A Plea for the Poor

This probably isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, but still–

Normally, I can’t watch enough of video like that–it’s got everything, really: douchebags mispronouncing “Leninism,” cute girls farting out of their mouths, guys in Carharts playing the role of “guy in Carhart” (my personal favorite), and of course, angry older white woman–now with improved vapid feminism!

Today I’m feeling a little different about it. Maybe I’m just in a funk because it’s been cold like winter, but we haven’t had any real kick-ass snow yet, and since it’s cold, Basil and I are pretty much relegated to watching “The Incredibles” for the 100th time. Or maybe it’s because Matt Taibbi got me in a snarky mood (probably more accurate).

Now, I don’t think he’s exactly 100% correct when he says that “what we call ‘politics’ has devolved into a kind of ongoing, brainless soap opera about dueling cultural resentments”–maybe more like 90-95%.  And watching this video doesn’t make me feel smug, like I’m glad that people at an Obama book signing wouldn’t behave like that.  Problem is, I’m worried that we wouldn’t come off that much better.

I’m not talking about you, Chad, or–obviously–anyone else who reads this blog (except for Poindexter [grr]).  Not knowing what Sarah Palin thinks about foreign policy is a lot like not knowing what cyanide tastes like, but I’ve talked to people on both the right and the left who don’t have even a coherent sentence describing the actual policies that are currently being debated and created in the City on the Hill.  Sure, everybody can tell you what they think about a public option, or troop increase in Afghanistan, or Cap’n Trade (Cap’n Crunch’s evil cousin), but that’s just, like, their opinion, man.  And worse, oftentimes it’s their opinion of what they imagine those things to be, because actually knowing the unadorned facts of the matter would be too difficult.

And then there’s the matter of whether or not those facts are really available in the first place.  If you want to get the real skinny on health care, of course, you can go ahead and read for yourself the health care bill.  Let us know when you’re finished.  Aside from that, I think that it’s pretty difficult to glean any kind of reasonable knowledge from the various print and TV news outlets.  And if you’re about to say “well, of course the TeeVee isn’t going to give you any information,” I’d like to respond–well, why the hell not?

The answer is probably because the television is where most people are turning to get their information, therefore, fill it up with crap and pass it off as pundit-wizard-voodoo.  “They” think about the beltway soz average schmoes like us don’t have to.  And, as Taibbi points out, the net effect of this is to create an environment in which we’re no longer discussing actual policy, instead, we’re arguing about who cuts their lawn more befitting a patriot.

I don’t think that Taibbi is being hyperbolic when he writes that Palin’s “followers [do] not know that she is the perfect patsy for our system, designed as it is to channel popular anger in any direction but a useful one, and to keep the public tied up endlessly in pointless media melees over meaningless nonsense” [emphasis mine].  And whenever those of us not in line at the book signing start to feel a little too good about ourselves, we should remember that as long as this is happening on one side of the aisle, chances are the air is just as thin on our own side.

Honestly, what I’d like to see from Palin’s supporters is a little more self-awareness.  Just enough to let them see for themselves how ass-hattish they’re being made to appear.  I’d like to see Palin’s reaction to a group of pissed-off dudes in Carharts grilling her on foreign policy.  The truth is, aside from being completely inane, all they’ve really done is support–with rabid fervor–a person who says that she believes in them in the same way.  They deserve someone who will return all of that adulation with the respect that only comes from having an articulate and reasoned policy statement.  I’m not asking for the next Ten Commandments, but just something that they can say to the cameras and be proud that they said it.

Sarah Palin is all of the things we think about her, and probably worse.  In that regard, I don’t doubt that she’s getting exactly what she’s giving–and she deserves it.  The corollary, however, isn’t true.  In fact,  Palin’s supporters deserve better than Sarah.