As the McCain campaign’s desperate attempts to paint Barack Obama as all but a “domestic terrorist” have elicited cries of “kill him!” from the lynch mo… *cough* the adoring crowd, McCain’s own running mate refuses to hold a press conference, leaving questions about her documented ties to a secessionist party and a witch-hunting wacko unanswered.
But who are we, the great unwashed, to ask anything of Her Majesty Sarah Palin? What, you think we’re in some kind of a democracy, pal? And anyway, whatcha bein’ mean to a nice white hockey mom for? Look over there instead! It’s a BLACK MAN who thinks he’s better than you!
John McCain, formerly a respectable politician, has sucker-punched the remains of his dignity, dragged them out back, blasted them with a shotgun, stomped them into the ground, and fed them to the wild hogs.
Buoyed up by the “young and plucky” governor from Alaska, “plucky” enough to hear death threats against her opponent and not bat her mascara, this campaign has entered into its most surreal phase yet.
I normally stay away from U.S. politics in this column, but after seeing Sarah Palin praised as “feminist,” not to mention the McCain campaign referred to as “feminist allies” for choosing her, my head came dangerously close to exploding. It’s bad enough to see McCain and Palin acting like a couple of thugs to the ecstatic baying of the crowds, now I have to join in because one of the two thugs is a fellow female?
Criticism toward Sarah Palin’s substance, or lack thereof, is met with indignant accusations of “elitism” and “sexism.” The fact that Palin has been subjected to sexist attacks, ranging from speculations on what she looks like naked after having five kids to ridiculous “dominatrix” comparisons even in mainstream publications, is undeniable. Yet this alone does not make Palin’s politics and campaign tactics not up for debate.
In fact, the very idea that wee wittle Palin must be shielded from the vicious media, with all of their questions and inquiries and, you know, actual challenges being presented to the candidate on hand, is profoundly sexist and disturbing. Palin crashes and burns during the Katie Couric interview, but somehow, that’s all Couric’s fault. Palin tries to imply that Obama somehow “hates America,” an accusation that not even the Clinton campaign could make stick, but her own friendship with Alaskan secessionists is not up for discussion.
Palin’s femininity, her status as a wife and mother, is not the issue here, and the fact that conservative pundits try to make it all about “those ugly man-haters jealous of sexy Sarah, nyah!” is laughable. How about the fact that Palin, in contrast even to McCain, believes that abortion should not be allowed even when a pregnancy is the result of a rape? Hey, I looove men. I enjoy being in a heterosexual relationship. Which is precisely the reason why Sarah Palin scares the living daylights out of me.
Yet even more frightening that the status of a broodmare is the idea that incitement to sheer undiluted viciousness is appropriate on the political stage. Inciting a crowd to turn on the press during a rally smacks of Nazi tactics, Godwin’s law be damned. The fact that this incident carried racist overtones, as one member of the audience shouted “sit down, boy!” at an African-American crew member, should not merely give Palin and McCain pause.
It needs to make them sit down and seriously re-think their entire campaign from the ground up, and consider just why they are setting a monster in motion and who they think they’re helping when they do it.
It seems that Sarah Palin’s comparison of herself to a lipsticked pit-bull is more apt that she may have realized, and not in an awesome “empowering” way at all. Her gaffes may be cringe-inducing, but it’s her strengths that have me going for the painkillers: the talent for whipping up large crowds of people into a frenzy, driven not by hope, but by hate.
Stirring up hate is a tactic used most often by leaders who can’t lead; what it implies is “vote for us, not because we’re any good, but because the other guy is a barbaric boogeyman!” It unites a mob in the face of a common enemy, no matter how distorted. And yes, it carries even more disturbing overtones when compared to this country’s history of lynchings.
When Sarah Palin first arrived onto the arena of the mainstream political circus, I felt a twinge of excitement. A mother of five and a leader? Gosh darn it, things in this country are changing for the better!
Oops, I was wrong. In reality, it looks as if we are poised to go back decades – to that more “pleasant,” “innocent” time when wholesome white nuclear families gathered their picnic baskets and watched a black man hang.
Amen indeed. Thanks for an excellent piece.
The mobs are truly frightening. They remind me of George Wallace rallies. And it is truly sad that the last refuge of a formerly honorable politician like McCain is to use hate and racialized fear–tactics that were used against him only 8 years ago.
Amen, sister!! The McCain-Palin events are starting to look like Hitler Youth rallies. It’s scary as hell and the GOP seems to embrace the whole thing.
My golly. One would think you don’t approve of her, or them.
Seriously, nicely done. I liked it, and I liked your points — particularly the observation that your gender is assumed to guarantee your compliance with their program. I’d heard that observation elsewhere, but never so effectively and concisely put.
Beautifully put.
I didn’t think I could get any more disappointed in the people in this country when they put bush in for a second term. As my grandma said, things are never so bad that they couldn’t get worse 🙂
A lot has been said recently about the cowardice involved in this too. How it’s easy for them to throw around their accusations on the campaign trail amongst the party faithful, but McCain couldn’t do it to Obama’s face at the debate. What I was thinking is that I want to see Obama bring it up, and bring it up the way you did here. I want him to accuse McCain and Palin of inciting a lynch mob with their hate filled rallies.
