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St. Sarah of Wasilla
Sarah Palin's latest buzz accompanies the publication of her campaign memoir, Going Rogue. But the book is a ghost-written collaboration, making it a poor measure of the singular marvel that is Sarah Palin. To better get the drift of this woman's weird, wonderful career, I go back to her star-spangled, lightning-bolt Fourth-of-July resignation as governess of Alaska.
Within minutes of that shocker, talking heads everywhere struggled to make sense of Palin's rambling series of excuses, rationalizations, platitudes, dares and non sequiturs. Every last analyst staggered away, mystified.
But Palin's followers - without exception - understood, intuitively and completely. They rejoiced in the inspiration of what she had said, as well as what she hadn't said and what she was incapable of saying.
Even they, however, did not know what she meant. No one did, nor will anyone ever really grasp her meaning that day. And that's the point. In the Zen universe of Sarah Palin, meaning is the most meaningless thing of all!
Anyone who has tried to fathom the Palin phenomenon is eventually surprised that she bothers to speak at all. But she loves talking, to the delight of her fans and to the utter befuddlement of anyone who regards languge as a serious medium of communication.
Words are not Sarah Palin's currency, nor would she command her immense army of ardent followers if she had a "way with words." When asked about "issues," Palin either recites an irrelevant aspect of her biography (looking across the Bering Strait at Vladimir Putin, covering high school hockey games for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman), or she rattles off a mind-numbing series of talking points, seemingly memorized off a laminated card handed to her by Grover Norquist.
Asked about any domestic problem - education, unemployment, breast cancer, etc. - she invariably advocates cutting taxes. Given problems of a more metaphysical nature, she will come around to invoking Jesus.
Respond to her that even Jesus approved of taxes - "unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" - and she will answer with only a smile that says, "You're trying to trap me with words again, but I can't he-e-ear you."
She's pro-life, she says. But the only branch of government that she and her followers approve is the military, which is in the business of killing. Is this not a profound contradiction, an ethical dilemma that merits reflection and moral anguish?
Nah. It's words. Just words. To hell with words.
Conservatives claim Sarah as one of them. She tolerates the linkage. But she's not, really, if you figure that modern conservatism proceeds in a historical line from Adam Smith and Edmund Burke to Ayn Rand, William F. Buckley, Irving Kristol, George Will and smarty-pants guys like that. Conservatism has always been stirred by intellectual ferment and lively discourse, bestowing on its current adherents traditions, policies, positions, unsettled arguments and great books. Conservatism has a literature.
But Sarah Palin doesn't read - at least not snooty stuff like "literature." None of her people read - except for Scripture. Reading, after all, is just a lot of words.
Sometimes, Palin comes off as a sort of lumpen-populist, metaphorically defending the trailer-park gates against an army of tree-huggers and bleeding-hearts who want to break up the annual all-Alaska spotted owl and dolphin roast. But her style, her clothes, her hair, her lack of butchness - these are not populist. They're petty bourgeois. She wears makeup even when she's dressed in waders.
When Going Rogue came out, her ex-friends in the McCain campaign called Palin a liar. On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann went to considerable pains to cite passages in her book that were contradicted either by facts or by past statements Palin had made herself.
Olbermann missed the point. There are no lies in Sarah's book; nor in her life, nor in her heart. Utterances that seem untrue are not lies, because Sarah believes them true. If she says one thing, then later forgets what she said and says the opposite, Sarah Palin is neither lying nor mistaken, nor forgetful, because at each moment, she believes what she has said. And a minute later, she will believe something else, if she says it. Whatever she says, if she says it, will be true. But if it's not, so what? It's words, only words.
Sooner or later, words fail everyone. This goes double for Sarah and her faithful. Sarah Palin is the voice - and the embodiment - of the inarticulate.
When Sarah Palin says something that doesn't seem to make sense to most of us, her people - the tongue-tied and frustrated - understand perfectly, because that's exactly what they would have said, if only they could.
