Caribou Barbie: She-Wolf of the GOP
The slavering freak show that is the McCain-Palin campaign has made for some rivetting public theater the last few weeks. You just can't beat the sight of hundreds of paranoid, delusional racist lizard-brained right wingers working themselves into a lather over the prospect of terrorist Muslim commie Barack Hussein Obama becoming president.
The lusty boooing, catcaling and microphone ranting by wild-eyed retirees and bedraggled women in purple sweatpants is a fascinating break from rote stump speech blather. There's also something hilarious in seeing the terror and hysteria caused by the creeping realization that Obama is probably going to win. They are already envisioning a future of strike teams composed of black gang members and Al Qaeda operatives conducting house-to-house sweeps to confiscate the firearms of godfearing Americans. As a veteran leftist American-hater, I think that's probably a bit unrealistic. I'd settle for universal health care.
The most interesting part of this ritualized group therapy for dumb bigots is the role the candidates themselves play in it. McCain, of course, is the person most responisble for this outpouring of venom. Stuck with the shit end of the stick, issue-wise, during an economic meltdown and soundly defeated in three straight debates, McCain needed to change the subject. And what better subject than: OBAMA IS NOT ONE OF US! There's also McCain's personal anger at the effrontery of Obama, depriving McCain of the prize he rightfuly deserves: HE WAS A POW, damnit, we owe him this! Still, you can tell that Johnny boy isn't really comfortable demagouging the rubes with red-meat stemwinders. When the crowd starts their bloodthirsty baying of "terrorist!," McCain's eyes start flitting around nervously and that rictus grin of his wilts into a grimace of discomfort. McCain's squeamishness is partly due to the fact that he clearly hates hobnobbing with te unwashed. For all his supposedy "straight talk" bluster, McCain is first and foremost a creature of Washington. Getting down in the mud and rolling around with the fascist hogs is a far cry from Georgetown cocktail parties and the high roller room at the Bellagio.
McCain's identity as a D.C. fixture relates to another reason he doesn't seem to savor his new role as the avatar of white reactionary resentment. McCain's entire political career rest on his chummy-to-worshipful realtionship with the Beltway media. He may be "playing to the base" of the Republican party with his rightwing identity politics, but the Republican base has never been his base: those are the same Washington scribes who have spent the past decade knob-slobbering St. Maverick of Hanoi for his impeccable character and forthrightness. The David Broders and Richard Cohens of the world don't look kindly on rabble rousing of any political hue, it's improper! So, you had the surreal spectacle of McCain being hooted down by his own partisans for trying to reign in their Obama hate. It was shocking, but inevitable: McCain was never the candidate of the Republican base. He was the carbuncular booby prize left over when the GOP carnivores split between Romney, Huckabee and Guiliani. McCain isn't really ONE OF THEM either, but he's certainly closer than Obama.
The real blood and thunder doesn't flow at a GOP rally unless Sarah Palin is there to work the crowd into a frenzy. Palin is emphatically ONE OF THEM. In fact, she's the physical and intellecutal incarnation of a particular American way of life that fetishizes "authencity" and demonizes rationality and empiricism. These people pride themselves on their genuine "small town values," but the flipside of this is a violent revulsion to anything that smells faintly of THE OTHER. This dual character: immense pride in one's friendliness of those of like mind combined with viper-like hostility to "un-American" types, has been on perfect display in Palin's transformation on the campaign trail. She started out as America's Hockey Mom, but after several pathetic attempts at feigning competence in media interviews and the continuing Troopergate imbroglio brought some of the bloom off of the rose, she morphed into Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS. You can see the dark energy flowing through her when the congregation shouts "Amen" to her denunciation of Obama and his terrorist buddies. She is in her element in these moments: riling up a savage mob that would gleefully chew their own brains out if they could reach them.
Mindless, animal grunting is what Palin is looking to provoke because she is at war with the very notion of verbal communication. She aims to strip politics of any meaningful discussion of anything, let alone actual issues. That's why her main target of contempt, even more than Obama, is the "media elite." Whatever you think about the media (commie symps or handmaidens of corporate brainwashing, discuss!), most people would agree that a crucial part of their job during a political campaign is to measure the statements of political candidates against the known facts. Since her entry onto the national scene, Palin has brazenly lied, time and again, and essentially dared the media to call her on it, confident that she could summon enough hostility to these "elitists" to nullify their criticism among the electorate. Practically the first words out of her mouth as a national figure "I said 'thanks, but no thanks' to that bridge to nowhwere," were false, and since then she's been steadily shoveling bullshit. From a bizarre and easily-disproven claim that the teleprompter malfunctioned during her RNC speech to saying that the recently released Troopergate report cleared her of any unethical action even though the report explicitly labeled her conduct unethical, the manure keeps pouring out of her mouth.
Her anger at the press isn't just that they call her on her falsehoods, but that they insist that words have to mean things. After her incoherent ramblings to Katie Couric, Palin went on the offensive, complaining about a "media filter" that consisted entirely of Couric asking follow-up questions when Palin spewed mindless talking points. During the vice presidential debate, she came right out and said that she wasn't going to address the questions that moderator Gwen Ifill posed to her. She wants to reduce political rhetoric to a series of images and gestures that bypass the frontal lobe and arouse the basest possible emotional responses. Droppin' the "g" from all words with gerunds, saying a few words (Maverick, Hockey, Small Town, etc) over and over so that they become incantations, winking at the camera so that the middle-aged white men in the audience who long for a hot piece of ass who won't give them a lot of feminist backtalk can fantasize that she's looking right at them. If Palin could make it happen, she'd strip campaigns of their annoying chatter and simply appear before her worshipful crowds with a shotgun in one hand and an apple pie in the other, bend over a few times, pantomime a quick prayer, and close with the ritual slaughter of a gay Islamic moose.
