and say such a thing, but that it would actually energize a room full of people. She did, and it did. Behold the party that applauds the denigration of selflessness and roars with approval at the bashing of many people's last hope. The message is clear - unless you're holding a rifle, you aren't serving your country.
Enter a classic touchstone of the right-wing: blaming the media. "And I've learned quickly these last few days that, if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone." This is reality distortion at it's finest. What she describes as "member in good standing" is actually "someone mainstream."
This has nothing to do with the "Washington elite" she decries (while running on their ticket) and everything to do with all that is controversial and "different," all that is distinctly Alaskan.
The people of Alaska are a hardscrabble sort who thrive on a life bent more toward survival rather than the typical financial goals permeating the "lower 48." In Alaska, it is par for the course to utilize a position of influence to exact personal revenge. In Alaska, it is socially acceptable to embrace independence - even from America itself. In Alaska, most people hunt and fish. There's nothing wrong with hunting and fishing, it's just that most people in the rest of the United States don't hunt and fish.
In other words, there is a wide cultural gap between the American frontier that is Alaska and the hustle and minivans of middle-America, two worlds straddling a divide too great to generate a meaningful shared identify. Many Alaskans consider it a weakness that their suburbanite distant cousins to the southeast can't dress down a moose. Meanwhile, many suburbanites and metropolitans in the lower 48 consume reality shows about Alaskans as entertainment.
Unfortunately, Sarah Palin in all her hockey-mom pitbullness doesn't even understand she has become the focal point of this cultural divide. She is deluded to think the main argument against her is based on gender. Simply put, nobody knows what to do with the frontierswoman that just tracked in mud on our berber carpet.
She toils on to accidentally expose her naivete: "Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests." Sarah, politics is EXACTLY that.
She moves into a touching description of a public servant as only an elementary student could provide as she says, "We are expected to govern with integrity, and goodwill, and clear convictions, and a servant's heart." Has she utilized integrity, goodwill and clear conviction against those in her government who allegedly refused to be a tool of vindictiveness? Somehow, amid all the hurrah of Wednesday night, we have to await the results of a state investigation to find out. And what's with the "servant's heart" line? I thought we already established that those who serve the people are only worth using to carpet the floor of a taxi cab?
She says, "I came to office promising major ethics reform to end the culture of self-dealing. And today, that ethics reform is a law." Let us bask in the double-irony of her alleged self-dealing being under investigation, along with her outright lie that Barack Obama has never written a law. Why is this ironic? Because one of the most prominent laws Obama's pen has helped push into existence was an ethics reform law in the United States Senate. Whoever wrote Mrs. Palin's speech failed to even so much as read Senator Obama's summary bio. I trust he's out of work before midnight Wednesday.
Palin takes time out to make herself grand for doing something the voters demanded she do as first thing in office: "I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for. That luxury jet was over-the-top. I put it on eBay." Never mind the fact that the last guy who bought it and kept it lost to her because he did so (among other non-sensical things). She should have said, "To avoid political suicide, I put the plane on eBay." By the way Mrs. Palin, I hope if most of America is tied up somewhere, allowing McCain to win, that you won't put Air Force One on eBay.
She moves in to her months as Governor: "Our state budget is under control. We have a surplus. And I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending, nearly $500 million in vetoes." Sounds impressive, but judging by the fact that you left your hometown of several thousand people in debt after leaving the office of mayor somehow makes me wonder if Alaska's surplus is because of you or the unparalleled cash machine that is oil.
Palin mentions that "We suspended the state fuel tax and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that Bridge to Nowhere." Why didn't you mention the millions of dollars in your own earmarks? And what about the fact that you championed the Bridge to Nowhere but dropped it once it became too unpopular? An experienced politician would simply not have mentioned either of these things rather than paste a fat target on their back.
Here comes more confused rhetoric: "When oil and gas prices went up dramatically and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged: directly to the people of Alaska." Gosh Sarah, didn't you just finish implying that the state budget surplus was due to your superhero-like vetoing pen? You must look down on Americans to think we're this slow.
