"Sarah Palin is a fucking retard."
-- Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report last night
As much as I hate to shirk my responsibility to you nice folks, I really don't have a damned thing of interest to add to the Schadenfreudian giggle-fest that's followed the revelation that Palin needed to jot down the most basic talking points on her left hand so she'd remember them during her Tea Bagger convention appearance over the weekend. The bottom line is that by now you've heard it all before and, kind of like my point about James O'Keefe last week, Palin is such a polarizing figure that there isn't a thing I could say that would change anyone's mind about her. You either love the entirely for-profit brand known as Sarah Palin or you hate her (although only one of these opinions comes with the caveat that you've got an IQ larger than your shoe size).
Probably the only thing worth pointing out is that it was entertaining to see the big-three networks' news departments finally dip their toes in waters that for the most part have been left to cable and the partisan carnival barkers up until now. To their credit, the nightly news reports have treated Palin like she's radioactive -- the underlying implication being that until she makes actual news, she's just one particularly noxious element in a political climate that's pure poison; Palin does stupid shit so often, and in doing so incurs the wrath and mockery of her political enemies, that it's just dog-bites-man at this point. But even Brian Williams had to chuckle a little at just how fucking ridiculous the notion of Palin writing notes on her hand was -- and although dingbat provocateurs like Andrew Breitbart will tout this as proof of the great liberal media conspiracy, the fact is that Williams is a thoroughly balanced journalist, which means that if he can't avoid acknowledging the absurdity of a news item, you know he figures a good portion of America feels the same way.
Once again, though, the people who love Palin are immune to criticism of her. They'll make excuses up and down as to why someone might be attacking their immortal beloved without ever conceding that maybe there's something there to criticize. Believe me, I know; I've gotten into conversations with some of them and it's almost unbelievable the level of disconnect with logic and reason.
Which brings me back to my original question from last week: What the hell do you do when there's just no getting through to either side of the political debate anymore?
I'd like to think that this little debacle will be the tipping point that opens the eyes of Palin's rabid fan base -- that her acolytes will finally realize that their idol is a buffoonish joke -- but I know better than to get my hopes up.
No comments:
Post a Comment