What Olbermann and the word-obsessed, meaning-seeking media cannot grasp is that Sarah Palin is not someone you believe. She is someone you believe in.
She is not a politician. She is a prophet.
She is the earthly incarnation of an ideal beyond earthly comprehension that only those who believe in her believe in, although it's beyond their comprehension. Like all prophets, she is the answer to questions her followers are incapable of expressing. She is what they are, and she is what they would be if they weren't what they are.
Watch Sarah Palin with the audio turned off. You will sense what her followers feel. In her ill-controlled face, there is sheer amazement at being so high for so little reason. There is defiance of all those equally amazed. And there is a smugness in the assurance that there ain't nobody gonna knock her down and she never has to explain how she ever got there.
As if she could.
In her gestures and in her gaze, one feels the spirit of another people's prophet, equally indifferent to coherent speech, equally disdained by the literate and the elite, but equally beloved of the insulted and injured. His motto was: "I am what I am."
His name, as any real American knows, was Popeye.
42 Comments so far
Show Allwho?
Frank Capra.
Frank Capra should be alive at this hour!
Stop being so pompously patronising. In a democracy, every one should have a voice - isn't that what the whole thing is supposed to be about? Sneering at the "inarticulate" deies it. As for her being a prophet - in your fevered imagination. In any case the media are far too busy trying to make her look like a reality tv star - so capitalising on both snobbery towards the working class and the misogyny which has become, unfortunately, synonymous with America's self defined liberal left. If Palin's policies are ludicrous (and they are) attack them. This constant personalisation of politics demeans politics itself, whether you are demonising a working class right wing politician or deifying a fantasy left wing one. Note - if American actually had a left wing it would be a much more equal and democratic country. And it would have a public health service, for everyone.
Of course. Everyone deserves a voice.
Who speaks for paranoia, ignorance, murderous violence, corruption?
Don't they all DESERVE a voice?
Oh, they have many voices. Democracy is safe!
Exactly. Read Noam Chomsky's take on the left's constant criticisms of the teabaggers, etc. The anti-tax, teabaggers have actual concerns. maybe they aren't as enlightened as the Obamabots but they are human beings with families and lives. They are big losers in this capitalist empire.
Maybe it's time we climbed down from our perches and, as Chomsky suggests, begin to build some bridges, have some compassion for those who don't see eye to eye with us. We are more alike than we are different. Let's end these divisions. It only plays into the hands of the empire, which has no personality, but is an ideological force that will destroy democracy once and for all.
I'm sick to death of this constant gossip in place of serious analysis.
"Maybe it's time we climbed down from our perches and, as Chomsky suggests, begin to build some bridges, have some compassion for those who don't see eye to eye with us. We are more alike than we are different. Let's end these divisions. It only plays into the hands of the empire, which has no personality, but is an ideological force that will destroy democracy once and for all. "
And what if these people you want to build bridges with actually support the empire, and want to extend it?
One could argue that the desire to "build bridges" just because someone else is "human beings with families and lives" is what "plays into the hands of empire".
It is the desire to to "build bridges" just because someone else is "human beings with families and lives" that turns politics into "gossip" and "personality" instead of "serious analysis" of "ideological force".
dumddown old fart
All righty! Let's hammer SEIU, ACORN, stomp gays, expose the senior citizens extermination camps (health care). We can "compromise" regarding birth control and pro choice. No mention of corporations, war, etc...
This "critique" of Palin's critics is so tired and empty.
The point of the article is that looking at what Palin actually says, there is practically NO articulated politics to attack. There is contradiction, confusion, inanity, platitude, recited talking point, and emotional appeal, bathed in smug righteousness. And the author does specifically cite and attack Palin's recursive retreat to "cut taxes" as an articulated policy assertion.
And if you want to cite "snobbery towards the working class and the misogyny which has become, unfortunately, synonymous with America's self-defined left" then CITE IT. What did the author write that was snobbery or misogyny?
i cede your point that an actual left wing is sorely missing from US politics.