Enter the energy debate - and her partly exposing how idiotic the Republican "drill here drill now" drive is. "The stakes for our nation could not be higher. When a hurricane strikes in the Gulf of Mexico, this country should not be so dependent on imported oil that we're forced to draw from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve." Subtext: Which is exactly why we need to "drill here and drill now" in the Gulf of Mexico to increase the disruption hurricanes bring to our economy.
Enter the McCain energy policy preview: "Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines, and build more nuclear plants, and create jobs with clean coal, and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources." Take note of how sustainable, non-dangerous technologies again take a back seat. It almost seems as though Republicans refuse to allow progress; perhaps it's because that word is inside the label of their enemy, the "progressives." To think that a group that wants to move forward is actually villified by ANY American.
So, their energy policy is "drill more oil. Oh, and by the way, we'll throw some dollars into green tech." Before we can get into any further policy definitions, we're wisked away to the land of Obama bashing.
"Listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the State Senate." Another shot in the McCain/Palin campaign since, as of tomorrow, they will be forced to retract on such a desperate and foolish lie.
As though her cloud of rhetoric feeding the roaring crowd under the stadium lights wasn't enough, she pushed on to say, "But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot..." (uh...Sarah? Sarah?) When that happens, what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?" AH YES, she finally invoked the alleged "messiah" complex.
This is worth examining for the desperation it represents. Many months ago, Obama showed up. He is an excellent orator with progressive ideas and a positive message. In other words, water delivered to the wasteland that is America after the 8-year Bush-induced drought. The people responded out of thirst, and not for "kool-aid" but for the real and tangible change of Obama's policies.
These policies reflected a powerful and festering undercurrent in the American psyche, one that has spent recent years wondering if we should give public health plans a shot and many years wondering why we developed six energy alternatives to oil many decades ago only to continue hammering our environment while sending our sons and daughters overseas to bleed for black gold. These policies also vacated seating in the McCain auditorium, one replete with policies that fail to reflect the people's needs, an orator severely disqualified to engage and inspire, and an image tarnished by the party of "the last 8 years."
What else could McCain do but become enraged that the spotlight he thought was ensured by his POW status and decades in Congress failed to materialize? And even worse, that an unknown interloper would be the stealer of all things thunderous and McCain. So he unleashed, enraged with the popularity of his opponent. How dare the people like him? How dare the media report it? McCain even went so far as to make and broadcast an ad mocking the major members of the media, a public and humiliating tirade never seen before in an election environment where politicians normally send steak dinners and sports tickets to journalists.
Hence, Palin dutifully grabs the baton and soldiers on with the McCain line. Death to the media! Death to unpatriotic POW haters! And so the lies continue...
"America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it." Three minutes spent reading the Obama energy plan disperses this for the fog that it is.
"Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit." Never mind the fact that the people found this idea to be popular enough that it forced George Bush to reverse five years of uninterrupted policy to do what Obama advocated. This left McCain fumbling to stop mocking this quietly and quickly, but apparently Mrs. Palin's speechwriter didn't get the memo.
"Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions." This neanderthal understanding of diplomacy as a tool of state is uniquely modern-day Republican. While others understand how opening negotiations without precondition actually generates higher moral ground for America (and consequently the ability down the road to react militarily while still enjoying the unfettered support of allies), those currently in power simply aren't able to appreciate something they don't know how to execute. Their inadequacy is understandable given their ranks are increasingly driven by militarism and a nationalism colored with exclusivity; this extreme aversion to interacting with those outside the party has led to diplomacy being viewed as alien and for the weak.
Mrs. Palin handily bumbles in to a major flaw in her party: "Al Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he's worried that someone won't read them their rights." This is the most polarizing of issues; after all, how does one fight for justice while failing to execute it? How does one maintain credibility when simultaneously subverting the very freedom that is being fought for. The mistake here is that Palin needed to assert this as a society vs. defense conundrum, not mock one of the instruments of American freedom and justice as though it was worthy of ridicule and relegated to the weak.
If you're seeing a pattern, it's not incidental.
