Welcome back to Girls On The Bus, a series of short, but shrewd, analyses of Mrs. Todd Palin on her latest narcissist odyssey. Or movie madness trip. Or just-get-me-the-hell-away-from-home-tour.
My partner in satirical and boldly biased analysis is wonder woman writer, feminist, and managing editor and columnist for Politicususa, Sarah Jones.
LN: Sarah, the media now speculates and opines that the wheels have come off the Palin Family Circus bus. But Mrs. Palin tweets and shames the opinionators with her sarcasm, so then we wait and the thread changes: will she/won’t she? Is messing with media’s collective minds the only power the quitter-twitter yields at this point?
SJ: It’s probably foolish to try to predict what an irrational, erratic person will do, but I think we can say with all certainity that Palin loves to be the center of attention and she’s been brilliant at manipulating the press to get that attention. The problem she faces is that if she does not announce, no one will care about her anymore. She thinks she is a celebrity, but she is not a celebrity even of Paris Hilton style. The only reason she ever got press was because of her potential impact on politics. She and her family are obviously striving to be the Kardashians, famous for being famous. I just don’t think any of them has the star power to pull that off for very long – though I should temper that by noting that the American public loves to hate reality TV stars, and the Palins certainly fall into that category.
They are catnip to the media, whose driving need is to push drama and conflict as “reality tv”. They like that people hate the Palins, because hate sells. That is not, however, sustainable star power. Indifference, on the other hand, does not sell and that is the road Sarah Palin is facing. Imagine if she came out with a perfume line (e.g., Pole Dancin’ 4 Jesus Eau d’toilette, Fire In My Belly Man Magnet Fertility Spray, Cojones for Real Women in a Bottle, Wee-Wee’d Up with LameStream Pump, Feed My Hungry Market, Put a Finger in the Dyke Snake Oil, Love Your Country Kick Out the Browns, Lovin’ Real America Repellant Spray, That’s My Money in Your Pocket Love Spray…..I’m sure your readers can come up with more suggestions.) That’s a path to prosperity that I could support.
LN: While Mrs. Palin was literally and figuratively filling her tank in Alaska, or Arizona, or where ever, the GOP trotted out their newest “false eyelashes and five kids” candidate: Michele Bachmann. Although I might take to calling her Mickey because, well, it’s just not real, is it? I mean, are we supposed to take this seriously?
SJ: I like that! Sadly, I think we are supposed to take this seriously, which just demonstrates how low the Republican Party has gone. You can only pander to the nuts for so long before they demand a nut for President. I don’t think Bachmann could win the Presidency, but what kind of damage is her candidacy inflicting on this country in the world’s view? And here, every time she parrots her Oral Roberts revised history on national TV, our nations’ collective intelligence sags under the weight of mob ignorance.
LN: Matt Taibbi pretty much lances the wound that is the Right-wing, Republican, and fecund beauty queen-turned-party babe in this article in Rolling Stone. No kidding. I had to keep referring to the title to remind myself that it was Mickey B. he was writing about, not Sarah P.
SJ: Under the hood, the two are very similar. They share the same religious zealotry, the same blind following of the corporate agenda, the same pandering to the fundamentalists, and they are both being used as a pretty face to market damaging policies. This was a long term goal of the Republican Party – years ago, they made a huge push to run women at local levels to get them primed for a national audience- because it’s all about the exterior. Put a cowboy in front of the corporate carpetbaggers and the people swoon as they bend over.
LN: Ooh, hurt me. Elsewhere on their site, Julian Brookes gives Rolling Stone readers this quiz. I actually fared quite well because I do think there is a scintilla of sanity to Bachmann. And I was able to differentiate between the two women. Do you think that’s the whole idea: drive us all mad so that we can’t really see what the puppet masters are up to behind Curtain Number One?
SJ: Is the tail wagging the dog? They’ve set themselves up for this and even the party elite know this isn’t going to win a national election, but to some extent they can’t stop using the crack because the hit is so instantaneous when they do. Boom! Got voters. But not enough….
