Ugh, She's Back

It's unfortunately true, America's favorite hockey mom and most offensively ignorant political figure is back in the spotlight. That picture up there isn't even one of the many in-poor-taste photoshopped pictures of her either, but an authentically in-poor-taste picture she consented to. Every time Sarah Palin is in the spotlight, invariably offending intelligent and/or informed people who value truth all around the world, I am tempted to ignore her. The thought process behind this is that she makes me so upset with every world she drawls and I should thus not listen in the interest of keeping my blood pressure down, and that I would like to hope that maybe if everyone just ignores her she will go away. This last thought is incredibly naive, and unfortunately has been the primary response of Barack Obama to the growing chorus of hysterical white people speaking out illogically against him and in favor of people like Palin. People like these:

Now, I have been trying to wrap my mind around this swelling of faux-populist sentiment on the Far-Right for awhile now, and it just won't make sense. Certainly, there is reason for the American people to be upset right now. In the last couple of years we have seen empirically the failures of our politico-economic system, and many people in this country and throughout the world have experienced this rather painfully. However, these furious disciples of Sarah Palin and Glen Beck raging their concerns in tea-party protests and Fox News forums are fighting for the very system that is their oppressor. The majority of these people are a part of the very middle class that is being systematically demolished, and yet they rally for the return to the principles of that system, and those who support it. Sure, some of this may be racism, as has often been speculated. But bigotry can absolutely not be the only, or even the primary, driving force behind this supremely disorienting phenomena.

It seems clear that, while this is still a fringe movement, lacking the political power to do something truly terrible such as, say, electing Sarah Palin as President in 2012, it is significant enough to cause trouble for Barack Obama in the future, and Democratic Senators and Representatives in 2010. We have seen that the road of condescending willful ignorance is not the effective solution to this mindless rage-filled movement. The only solution that seems effective at this point is for politicians and anyone who comes into contact with these people to engage directly with them, armed with the truth, like that guy from the 9/12 rally that Magical Fuckers posted the video of here. Maybe then we could do something productive with all this rage and force Barack Obama to be the agent of change he promised to be but has proven unwilling to commit to.

Here is an interview, aired this week, Palin did with Barbara Walters:

Yeah, Newsweek should be more policy-oriented, and you should maybe just one time address an actual policy instead of simply spouting inflammatory talking points designed to elicit a certain response rather than contribute meaningfully to an improvement of our political system in any way. Ugh.