Lest she be lazy, time for another distortion: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, and raise payroll taxes, and raise investment income taxes, and raise the death tax, and raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars." Never mind that according to leading policy analysts, McCain's plan will cost America MORE than this, which is part of why McCain's economic plan doesn't resonate with the people. That, and it was written by a man who believes Americans are "whiners" and that the recession is "in our heads."
"Among politicians, there is the idealism of high-flown speech- making, in which crowds are stirringly summoned to support great things, and then there is the idealism of those leaders, like John McCain, who actually do great things." Subtext: Obama is hot air and does not do great things.
"They're the ones who are good for more than talk, the ones that we've always been able to count on to serve and to defend America." Subtext: Obama can't do anything, he is not military and Americans can not count on him.
"Our nominee doesn't run with the Washington herd." Subtext: Even though he picked me at the last minute because the religous right hit the roof at him wanting Lieberman.
"My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery." Subtext: Obama is a hippy on a road trip. It's time to get serious.
"This world of threats and dangers, it's not just a community and it doesn't just need an organizer." Subtext: You're life is in danger. Don't trust people foolish to spend their time on helping losers.
"And though both Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they're always, quote, "fighting for you," let us face the matter squarely: There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you." Subtext: You fool, only the military counts. Only McCain is military. Only McCain counts. Obama and Biden have no place here.
"There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you in places where winning means survival and defeat means death. And that man is John McCain." Subtext: There is no greater military experience than POW. McCain is POW.
"You know, in our day, politicians have readily shared much lesser tales of adversity than the nightmare world, the nightmare world in which this man and others equally brave served and suffered for their country." Subtext: McCain was a POW. There is no greater thing than this.
"And it's a long way from the fear, and pain, and squalor of a six-by-four cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office." Subtext: McCain was a POW. There is no greater thing than this.
"For a season, a gifted speaker can inspire with his words. But for a lifetime, John McCain has inspired with his deeds." Subtext: Obama only can talk. Obama is not military, he is useless.
...
She invoked the small town, the folksy family, the son going to Iraq, the rugged state, the frontier, the scrapping with the big leagues - all designed to appeal to rural voters who have waffled on their responsibilities as part of the GOP bloc.
However, Obama's early wins in the primary stunned a nation who watched rural, bread-basket, kitchen table, lunch-bucket white Americans stroll into high school gymnasiums and vote for Obama in vast numbers. How could that be? How could the staple of the party have left them?
What caused this attrition?
In a nutshell, time. Lots of time passed, and with time comes wealth and a different politic. The far right isn't in rural America anymore because the far right got rich and moved to the noise that is the city. Their past icons - the plains preacher, the high-school Army recruiter, the podium-pounding city councilmen of small towns - were not resonating. They transformed into high-powered, high-salary pundits like Limbaugh, Savage, Imus, Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly.
In other words, their numbers decline because their leadership stopped being rural America (who help their neighbors - yuck!) and became the big city wealthy she fights tooth and nail against. The depravity of militarism and nationalism has caught up with them. What once were conservative values driven by trust brands like Reagan have devolved into the desperation, hypocrisy and hostility you see tonight.
They should have never had that convention. Day three of four is over, we have insults and insinuations aplenty and nothing available regarding economy or health care. In short, what on earth is there to respond to? John McCain is a POW.
The McCain/Palin campaign demands that the world keep off the Palin family. Even Obama himself said, "I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics." So we're all in agreement then? I guess not, since Palin saw fit to invoke the deployment to the middle east of her son and her nephew to prop up her patriotism (which is needed direly with revelations of the Palins secessionist involvements).
She went further to discuss each of her family members, making sure to highlight her son Trig with Down Syndrome while simultaneously politicizing him by making a campaign promise to the parents of special needs children: "I pledge to you that, if we're elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."
She noted her husband Todd, including his membership in the United Steelworkers Union. I'm confident we won't hear the cries from detractors of socialism on this little tidbit. After all, this is just inconvenient.