Sarah Palin, aka 'Cariboo Barbie', aka prospective 'Vice-president MILF', aka 'Ignorance Incarnate' is exactly what the rapidly devolving Republicans need.
She is easily led, devoid of any shred of moral fiber or decency, vain, venal, is easily provoked and demonstrably paranoid. She is known to have a vile and vindictive temper. Palin revels in her ignorance, and goes to great lengths to prove she does not follow current events or greater politics beyond those which serve her. She retreats into servile and erroneous recitation of carefully selected Bible passages taken out of context when challenged, demonstrating she is a member of the rapidly emerging version of the American Taliban.
Sarah Palin proudly and publicly belongs to a church which holds the immanent destruction of the world (a la Tim Lahey's execrable 'Left Behind' series of novels and direct to video movies) as a desirable thing.
The Tea-baggers and their mouth-breathing Limbaugh/Beck ditto-head followers think she is salvation in an Armani dress, an assault weapon toting supermodel who will bring them salvation from their (slightly) dark skinned 'Big Brother' oppressor.
This irrational, irritable and unintelligible waste of DNA is the best that you have to offer to take office as the next President of the USA? You are going to give this nut-job the keys to the nuclear arsenal of the most powerful and paranoid military juggernaut on the planet?
The Collapse and destruction of your country can't come fast enough...
These are fully discredited people! Obama and the Democrats won! Republican approval rating is under 20%. Why all this fuss over those with an approval rating that's in the toilet?
The fuss should be over the Democratic Party's BETRAYAL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE! not over a small group of performers acting in the name of empire to DIVERT OUR ATTENTION. Do we get it yet? If we're looking over here at Rush Limbaugh, then we're not looking at the party we elected.
I've been reading the polls. Over 60% of Americans say they believe global warming is a threat. Most are willing to pay higher taxes in order to deal with it. If Obama and the Democrats used their excellent public relation skills - like the ones we saw in the campaign - they could make the case for strong climate change initiatives, single payer health care, etc. But instead, they pretend to be swayed by a tiny minority of hecklers. So we blame the hecklers for the failure. This is by design.
DEMOCRATS HAVE A TRIPLE MAJORITY, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT SARAH PALIN SAYS OR THINKS. SHE IS IN THE MINORITY. They can pass anything they want. This is the position Democrats have been luring us with for decades. Now they blow it because of the likes of teabaggers, etc.?
If you can believe that, I've got some magic hopes and dreams powder I'll sell you, wanna buy?
"I've been reading the polls. Over 60% of Americans say they believe global warming is a threat. Most are willing to pay higher taxes in order to deal with it."
This is vague. What exactly do you mean by "most"? "Most" Americans support higher taxes? Or "most" of the 60% of Americans who believe global warming is a threat support higher taxes? And percentage wise, what is "most"? 90%? 80%? 70%?
What percentage of Americans support higher taxes to deal with global warming?
dumddown old fart
Well let's see; 1,2,3,4,. Nobody willingly pays taxes. Ergo nobody believes that global warming is possible. That is called lack of scientific evidence. 70% of the population do not believe smarty pants elites when told that perpetual motion is impossible. Ergo there will never be an end to fossil fuel reserves.
The women in Honduras present another reality perhaps more deserving of attention;
consider writing Hillary Clinton Act to avoid a massacre in Honduras in the face of massive abuse by the coup regime
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-carlsen/clinton-act-to-avoid-a-ma_b_297394.html
Contains statement by Daysi Flores of Feminists in Resistance and Amnesty International verification of abuses not being reported
"Juan Almendares, of the Honduran Center for Torture Prevention, reports that Honduras has become "the largest prison in the world." He notes, "There is a permanent state of siege here. Human rights organizations and medics are not even allowed to attend to the tortured and wounded. The office of the Committee for Families of the Disappeared was bombed with tear gas... Children and the sick in the hospitals are undernourished since with the curfew, which is a death warrant, they do not receive food and are dying of hypoglycemia."