The lusty boooing, catcaling and microphone ranting by wild-eyed retirees and bedraggled women in purple sweatpants is a fascinating break from rote stump speech blather. There's also something hilarious in seeing the terror and hysteria caused by the creeping realization that Obama is probably going to win. They are already envisioning a future of strike teams composed of black gang members and Al Qaeda operatives conducting house-to-house sweeps to confiscate the firearms of godfearing Americans. As a veteran leftist American-hater, I think that's probably a bit unrealistic. I'd settle for universal health care.
The most interesting part of this ritualized group therapy for dumb bigots is the role the candidates themselves play in it. McCain, of course, is the person most responisble for this outpouring of venom. Stuck with the shit end of the stick, issue-wise, during an economic meltdown and soundly defeated in three straight debates, McCain needed to change the subject. And what better subject than: OBAMA IS NOT ONE OF US! There's also McCain's personal anger at the effrontery of Obama, depriving McCain of the prize he rightfuly deserves: HE WAS A POW, damnit, we owe him this! Still, you can tell that Johnny boy isn't really comfortable demagouging the rubes with red-meat stemwinders. When the crowd starts their bloodthirsty baying of "terrorist!," McCain's eyes start flitting around nervously and that rictus grin of his wilts into a grimace of discomfort. McCain's squeamishness is partly due to the fact that he clearly hates hobnobbing with te unwashed. For all his supposedy "straight talk" bluster, McCain is first and foremost a creature of Washington. Getting down in the mud and rolling around with the fascist hogs is a far cry from Georgetown cocktail parties and the high roller room at the Bellagio.
McCain's identity as a D.C. fixture relates to another reason he doesn't seem to savor his new role as the avatar of white reactionary resentment. McCain's entire political career rest on his chummy-to-worshipful realtionship with the Beltway media. He may be "playing to the base" of the Republican party with his rightwing identity politics, but the Republican base has never been his base: those are the same Washington scribes who have spent the past decade knob-slobbering St. Maverick of Hanoi for his impeccable character and forthrightness. The David Broders and Richard Cohens of the world don't look kindly on rabble rousing of any political hue, it's improper! So, you had the surreal spectacle of McCain being hooted down by his own partisans for trying to reign in their Obama hate. It was shocking, but inevitable: McCain was never the candidate of the Republican base. He was the carbuncular booby prize left over when the GOP carnivores split between Romney, Huckabee and Guiliani. McCain isn't really ONE OF THEM either, but he's certainly closer than Obama.
The real blood and thunder doesn't flow at a GOP rally unless Sarah Palin is there to work the crowd into a frenzy. Palin is emphatically ONE OF THEM. In fact, she's the physical and intellecutal incarnation of a particular American way of life that fetishizes "authencity" and demonizes rationality and empiricism. These people pride themselves on their genuine "small town values," but the flipside of this is a violent revulsion to anything that smells faintly of THE OTHER. This dual character: immense pride in one's friendliness of those of like mind combined with viper-like hostility to "un-American" types, has been on perfect display in Palin's transformation on the campaign trail. She started out as America's Hockey Mom, but after several pathetic attempts at feigning competence in media interviews and the continuing Troopergate imbroglio brought some of the bloom off of the rose, she morphed into Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS. You can see the dark energy flowing through her when the congregation shouts "Amen" to her denunciation of Obama and his terrorist buddies. She is in her element in these moments: riling up a savage mob that would gleefully chew their own brains out if they could reach them.
Mindless, animal grunting is what Palin is looking to provoke because she is at war with the very notion of verbal communication. She aims to strip politics of any meaningful discussion of anything, let alone actual issues. That's why her main target of contempt, even more than Obama, is the "media elite." Whatever you think about the media (commie symps or handmaidens of corporate brainwashing, discuss!), most people would agree that a crucial part of their job during a political campaign is to measure the statements of political candidates against the known facts. Since her entry onto the national scene, Palin has brazenly lied, time and again, and essentially dared the media to call her on it, confident that she could summon enough hostility to these "elitists" to nullify their criticism among the electorate. Practically the first words out of her mouth as a national figure "I said 'thanks, but no thanks' to that bridge to nowhwere," were false, and since then she's been steadily shoveling bullshit. From a bizarre and easily-disproven claim that the teleprompter malfunctioned during her RNC speech to saying that the recently released Troopergate report cleared her of any unethical action even though the report explicitly labeled her conduct unethical, the manure keeps pouring out of her mouth.
Her anger at the press isn't just that they call her on her falsehoods, but that they insist that words have to mean things. After her incoherent ramblings to Katie Couric, Palin went on the offensive, complaining about a "media filter" that consisted entirely of Couric asking follow-up questions when Palin spewed mindless talking points. During the vice presidential debate, she came right out and said that she wasn't going to address the questions that moderator Gwen Ifill posed to her. She wants to reduce political rhetoric to a series of images and gestures that bypass the frontal lobe and arouse the basest possible emotional responses. Droppin' the "g" from all words with gerunds, saying a few words (Maverick, Hockey, Small Town, etc) over and over so that they become incantations, winking at the camera so that the middle-aged white men in the audience who long for a hot piece of ass who won't give them a lot of feminist backtalk can fantasize that she's looking right at them. If Palin could make it happen, she'd strip campaigns of their annoying chatter and simply appear before her worshipful crowds with a shotgun in one hand and an apple pie in the other, bend over a few times, pantomime a quick prayer, and close with the ritual slaughter of a gay Islamic moose.
posted by matthew christman at 11:45 AM
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