She discussed her parents, thanking her for one of their lessons being that "this is America, and every woman can walk through every door of opportunity." of course, nobody else is supposed to invoke her gender or they will be flamed by the GOP dragon.
While she meandered through her small-town story meant to further - and hopefully - invoke her love of America, she paused to mention, "I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." Subtext being she is a dangerous attack dog, which is what most people (don't) want to be second in line for Commander in Chief.
Then she trots in the first of what is to become an elitist and condescending attitude toward the Americans in need and the Americans who help them, saying, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."
Mocking among the finest of ourselves, those who selflessly extend a hand to people on their last leg when most of us are drowning in our superficial dilemmas helps us define the Republican psyche of today's GOP. Only a soul tortured by the fruits of self-focus would think it's not only acceptable to think and say such a thing, but that it would actually energize a room full of people. She did, and it did. Behold the party that applauds the denigration of selflessness and roars with approval at the bashing of many people's last hope. The message is clear - unless you're holding a rifle, you aren't serving your country.
Enter a classic touchstone of the right-wing: blaming the media. "And I've learned quickly these last few days that, if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone." This is reality distortion at it's finest. What she describes as "member in good standing" is actually "someone mainstream."
This has nothing to do with the "Washington elite" she decries (while running on their ticket) and everything to do with all that is controversial and "different," all that is distinctly Alaskan.
The people of Alaska are a hardscrabble sort who thrive on a life bent more toward survival rather than the typical financial goals permeating the "lower 48." In Alaska, it is par for the course to utilize a position of influence to exact personal revenge. In Alaska, it is socially acceptable to embrace independence - even from America itself. In Alaska, most people hunt and fish. There's nothing wrong with hunting and fishing, it's just that most people in the rest of the United States don't hunt and fish.
In other words, there is a wide cultural gap between the American frontier that is Alaska and the hustle and minivans of middle-America, two worlds straddling a divide too great to generate a meaningful shared identify. Many Alaskans consider it a weakness that their suburbanite distant cousins to the southeast can't dress down a moose. Meanwhile, many suburbanites and metropolitans in the lower 48 consume reality shows about Alaskans as entertainment.
Unfortunately, Sarah Palin in all her hockey-mom pitbullness doesn't even understand she has become the focal point of this cultural divide. She is deluded to think the main argument against her is based on gender. Simply put, nobody knows what to do with the frontierswoman that just tracked in mud on our berber carpet.
She toils on to accidentally expose her naivete: "Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests." Sarah, politics is EXACTLY that.
She moves into a touching description of a public servant as only an elementary student could provide as she says, "We are expected to govern with integrity, and goodwill, and clear convictions, and a servant's heart." Has she utilized integrity, goodwill and clear conviction against those in her government who allegedly refused to be a tool of vindictiveness? Somehow, amid all the hurrah of Wednesday night, we have to await the results of a state investigation to find out. And what's with the "servant's heart" line? I thought we already established that those who serve the people are only worth using to carpet the floor of a taxi cab?
She says, "I came to office promising major ethics reform to end the culture of self-dealing. And today, that ethics reform is a law." Let us bask in the double-irony of her alleged self-dealing being under investigation, along with her outright lie that Barack Obama has never written a law. Why is this ironic? Because one of the most prominent laws Obama's pen has helped push into existence was an ethics reform law in the United States Senate. Whoever wrote Mrs. Palin's speech failed to even so much as read Senator Obama's summary bio. I trust he's out of work before midnight Wednesday.
Palin takes time out to make herself grand for doing something the voters demanded she do as first thing in office: "I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for. That luxury jet was over-the-top. I put it on eBay." Never mind the fact that the last guy who bought it and kept it lost to her because he did so (among other non-sensical things). She should have said, "To avoid political suicide, I put the plane on eBay." By the way Mrs. Palin, I hope if most of America is tied up somewhere, allowing McCain to win, that you won't put Air Force One on eBay.
She moves in to her months as Governor: "Our state budget is under control. We have a surplus. And I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending, nearly $500 million in vetoes." Sounds impressive, but judging by the fact that you left your hometown of several thousand people in debt after leaving the office of mayor somehow makes me wonder if Alaska's surplus is because of you or the unparalleled cash machine that is oil.