Sarah Jones, it’s always my pleasure to ride this bus with you and get a spritz of your humor and political insight. You are always an island of sanity in this political landscape filled with crazy potholes.
My partner in satirical and boldly biased analysis is wonder woman writer, feminist, and managing editor and columnist for Politicususa, Sarah Jones.
LN: Sarah, the media now speculates and opines that the wheels have come off the Palin Family Circus bus. But Mrs. Palin tweets and shames the opinionators with her sarcasm, so then we wait and the thread changes: will she/won’t she? Is messing with media’s collective minds the only power the quitter-twitter yields at this point?
SJ: It’s probably foolish to try to predict what an irrational, erratic person will do, but I think we can say with all certainity that Palin loves to be the center of attention and she’s been brilliant at manipulating the press to get that attention. The problem she faces is that if she does not announce, no one will care about her anymore. She thinks she is a celebrity, but she is not a celebrity even of Paris Hilton style. The only reason she ever got press was because of her potential impact on politics. She and her family are obviously striving to be the Kardashians, famous for being famous. I just don’t think any of them has the star power to pull that off for very long – though I should temper that by noting that the American public loves to hate reality TV stars, and the Palins certainly fall into that category.
They are catnip to the media, whose driving need is to push drama and conflict as “reality tv”. They like that people hate the Palins, because hate sells. That is not, however, sustainable star power. Indifference, on the other hand, does not sell and that is the road Sarah Palin is facing. Imagine if she came out with a perfume line (e.g., Pole Dancin’ 4 Jesus Eau d’toilette, Fire In My Belly Man Magnet Fertility Spray, Cojones for Real Women in a Bottle, Wee-Wee’d Up with LameStream Pump, Feed My Hungry Market, Put a Finger in the Dyke Snake Oil, Love Your Country Kick Out the Browns, Lovin’ Real America Repellant Spray, That’s My Money in Your Pocket Love Spray…..I’m sure your readers can come up with more suggestions.) That’s a path to prosperity that I could support.
LN: While Mrs. Palin was literally and figuratively filling her tank in Alaska, or Arizona, or where ever, the GOP trotted out their newest “false eyelashes and five kids” candidate: Michele Bachmann. Although I might take to calling her Mickey because, well, it’s just not real, is it? I mean, are we supposed to take this seriously?
SJ: I like that! Sadly, I think we are supposed to take this seriously, which just demonstrates how low the Republican Party has gone. You can only pander to the nuts for so long before they demand a nut for President. I don’t think Bachmann could win the Presidency, but what kind of damage is her candidacy inflicting on this country in the world’s view? And here, every time she parrots her Oral Roberts revised history on national TV, our nations’ collective intelligence sags under the weight of mob ignorance.
LN: Matt Taibbi pretty much lances the wound that is the Right-wing, Republican, and fecund beauty queen-turned-party babe in this article in Rolling Stone. No kidding. I had to keep referring to the title to remind myself that it was Mickey B. he was writing about, not Sarah P.
SJ: Under the hood, the two are very similar. They share the same religious zealotry, the same blind following of the corporate agenda, the same pandering to the fundamentalists, and they are both being used as a pretty face to market damaging policies. This was a long term goal of the Republican Party – years ago, they made a huge push to run women at local levels to get them primed for a national audience- because it’s all about the exterior. Put a cowboy in front of the corporate carpetbaggers and the people swoon as they bend over.
LN: Ooh, hurt me. Elsewhere on their site, Julian Brookes gives Rolling Stone readers this quiz. I actually fared quite well because I do think there is a scintilla of sanity to Bachmann. And I was able to differentiate between the two women. Do you think that’s the whole idea: drive us all mad so that we can’t really see what the puppet masters are up to behind Curtain Number One?
SJ: Is the tail wagging the dog? They’ve set themselves up for this and even the party elite know this isn’t going to win a national election, but to some extent they can’t stop using the crack because the hit is so instantaneous when they do. Boom! Got voters. But not enough….
Sarah Jones, it’s always my pleasure to ride this bus with you and get a spritz of your humor and political insight. You are always an island of sanity in this political landscape filled with crazy potholes.
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