Archive for

Ann Coulter Just Can’t “Fogett” Sarah Palin

Not a typo. That’s actually the high point of the article, which, near as I can tell, boasts this as its thesis:

Democrats are a party of women, and nothing drives them off their gourds like a beautiful Christian conservative.

Yes. That is clearly the only objection anyone has ever had, ever, to Sarah Palin.

Who Can Now Deny Fox’s Disturbing Turn for the Worst?

First, there was Glenn Beck’s odd call for Al Qaeda to bomb America, because that would totally prove that he’s been right about Obama all along. Truly, the lives lost would be a small price to pay for such glory.

Now, there’s Brian Kilmeade of “Fox & Friends” talking about the purity Swedish (Norse?) blood, and its healthful qualities, sounding for all the world like a mix between Lord Voldemort and perhaps the more mild elements of a white supremacist group.

We are — we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other … See, the problem is the Swedes have pure genes. Because they marry other Swedes …. Fins marry other Fins, so they have a pure society.

Thanks, Brian. Just great. Why do these people still have jobs? At long last, have they no decency?

Republicans Blame-Gaming their Way to 2010

Now that Al Franken is seated as the junior senator for Minnesota, apparently everything wrong with America is the Democrats’ fault:

Rarely has anyone managed to cram so much dishonesty into such a short period of time. No-one is trying to eliminate the secret ballot. And editorials in small-town newspapers notwithstanding, the true impact of the carbon tax remains speculative, even to its critics, and will be leveraged against corporations, not individuals. It’s beyond dishonest to suggest that the Obama administration has proposed or passed any personal, family-by-family tax increases.

It’s also curious for the GOP to use the Democrats’ current control of the White House & Congress as an excuse to pass blame for pre-existing problems of their own creation. Imagine the captain of the Titanic striking the iceberg and immediately running for the lifeboats, all the while heckling the first officer for failing to save the ship. Or, better yet, imagine Zap Brannigan. Turning around the Bush economy is a herculean effort, and that Obama hasn’t accomplished it yet doesn’t somehow redeem the politicians whose failures created the problem in the first place.

In the end, this is just what we’ve come to expect from the GOP – no new ideas, just blame, lies, and spin. They’re like the Michael Behes of politics: they can spot problems with the status quo, sure, but damned if they’re going to try to fix them, or acknowledge the solutions once they emerge. Like Behe and science, the Republican view of government is bolstered by failure. Small wonder they’re so bad at governing.

Rather than passing the buck – a Republican specialty – Michael Steele should be focusing on recovering from his party’s ideological & personal implosion.

Sarah’s Journey: the Monomyth of Governor Palin

To most Americans, in her resignation, Sarah Palin proved herself to be the petty, embarassing failure we expected her to be. I personally regard her as something a little more dangerous – a calculated shot by the GOP at the Achilles’ Heel of democracy, a voter’s tendency to listen to the heart over the head. Good riddance.

But what to make of her continued popularity? To a very vocal minority, Palin is not only a talented politician, but a key player in an eschatological drama now unfolding, where villains will fall and heroes rise, no other explanation needed:

Glenn Beck: Many write:Palin is done.U don’t understand EVERYTHING is about to change. What you thought you knew, could trust or depend on is shifting (see also here, and here)

Some wingnut: Sarah of the Bible set in motion a righteous people to occupy the Earth. Sarah of Ak. set in motion a righteous government to occupy America

Why? What’s so compelling in this simple character, this personified insult to the American intellect? The answer, oddly enough, may be in comparative mythology. Palin’s meteoric rise & fall curiously parallel the story laid out in Joseph Campbell’s “Hero of a Thousand Faces,” which Campbell described as the skeletal form of most major myths, from the Iliad, to the Lord of the Rings, to Star Wars. Bear with me.

This all might seem fairly far fetched. But without the help of allegory, I remain at a loss to explain Palin’s continued popularity. Myths are generous: they work failings and bizarre transformations into the fabric of the story, forgiving and even valorizing them. To supporters sufficiently desperate for a hero, then, Palin can be just that, enriched rather than hurt by her flaws. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, any story that casts Palin as some kind of hero is what it sounds like – a fiction.

Below, my attempt to build Palin’s brief stay on the political stage into a Campbell-style myth, to understand just what, exactly, the other half sees in her: Continue reading »