Palin mentions that "We suspended the state fuel tax and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that Bridge to Nowhere." Why didn't you mention the millions of dollars in your own earmarks? And what about the fact that you championed the Bridge to Nowhere but dropped it once it became too unpopular? An experienced politician would simply not have mentioned either of these things rather than paste a fat target on their back.
Here comes more confused rhetoric: "When oil and gas prices went up dramatically and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged: directly to the people of Alaska." Gosh Sarah, didn't you just finish implying that the state budget surplus was due to your superhero-like vetoing pen? You must look down on Americans to think we're this slow.
Enter the energy debate - and her partly exposing how idiotic the Republican "drill here drill now" drive is. "The stakes for our nation could not be higher. When a hurricane strikes in the Gulf of Mexico, this country should not be so dependent on imported oil that we're forced to draw from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve." Subtext: Which is exactly why we need to "drill here and drill now" in the Gulf of Mexico to increase the disruption hurricanes bring to our economy.
Enter the McCain energy policy preview: "Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines, and build more nuclear plants, and create jobs with clean coal, and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources." Take note of how sustainable, non-dangerous technologies again take a back seat. It almost seems as though Republicans refuse to allow progress; perhaps it's because that word is inside the label of their enemy, the "progressives." To think that a group that wants to move forward is actually villified by ANY American.
So, their energy policy is "drill more oil. Oh, and by the way, we'll throw some dollars into green tech." Before we can get into any further policy definitions, we're wisked away to the land of Obama bashing.
"Listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the State Senate." Another shot in the McCain/Palin campaign since, as of tomorrow, they will be forced to retract on such a desperate and foolish lie.
As though her cloud of rhetoric feeding the roaring crowd under the stadium lights wasn't enough, she pushed on to say, "But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot..." (uh...Sarah? Sarah?) When that happens, what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?" AH YES, she finally invoked the alleged "messiah" complex.
This is worth examining for the desperation it represents. Many months ago, Obama showed up. He is an excellent orator with progressive ideas and a positive message. In other words, water delivered to the wasteland that is America after the 8-year Bush-induced drought. The people responded out of thirst, and not for "kool-aid" but for the real and tangible change of Obama's policies.
These policies reflected a powerful and festering undercurrent in the American psyche, one that has spent recent years wondering if we should give public health plans a shot and many years wondering why we developed six energy alternatives to oil many decades ago only to continue hammering our environment while sending our sons and daughters overseas to bleed for black gold. These policies also vacated seating in the McCain auditorium, one replete with policies that fail to reflect the people's needs, an orator severely disqualified to engage and inspire, and an image tarnished by the party of "the last 8 years."
What else could McCain do but become enraged that the spotlight he thought was ensured by his POW status and decades in Congress failed to materialize? And even worse, that an unknown interloper would be the stealer of all things thunderous and McCain. So he unleashed, enraged with the popularity of his opponent. How dare the people like him? How dare the media report it? McCain even went so far as to make and broadcast an ad mocking the major members of the media, a public and humiliating tirade never seen before in an election environment where politicians normally send steak dinners and sports tickets to journalists.
Hence, Palin dutifully grabs the baton and soldiers on with the McCain line. Death to the media! Death to unpatriotic POW haters! And so the lies continue...
"America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it." Three minutes spent reading the Obama energy plan disperses this for the fog that it is.
"Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit." Never mind the fact that the people found this idea to be popular enough that it forced George Bush to reverse five years of uninterrupted policy to do what Obama advocated. This left McCain fumbling to stop mocking this quietly and quickly, but apparently Mrs. Palin's speechwriter didn't get the memo.
"Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions." This neanderthal understanding of diplomacy as a tool of state is uniquely modern-day Republican. While others understand how opening negotiations without precondition actually generates higher moral ground for America (and consequently the ability down the road to react militarily while still enjoying the unfettered support of allies), those currently in power simply aren't able to appreciate something they don't know how to execute. Their inadequacy is understandable given their ranks are increasingly driven by militarism and a nationalism colored with exclusivity; this extreme aversion to interacting with those outside the party has led to diplomacy being viewed as alien and for the weak.