Thanks for writing about this, Natalia. I appreciate it!
Is the cute little russian pundit-babe scared? Are you feling the heat yet? You’re jealous of Palin but it’s got nothing to do with her hottie-level. You’re jealus b/c she’s a real actual redblooded American, but you’re the immigrant trash that works strip clubs and has the real weird “wacko” pagan religion no actual American takes seriously. Enjoy your “writing” career. You and terrorist-friend Obama are a match made in commie haven. But at least you got your looks going for ya. If there is a thing worse than a bitch-feminist it’s an ugly feminist. Stay pretty so one day maybe an American will marry you.
Ya know, I, once again, debated whether the above comment should be let through: but, once again, I ran up against the idea that simply not enough people are aware of how vicious and hateful prejudiced persons such as “Actual American” over here are.
Thank you, “Actual American,” for proving the points I made in the above piece. Extra bonus points for the Russophobia! I think you may have yourself an entire bingo card of inexcusable Nazi crap. Keep scoring points for the McCain campaign! Embarrass them further! People need to know just what some of his supporters are truly made of.
Oh, and I don’t need to marry anyone. I’m a citizen just like you, you stain.
All further comments from you will be deleted, so go crawl back into whatever hole you have slithered out from.
I’m surprised John McCain’s campaign (any part of it) would make such a big deal about Obama’s alleged connections considering what McCain and Sarah Palin’s links to the AIP.
I’m glad you decided to post that comment too, Natalia. It does prove the kind of people McCain and Palin are attracting with their hate and fear rhetoric, and it’s not pretty. You just know that the swing voters they need are not going to be impressed, they will be repulsed. I hope by election day all that McCain has left is these haters and Obama and the Democrats down ticket win in a landslide.
Also, as an “actual American” myself, I think that so-called “Actual American” guy needs to get a grip. Bigotry and fearmongering are anti-American.
I wish people like him would stop pretending to speak for the whole country.
Thank you Natalia. I was just hearing about this hate smearing in the news, and was disgusted by it. The ends don’t justify the means: dividing the country and inciting hate is not putting the country first. As for “actual american”, you’re an idiot and an embarassment to the country and humanity.
McCain’s last rally in my hometown featured a shout of “terrorist”
from the crowd. I really wish those people would wear t-shirts or
signs or armbands or something so I could cross to the other side of
the street if they walk by. They scare me too.
I’m mildly confident that Obama is going to win the election, because
it really looks like he will, but I am scared of all the racist anger
being whipped up at the McCain rallies. I hope things don’t get to
the point where hate crimes start to happen.
RE: Comment #6 by ‘Actual American,’ especially the remarks about “immigrant trash,” “‘wacko’ pagan religion,” and other remarks.
“Immigrant trash”:
In America, we’re most of us descended from “immigrant trash,” especially if we’re of European descent. Even the Pilgrims were probably thought of as “immigrant trash” by Squanto. So Natalia Antonova is no “trashier” than you are, ‘Actual American’ — in fact, a loss less so, given the tone of your comments.
“‘Wacko’ pagan religion”:
In the Atlanta, GA, area where I live, “‘wacko’ pagan religion” is an almost exclusively native WASP pasttime, pursued by the same sort of people who worship the Goddess and celebrate the Solstice. Immigrants of any ethnicity have little to do with it. So when you criticize “‘wacko’ pagan religion,” you’re insulting people whose forebears led the Confederacy. Beware!
“Stay pretty so one day maybe an American will marry you”:
That’s more than an American would do with you — right, ‘Actual American’?
Correction to comment #13:
In paragraph following header “Immigrant trash,” next-to-last line:
“a loss less so” should read:
“a LOT less so”.
Dear AA: Go back under your white sheet, no one’s interested. I’m an “actual American” too, and mouth-breathing fascists like you and your plucky heroine Palin make me sick. This is a nation of immigrants, you halfwit: the only people who are “actual” actual Americans in the way you’re bleating about in any meaningful way would be the Native Americans. If you want to spend the rest of your life in a bunker huddled against the dirty scary “immigrants” it’s your call, but don’t blame the rest of us for your lack of rudimentary social or emotional skills. Time to grow up, America.
The media are beginning to call it, p.s.:
Obama, Democrats on track to landslide victory By Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers
Sun Oct 12, 6:00 AM ET
WASHINGTON — Barring a dramatic change in the political landscape over the next three weeks, Democrats appear headed toward a decisive victory on Election Day that would give them broad power over the federal government.
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The victory would send Barack Obama to the White House and give him larger Democratic majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate — and perhaps a filibuster-proof margin there.
That could mark a historic realignment of the country’s politics on a scale with 1932 or 1980, when the out party was given power it held for a generation, and used it to transform government’s role in American society…
**
“Deal with it.”