The Talking Dog

February 7, 2010, See Sarah Run

Sarah Palin, proudly addressing her peeps (Southern White men) at the "tea party convention" suggests she would certainly consider running for President in 2012. The obvious question becomes just how much the Obama people would be paying her to do so, as she already bears her share of responsibility for the fact that he's the President now, and let's face it: Tina Fey isn't going anywhere.

That said, of course, note that as far as media accounts go, and this, of course, includes "even the liberal New York Times," the only relevant places on the political spectrum are "right-wing" and "even more right-wing." Hence, all of the discontent to the Obama Administration is borne by those who have never, and will never, support anything it does (up to and including eliminating all taxation, formally instituting martial law, formally declaring war on everyone else on Earth, eliminating any and all environmental, worker safety or any other kind of regulation that impinges on big business, etc., etc.)... simply because the President is a Black man.

The discontent from people who actually supported this President (and his party) who are utterly appalled at his utter and total reneging on civil liberties, torture and accountability for same, not to mention the expansion of the two major wars now raging... and the President's ineptitude in not getting a stimulus through unless it included tax cuts for the rich, and the seeming total inability to get even modest health care reform through huge majorities in both houses of Congress... isn't reported upon, and let's face it, therefore... does not exist.

No... only the discontent of affluent Southern White males is relevant. And they resent the fact that a Black man is President, even one whose policies are much more in line with (his, and presumably their, political idol) Ronald Reagan and George W, Bush (except, perhaps on matters of torture, indefinite detention and "liquidation of enemies of the state" where the Obama policies are actually well to their right) than they are with, say, LBJ or FDR... but, nonetheless, we still get to hear that Obama is a "socialist," because, of course, few Americans know, or even care, what that word actually means... and the discontent of the ignorant and the bigoted... is, we are told, the only discontent out there.

Brother Dmitri keeps things in perspective, and rightly points out that too much belief in our government to do anything other than cause problems is itself problematic thinking:

You see, from my point of view, only a fool would want to go a-nudging the Central Committee of the Politburo toward adopting better policies. Here, perhaps once there was hope; and now it's gone. Unfortunately, many people continue to believe in the miraculous properties of national politics and policy.

To coin a phrase... indeed. The really fascinating thing is that, in contemplating what difference "President Palin" vs. "President Obama" or "President Cheney" or "President Homer Simpson"... I'm damned if I can think of any difference. Our Government is trying to tell us something with its total dysfunction; the only real issue is how many of us are prepared to listen to it... and how many will continue to delude ourselves into thinking that the current race to disaster will lead to anything but.