The rise of Sarah Palin, in my view, is a rogue event, a game changer. She is tapping into a reservoir of angst among some sections of our society, and though her rise was engineered by Karl Rove, it may be beyond their capabilities to control the outcome.
This is good for neither the Republicans nor the Democrats. YouTube has a video of her addressing the Alaskan Independence Party, which advocates that Alaska should secede from the United States. This is reminiscent of the Confederacy and the Old South, and has shades to some degree of the candidacy of George Wallace, 60 years ago, but probably with less overt racism.
The great unseen underclass of the United States has been courted by both parties, but recently has affiliated most strongly with the Republicans. "Family Values" has become a coded phrase that means far more then merely supporting families. It is a statement of a group that is pushing back against modernism in a variety of forms, and a statement of anger at being "left behind" economically by the forces of change wrought by technology.
Originally, most of the people we are speaking of were aligned with the Democratic party, but that was a long time ago..The Republicans welcomed this part of the electorate into itself when the Democrats championed civil rights under Kennedy and Johnson in the 1960's and 70's. Now the party is being swallowed whole by this long-ago ingested organic force, with consequences no-one can foresee....
It's predictable that an economy in crisis would produce populist candidates, but this could be a particularly toxic brew. As the economy continues to worsen, any failure by the conventional parties to right things will probably feed more candidates such as this one, which abhor complexity and want things reduced to extreme simplicity. Needless to say, truth is often complex, and a ruthless drive for simplicity is usually associated with tyranny.
As our population is relatively unschooled and undisciplined, it will make this temptation and the danger of it all of the greater.
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I've been alerted there's another blogger, using more colorful language (and making more assumptions then I would), but if you want to raise your blood pressure a bit, visit this site:
http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/war_and_peace/2008/09/triumph-of-the.html
Warning: She uses some rough labels...
7 comments:
Excellent commentary my friend.
Mark,
I agree with you but what is the alternative. Barack Obama is nothing more than a Chicago Politician. All of his "mentors" are machine type pols tied to the most corrupt ( Rezko) types in Chicago. He stepped up the ladder- community organizer, ward support for State Senator, Cook County support for US Senator. He is nothing more or less than a Chicago Pol.
I am sure this did not make the national press and it was only in one edition of the Chicago Tribune before it was pulled.
David Axlerod ( head of Obamas campaign) owned a consulting company. He was contracted by the U of Chicago Hospital ( Michelle). The consulting company came up with a plan to lessen the load ( actually put out the poor and uninsured) on the hospital by opening up Community health centers. Centers gave grade D health care but these people were moved out of the U of C hospital and taken care of by the health centers. I will see if I can find the article on google. So much for reform
Mark,
When Obama is elected ( and I think he will be), it will not take long for the country to see the Chicago style politics in action. It will be good for the city as federal money will flow in but otherwise, not good. Almost all the people around him are chicago style politicos with all of their baggage.
old john
All,
I think both parties are crooked, I am really a Ron Paul guy. My biggest concern about Sarah Palin is that the anger simmering within the poorest classes could explode now or later into a truly nutty candidiacy.
There is another video on YouTube from Sarah's church (Wasilla Church of God). She want's to set up Alaska as a refuge state for Christians during the "End Times".. She's in sort of a cult..
If she is or becomes wildly popular, it says something about the judgement and emotional state of the electorate....and it's not good...
I have no illusions about Obama, being a great candidate or anything, and I don't agree with his economics at all, it's just that he's not totally nuts..
McCain made a wild choice with Sarah, and it's said he spent only about a half hour to make his decision about her. I don't know if that's crazy, but it certainly is reckless...
So that's how I see the situation...
Regards,
Mark L.
hi mark. have followed the blog since you set it up and have always been intending to thank you at some point for your generosity.
elaine meinel supkis is invariably an entertaining and thought-provoking read. someone else who seems to have an outside-the-mainstream finger on the political pulse is a bloke called webster tarpley.
this tarpley article
seems to make sense of a number of things. all presidential candidates who make it to the line are just frontmen aren't they? - john kennedy would have been the last one to slip through the net; ron paul as a true independent never had a chance (with the media, firstly and most importantly), although he was the only contender with ideas that might have given america an opportunity to get back on track.
read kunstler's The Long Emergency a while back; among many impressive things, i loved the way that in 2004 he completely described the real estate meltdown in 1-1/2 pages, as though he was writing after the event had started. but on peak oil itself, i'm tending to the belief there won't actually be a problem because if the world's population is substantially reduced - and for sure the plans are ready, if not already being implemented - there will be plenty of oil for a long time for those who are left. the trick will be, to be one of those left...
hope i'm around to see what happens in 2012, which seems to be a pivotal period in various systems of belief and/or analysis.
regards
malcolm
Hi Malcolm,
Very interesting article. Don't you just have the feeling we're just trading out one set of nut-cases for a different set of nut-cases?
Maybe the best thing that could happen is the United States goes bust, and then with the internal turmoil that results from this, there would be no time or energy to start WWIII. While time is being used up, maybe these old warhorses like Brzezinski, Kissenger, and the Rockefellers, would finally die off and leave the rest of the world alone...But I'm probably dreamin'...
Regards,
Mark L.
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