Feelin' All Hopey-Changey
I make a point of never listening to political speeches, lacking either the required taste in sadomasochism or instep for falling in behind Glorious Leaders. I like my politicians as I do my dogs: heeling, desperate to please and squatting in the park rather than on the rug.
But their soundbites I can abide, provided these run to ten words or less, and as the form goes Palin's tempest-in-a-Tea-Party crack the other day was hard not to appreciate. Whoever was hired to write her shtick is loads better than the last Melvin. Her latest taunt, taking a rightful place in the annals of palaver, is pure gold:
How's that hopey-changey thing workin' out for ya?
Badum-CHING! I repeated it to Michael Blaine who, not surprisingly, swiftly topped it:
How's that waterboardy-Jesusy thing workin' out for ya?
posted by Richard Cretan at 12:18 AM
3 Comments:
I welcome your dramatic return to these internets, Richard.
I, too, caught notice of Palin's improved zingers. I don't go much for the drive-by media sort of stuff myself, and besides our controversial, wet-behind-the-ears, woefully inexperienced President is low hanging fruit.
One thing I've always liked about the libs is the ever present hope that Utopia is just around the corner, if only the libs would be given free reign and the evil conservatives were made to just shut up.
You have to admire faith like that, right? ..Even if it is baseless, and even if every 15 or 20 years a liberal politician takes advantage of the party-wide naivete to get into office, only to leave the faithful disappointed yet again by the latest Messiah.
But they are all low hanging fruit, aren't they? And every day the evil libs are doing things behind the scenes that they suppose only the evil neocons would stoop to doing, and vice versa. And all the while the dominant media culture makes a mint off of the exaggerated drama, inflating the passions of those addicted to the Greatest Reality TV Show on Earth so as to keep the money rolling in..It's the ancient story of good versus evil all over again, and that always plays well.
Who is good and who is evil in this little charade?
That depends on whether you are a face or a heel sort of guy. They say Muhammad Ali got his schtick from watching Professional Wrestling. Well, where did Professional Wrestling get it from? National politics as dramatized in the national media, of course. And, as Ali, WWF, and polititians know, there's big money in it.
I think Palin is the right's Obama. The mainstream media has taken daily hackjob shots at her for two years now and still can't sway public opinion against her. In fact, her popularity continues to grow in the face of the herculean efforts of the greatest spin doctors the libs have on payroll. It's uncanny.
It's just Obama all over again, only Palin has governing experience. His radical left wing voting record was ignored, his friends were hate-mongering left wing radicals, and that was ignored. He voted for all the spending bills that Bush wanted, every single one, yet campaigned against all the spending his votes helped put into place. We could go on for days. But all it means is that the truth doesn't matter for Obama, just like it doesn't matter for Palin.
This is Theater put on display for the masses. There is huge ego, money, and power up for grabs. The stakes are high and the players
are desperate. Honesty, integrity, and truth are anethama to the ones who either hold this power or want it. The only hope is to make the stage so engrossing, so controversial, hopefully igniting such passion in the citizens of our nations that they never fail to suspend their disbelief.
I like to watch it for the spectacle, at least. Just like in professional wrestling, the spectacle is in watching the reaction of the audience. Part of the macabre fascination for me is that the interested audience, their eyes fixed on the latest Act, honestly believe that what they are watching is real!
They are kindred souls, these audiences of politics and wrestling. The fans of politics, though, have an advantage. Every wrestling match eventually ends, scandal or no. But politics? Never. For those addicted to that soap, this is the true Neverending Story, and as long as power and money are up for grabs, Ivy league educated multi-millionaires like the Obamas, Al Gore, and the Bush clan will ensure that their show will never have to go into syndication or repeats.
Isn't it delicious?
Oops, sorry, I suppose I should identify myself...I was once the next leasing agent at the Twisted Towers near you...Louis J. Concierge.
Speaking of bons mots from the world of politics, here's one that I've come to like now that it's elicited official apologies: "That's fucking retarded!"
As Norman Mailer once asked, What kind of country invades foreign countries needlessly, killing tens of thousands of civilians, but insists that its language be absolutely sanitized and inoffensive?
A nation that is fucking retarded!
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