My response to Sarah Palin phenomenon is to pay attention to the situation of women who are suffering at the other end of the dynamic. We have - thanks to the internet - opportunities to join in solidarity to call for pressure to end abuses.
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/take-action/urgent-action-alert-stop-killing-and-starvation-samburu-people-kenya
The only position for which Palin is qualified is supine.
If you really are "old", then don't you think its time for you to think about something besides sex? (Yes, there is something besides sex.) We live in three worlds; body, mind, and spirit. As we age, we are meant to aspire to higher levels. We are meant to rise above the pleasures of the body, and begin to seek higher things. Unfortunately, in this society, we have been taught that the physical is all there is, and so most men obsess on sex. This obsession keeps them from evolving as human beings, and they live their whole lives in vain.
"We live in three worlds; body, mind, and spirit. As we age, we are meant to aspire to higher levels. We are meant to rise above the pleasures of the body, and begin to seek higher things."
Yes, we live in 3 worlds: mind, spirit AND body.
No we are NOT meant to "rise above the pleasures of the body", and seek "higher" things. Meant by whom? Humans are mind AND body. No matter what certain (leftish) intellectuals and (rightish) religious believers who hate the material body want to claim.
Why is something "mental" "higher" than sex, or good food, or a hot shower on a cold day, or a cold shower on a hot day, or the sense of pleasant tiredness of physical activity?
Not to mention how do you separate mind and body? Playing the piano well, for one example, requires mind AND body, and gives both mental AND physical pleasure.
Is music, both performance and just listening in enjoyment mind or body?
Is watching and enjoying a dancer perform intricate dance mind or body?
Or, as the Greeks put it succinctly, Mens sana in corpore sano.
Like a niche musical group (think a Pentecostal version of the Grateful Dead), Sarah Palin is well on her way to a long-term self-sustaining career as a conservative media buffoon that all but her fans alternately laugh or are aghast at.
In fact, I would venture to guess that Ann Coulter is secretly complaining about the competition Palin presents for the same number of deluded conservative $$ to be harvested from that graying audience.
I love the piece, but see no reason to be insulting Popeye.
LOL!
here we go again
another evisceration of a caricature from the world of fantasy otherwise called the media
though humorous it is pointless
progressives are cowards in the sense that we attack the bit players and never consider the real masters of the country at all
david green can skewer obama and david benjamin can skewer palin - they have proved that much but i would be reluctant to call that politically sustaining
the obamas and the palins are the "suits that come and go" as david icke calls them - they are bit players of no import and yet we focus on them and obsess with running them down
where is the expose on the military industrial complex who have driven us to war over and over again, some publicized most not
where is that accountability
how about naming names and skewering a few of the folks who made the bank bail out scam happen
we obsess on geitner and summers and bernanke - each of them fools - where is the conversation about the role that the rockefeller's have in all of this
why did we tolerate the removal of 24 trilion dollars from the public purse without knowing even so little as who was getting the money, let alone what they were (whoever they were - can you say rockefeler) going to do with it
what about the rothschild banking cartel/debt machine that has consumed our country
why do we tolerate our politicians being bought and sold like six packs of tube socks at the mall
why do we continue to enslave and kill the third wold
why do have no empathy for our fellow citizens, never mind the foreigners
why did we sit back and do nothing for thirty years as our job were moved overseas by corporations like wally wally mart
now we are all out of work - what a surprise - who could have seen that coming
why do we never talk about bringing them back so that we could actually earn a living to support our families
why do we let monsanto and others sell genetically modified foods that are poisoning us without so much as a peep
why have we let our schools fall apart and why have we allowed the rockefellers to take control of the entire system
ok, so we need a laugh or two every now and then
let's not fixate on palin or obama for that matter - like the psycho clinton used to say: that old dog aint gonna hunt
when are we really going to get off our overly medicated fat asses and get something done
i'm going to guess that it pobably won't be next week...