Mrs. Palin handily bumbles in to a major flaw in her party: "Al Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he's worried that someone won't read them their rights." This is the most polarizing of issues; after all, how does one fight for justice while failing to execute it? How does one maintain credibility when simultaneously subverting the very freedom that is being fought for. The mistake here is that Palin needed to assert this as a society vs. defense conundrum, not mock one of the instruments of American freedom and justice as though it was worthy of ridicule and relegated to the weak.
If you're seeing a pattern, it's not incidental.
Lest she be lazy, time for another distortion: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, and raise payroll taxes, and raise investment income taxes, and raise the death tax, and raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars." Never mind that according to leading policy analysts, McCain's plan will cost America MORE than this, which is part of why McCain's economic plan doesn't resonate with the people. That, and it was written by a man who believes Americans are "whiners" and that the recession is "in our heads."
"Among politicians, there is the idealism of high-flown speech- making, in which crowds are stirringly summoned to support great things, and then there is the idealism of those leaders, like John McCain, who actually do great things." Subtext: Obama is hot air and does not do great things.
"They're the ones who are good for more than talk, the ones that we've always been able to count on to serve and to defend America." Subtext: Obama can't do anything, he is not military and Americans can not count on him.
"Our nominee doesn't run with the Washington herd." Subtext: Even though he picked me at the last minute because the religous right hit the roof at him wanting Lieberman.
"My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery." Subtext: Obama is a hippy on a road trip. It's time to get serious.
"This world of threats and dangers, it's not just a community and it doesn't just need an organizer." Subtext: You're life is in danger. Don't trust people foolish to spend their time on helping losers.
"And though both Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they're always, quote, "fighting for you," let us face the matter squarely: There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you." Subtext: You fool, only the military counts. Only McCain is military. Only McCain counts. Obama and Biden have no place here.
"There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you in places where winning means survival and defeat means death. And that man is John McCain." Subtext: There is no greater military experience than POW. McCain is POW.
"You know, in our day, politicians have readily shared much lesser tales of adversity than the nightmare world, the nightmare world in which this man and others equally brave served and suffered for their country." Subtext: McCain was a POW. There is no greater thing than this.
"And it's a long way from the fear, and pain, and squalor of a six-by-four cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office." Subtext: McCain was a POW. There is no greater thing than this.
"For a season, a gifted speaker can inspire with his words. But for a lifetime, John McCain has inspired with his deeds." Subtext: Obama only can talk. Obama is not military, he is useless.
...
She invoked the small town, the folksy family, the son going to Iraq, the rugged state, the frontier, the scrapping with the big leagues - all designed to appeal to rural voters who have waffled on their responsibilities as part of the GOP bloc.
However, Obama's early wins in the primary stunned a nation who watched rural, bread-basket, kitchen table, lunch-bucket white Americans stroll into high school gymnasiums and vote for Obama in vast numbers. How could that be? How could the staple of the party have left them?
What caused this attrition?
In a nutshell, time. Lots of time passed, and with time comes wealth and a different politic. The far right isn't in rural America anymore because the far right got rich and moved to the noise that is the city. Their past icons - the plains preacher, the high-school Army recruiter, the podium-pounding city councilmen of small towns - were not resonating. They transformed into high-powered, high-salary pundits like Limbaugh, Savage, Imus, Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly.
In other words, their numbers decline because their leadership stopped being rural America (who help their neighbors - yuck!) and became the big city wealthy she fights tooth and nail against. The depravity of militarism and nationalism has caught up with them. What once were conservative values driven by trust brands like Reagan have devolved into the desperation, hypocrisy and hostility you see tonight.
They should have never had that convention. Day three of four is over, we have insults and insinuations aplenty and nothing available regarding economy or health care. In short, what on earth is there to respond to? John McCain is a POW.
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