As I made a small chunk in the project that is Making My Apartment Inhabitible today, Sarah Palin resigned from her current post as the insigniftcant-at-best Governor of Alaska. Joey sent me a text message wondering MY thoughts on what that shrill woman’s plans are.
Hopefully I answered, “Reality TV?”
Obviously this move is yet another step in her run for President in 2012. (And you thought the LAST presidential race started early.) Amusingly, it comes on the heels of a Vanity Fair article in which members of John McCain’s 2008 campaign staff admitted that in retrospect, Palin wasn’t ready to be Vice President, and that they’re not sure she ever WOULD HAVE BEEN.
Seeing that Palin may have helped McCain lose in the 2008 election, it’s baffling that her run for office in 2012 is an actual reality and not just her own delusions of grandeur. While it’s doubtful she’ll even win out in the Republican Primaries, the whole show is also indicative of not only the continuing horror show and disorientation of American politics. Support for her—which of course would come from Republicans across the board, should she manage to be the GOP nominee—is a case in point that American Amnesia is not only alive and well, but its short term memory is worsening.
I suppose it’s not a strictly American phenomenon, but my vantage point is from the Midwestern U.S. By American Amnesia, or AA, I mean basically that history repeats itself because too many people forget itor never bothered to learn it in the first place. AA has led more bloody war, and another Depression.
In the case of Sarah Palin’s presidential aspirations, AA in this case is blotting what only happened in the last 10 years: a failed governor of a large, culturally near-rogue tate (coincidentally, one which has threatened secession) ran for president and won. What came next in the case of George W. Bush is known (and not up for debate or being left for history to judge). What both figures, their PR and their personalities have in common is that they’re insubstantial. They’re running on personality (which the GOP and Fox-run media tried to convince Americans Obama was doing last year). The good ol’ American guy and gal. And the reason these bobble-heads succeed is that a great number of Americans IDENTIFY with them.
Such people want someone they can relate to; enjoy a beer and a game with. I, for one, WANT someone smarter than me at the helm; much MUCH smarter. An elitist, even. Someone who went to Harvard, sure. Not a failed businessman; not a former beauty queen whose husband was part of a group that was patriotic enough to attempt a secession of their state from the U.S. I don’t want a president addressing the world in some mind-boggling, regional vernacular.
I have many issues with President Obama and the Democrats, which I won’t delve into here. I don’t believe the two-party system is working for the U.S. or the world. Hell, I don’t believe we’re even all that much of a democracy.
A democracy requires an informed citizenry. We’re experiencing a complete meltdown in which we’re electing LEADERS who aren’t even informed. Or if they are, they’re trying to either destroy what’s left of democracy in this country, or in the case of Obama and the congressional Dems, failing to salvage what’s left of it.
THE PUNK ROCK NEIGHBORHOOD 
Hear, hear. This is completely fucking spot on, I think. The only thing, though, is that I wouldn’t count Sarah Palin out. You’re right, Americans often want someone they can identify with. Americans often celebrate mediocrity. It’s bewildering. So, I think of it thusly: George W. Bush, the epitome of mediocrity, was elected twice, and Ronald Reagan, a second rate actor who built his political persona on cheery folksiness and bankrupt platitudes, was also elected twice. Where does that put us? I definitely wouldn’t be surprised by a Palin presidency. I shudder at the thought. The Republicans are damn good at appealing to people’s basest fears and hatreds, and then hammering it all home with impeccably succinct soundbites and talking points. (Why research the issues when you can have a blowhard sum it all up in ten seconds?! “Taxes bad.” “Terrorists.” “Taxes.”) People often conceive of politics as part sport part prom. Call me a pessimist, but I’m already wearing a 2012 cringe. Not that I think she’ll win, but I’m preparing the cringe just in case.