It seems to me that Sarah Palin has become a symbol for the ignorance that is so endemic in this society. She has come to the front because she is just like all those misinformed millions that are holding this country back, with the added bonus of looks. She knows very well that those looks are her real power, and so she wears make-up even "in her waders". Does anyone really think that she would still be on the national scene if she were homely? PS: I think that Popeye's statement was "I yam what I yam."
I don't know how many of you remember the Peter Sellers movie "Being There". Seller plays the part of a simpleton gardener named Chance. Chance was an idiot but a very nice idiot. He spoke in TV-informed utterances that people took has profound statements. He becomes a prominent celebrity who's opinions were sought after even though he was oblivious to anything important.
Sarah Palin IS Chance the gardener. We are now living that 1979 classic Peter Sellers movie in real life. Who could have thunk it?
Who could have thunk it?
Jerzy Kozinski, who wrote the book 'Being There' that the film was based on.
Chance being simply an "idiot" is a very simplistic reading of that movie. Go watch it again.
i once tried to watch "Being There" - it was during the Reagan presidency - i simply could not watch, it was TOO REAL.
Sigh, another boring, Palin obsessed democrat hack still holding on to Sarah.
The author should get a clue and worry about the dangerous nitwit that's already in power: President Obama.
Palin or Obama: No difference when it comes to pulling the trigger on human beings or looting our nation.
You can spin it however you like, but that's the truth.
"None of her people read - except for Scripture." Most of them don't even read scripture.
Bashing Sarah Palin won't make the Democratic Party, the one with the historic triple majority, the party who has the power to pass any bill they please, the one whose leader said, "We can have single payer health care once we get the White House and Congress." Yeah, the one you elected to represent you. How's that working out for you?
From a quip by Michael Feldman this morning on Wisconsin Public Radio:
"Ah,the exhuberance, congestion, and confusion of thousands of autograph-seeking Palin enthusiasts in a book store who had never been in one before..."
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
"When Sarah Palin says something that doesn't seem to make sense to most of us, her people - the tongue-tied and frustrated - understand perfectly, because that's exactly what they would have said, if only they could."
This is woefully true and Palin is the Black Madonna of befuddled post-Bush II-neo-conservatism.
But when Benjamin goes after Popeye the Sailor!!? This is an insult to the ever stalwart Man of Spinach that is cruelly and wholly undeserved. The original Popeye was highly articulate: He just muttered most of what he was saying under his breath so that the audience could only catch bits and pieces of it if they closely listened. However, those bits and pieces made far more sense than anything out of the mouth of Sarah Palin. Moreover, Popeye had musical talent and could jazz scat almost as good as Scat Man Caruthers on occasion. Palin's only talent is preaching "conservative family values" while letting her teenage daughter be impregnated by another idiot right under her nose.
Popeye put life and limb on line to defend the weak against the strong. Palin would assign fascist advisors and lobbyists to prey on the weak and defenseless while she industriously knit her legacy of dead and dispossessed Americans and Muslims like Madame DeFarge.
It is true that Popeye once gave the Muslim, Sinbad the Sailor, the what for, but it was to protect his true love Olive Oyl from Sinbad's libidinous and sadistic clutches. Popeye would never preemptively attack Iran or spread the Bush-Obama wars into Pakistan. Like as not, Popeye would knock the heads of Israelis and Palestinians together until they achieved peace in between lectures to the kids on the benefits of eating their spinach.
He was a vegetarian, was Popeye, and preferred to sail, walk or jog rather than burn fossil fuel. He was the forgiving kind and forgave Poopdeck Pappy for abandoning him for the sea all those years ago. He was sentimental towards women, waifs, magical jeeps and polite chaps down on their luck just schmoozing for enough money for a hamburger today. He believed in elbow grease and stick-to-it-tiveness. He took his lumps, sure, but he NEVER gave up. If he took a job, by God, he finished it and he would have never stepped down from a Governorship in a cloud of flatulent self-service like Sarah Palin.
