By Manifesto Joe
It's a departure from historical norms, but nobody ever demonstrated that a fascist movement couldn't be led by a pretty middle-aged woman. (She's not my type, but Sarah Palin has what could be described as generic good looks.) And it's happening -- I don't think she can ever legitimately vie for high elective office again, but sundry Brown Shirt types, jackbooted thugs and brainwashed hillbillies may be lining up behind Sarah Palin.
Maybe this is why Palin resigned her Alaska governorship. It's kind of hard to lead a Nazilike movement when you've got a full-time job in Juneau.
True, she's not as articulate (or bellicose) as Limbaugh. Hell, she's not even Father Coughlin. But Klondike Hottie seems to speak for a lot of manure-headed people out there, and now I think I dig where she aims to go.
Dean Baker of Truthout is on the money when he blames what's left of our "news media" for a lot of this. Palin was given a huge pass when she publicly conjured up fictions about a "death panel" and rationing of health care while denouncing Obama administration policy plans. Traditionally, media are supposed to function as a "truth squad" and shoot down pig dung like this. Here's a link to Baker's article.
Palin apparently has enough gutter political savvy to see a movement in the making. Nazilike hooligans have been showing up at "town hall" meetings to intimidate anyone who favors health care reform, up to and including the Congress creatures themselves.
There have been some scenes that recall the fascist thuggery of Italy in the 1920s and Germany in the 1930s. On Friday, Justin Rubin of MoveOn recorded a few nuggets that show a sampling of what's been happening to members of Congress, and continues, from coast to coast:
-- Last night in Tampa, Florida, a town hall meeting erupted into violence, with the police being called to break up fist fights and shoving matches.
-- A Texas Democrat was shouted down by right-wing hecklers, many of whom admitted they didn't even live in his district.
-- One North Carolina representative announced he wouldn't be holding any town-hall meetings after his office began receiving death threats.
-- And in Maryland, protesters hung a Democratic congressman in effigy to oppose health-care reform.
The Associated Press filed a more detailed account of the right-wing marauding in a Saturday story. Here's a link to that one.
Back to Sarah Palin, I realize that Klondike Hottie has plenty of competition for leadership of the GOP's gaping primate squad. Limbaugh has been whipping them up for 20 years, and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck are most decidedly in the running.
But Klondike Hottie has them beaten in one crucial area -- sex appeal. To me, her appeal is very limited -- she reminds me too much those Young Republican college women who always seemed to belong to a sorority that was called "Betas" for short.
But, Bubba apparently digs it. And he may be willing to misdirect some of his testosterone toward neo-fascist asskicking, if she gives the word. Stay tuned.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
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4 comments:
How irritating is Sarah Palin? Let me count the ways:
1. That shrill voice and immature expression and tone.
2. That matronly hair style --- yeccchhh!
3. The shallowness of thought and the glaring lack of knowledge on subjects she should know.
4. The narcissistic constant craving for attention. It's obvious.
5. The irresponsible way she pours gas on the fire of ignorance, hatred, divisiveness, and extremism.
6. Her constant and insincere self-centered use of her own children to manipulate the media and advance her career.
7. Her impulsiveness and rashness,inconsistency, and inability to properly finish a job.
8. Her complete dishonesty.
I get the feeling Palin is being coached by some literary agent to keep her snooty face in the media with non-stop calculated and crazy extremist remarks. I think it is an accurate charge that our pathetic media is giving her far, far too much attention. I really believe she is doing all the crazy things she does just to stay in the spotlight so she can earn money making speeches and selling books. That's what it's really all about: all about the preoccupation with herself, not with solving the country's problems. This crazed woman is leading the blind right off the cliff with her. She will be visible, to be sure, but she will never be what she really wants to be: the leader of the free world. She is inferior and has nothing of what it takes to be a good and effective national leader. She and her entire crazy family can take a boat out into the middle of the Bering Sea and sink it for all I care!
Palin's "death panel" remark, though despicable, was actually a brilliant piece of right-wing propaganda.
Palin, her handlers, and the rest of the hard right in the U.S. are increasingly embracing the Drudge approach to propaganda.
The reason for Drudge's phenomenal success in pushing propaganda is a dirty little secret: that is: everyone read the headlines, but fewer people read the retractions.
Tens of millions of Americans heard Palin's "death panel" remark. But how many heard the retraction? Even if it was a majority, that still leaves millions of people who now believe the "death panel" story.
Palin's approach is evil, it is despicable and it is immoral.
But how much sleep do you think the likes of Palin, Drudge, and Rush lose at night? Not one f*cking second, would be my guess.
If you talk to most serious economists, they will tell you that it was the policies of the Democratic Party that led to the Great Depression of the 1930's.
The lesson of Ronald Reagan was that, if you cut taxes and regulations, the economy will grow.
It's a shame that today's Dems have yet to learn this valuable lesson.
Hence, the second Great Depression, that Obama is presiding over today.
"... most serious economists"???
Anon, you can't be serious. Please tell me this is a farging joke.
When FDR took office March 4, 1933, the unemployment rate was hovering around 25%. The Democrats hadn't had a chance to implement any economic policies at that point. The Republican policies of the 1920s had been effectively unchallenged, and they resembled "Reaganomics."
Then their effects were worsened by the Republican Hawley-Smoot tariff passed in 1930, by a Republican-led Congress and signed by Herbert Hoover.
The only serious debate that remains among economists about this was how much effect the New Deal had toward pulling the U.S. out of the Depression. The free-market school would argue that it did little, and that it may have actually made some aspects worse. Others would strongly disagree, and I found myself generally agreeing with that school.
I spent three years editing college economic textbooks, and talked to plenty of "serious" economists. Even the supply-siders would find your observations about causality ahistorical and ludicrous.
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