Popeye had the magical power of making his tattoos transmorph and move nearly 80 years before that female character Lydia on Heroes (who herself was a rip-off of an old Groucho Marx song). During WWII he could, with a proper dose of spinach and his mighty resolve, temporarily convert himself into an ersatz fighter plane machine gunning projectiles (bullets, steel rivets, nails or peanuts) from his corn cob pipe, or a submarine torpedo, or a windmill of high speed super punches. His world re-known bicep muskels could internally transform into everything from a 40-gun 19th century naval man'o'war, to rolling WWII era tanks to high powered electric diesel engines. But he took on his proven enemies in single combat and never waged preemptive war against entire nations. What magical powers does Sarah Palin have? What courage or fortitude has she displayed? None, I say. She has all the staying power of a small child's cereal box tattoo. Shave her head, give her a diagonal wig, a short rectangular mustache and a brown pantsuit and she will be the facist Senor Wences puppet of the bottom of the Amurkan dumb-down pile which itself will look more and more like a cannibalistic un-slopped pig sty over time.
Thanks for sticking up for my good buddy Popeye. Popeye is a true patriot whereas Sarah Palin is just a cartoon character.
Nailed her! Was it good?
Benjamin sez: "Watch Sarah Palin with the audio turned off."
***
Never thought of that ... I always leave the audio AND the video turned off.
she's No Popeye...
Just Sarah the Goon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs16kGWWqt8
You can tell, because when she speaks, it is just a series of meaninless squiggles.
... and your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.
-- Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)
Palin is nothing more than an up to date version of Jim Jones or David Koresh. A fair wager would be that in 5 years,the Feds will be forced to raid a compound made up of yurts in deep Alaska where high priestess "Failin" will have gathered with the faithful for a final showdown.Thankfully on that occasion no bullets will be needed as facts are the weapon most deadly to idiots of this womans ilk.
Wow l just Googled " Don't cry for me Argentina" and now understand Sarah it hit me like a bolt of lightning just do it and you will believe it's like a blind man regaining site l know it's only words but these words may change you forever it's like clicking your heels three times or clapping for Tinker Bell or having a mind meld with Spock then tell 10 friends to do it within sevens minutes and thirty two seconds and by midnight tonight you will be astounded by what will occur go out and buy a lottery ticket l am now sixty seven million dollars richer l just got news that a relative of mine who l didn't know was doing missionary work in Africa and a diamond mine owner willed him and my family a mine now all l have to do is send two thousand dollars to him to claim my share unfortunately l am short the money so if someone can spot me the cash l will split the proceeds 50/50 GBY
anatomy of a moron...
hi... i'm a moron... i talk like a moron... i act like a moron... i married a moron... i raised a family of morons...
now... let me tell YOU... what you SHOULD do... on matters relating to YOUR health... wealth... and welfare...
YOU should send your son's and daughters... husbands... wives... into war... because...
(there are no jobs... no wages... no benefits... no security...)
I support free markets... because... (that's the next thing on my talking points card...)
oh... did i mention GOD... RELIGION... JESUS... and all things CHRISTIAN... (check... religion... uhh lessee...)
(that's right) GUVMENT is bad... (mmm... most anything will do here...)
(ok... time to wrap up)ME... I... I'm... I... I... ME... ME...
wheeeeeeeeeeeee... how's that... (cheering... good...)
(closing...)No taxes... hunting... No Govt... basketball... War... pitbulls... Free Markets... lipstick... hockey...
Why are you even devoting coverage on this site to Palin? Yeah, the book is full of BS. Any publicity is good publicity and it keeps her name in the news. Stop helping her.
Because everyone's morbid curiosity attracts them to bear witness to a train wreck?