Sunday, February 7, 2010

Mind-Numbingly Stupid


Sometimes, I do things that I really shouldn't do.
Like watching last night's Palin speech. I'm sure that exposing myself to such mind numbing stupidity cost me some brain cells. But I couldn't resist the temptation.
My immediate reaction (posted below) was "meaner than Nixon and dumber than Quayle", which would be a historically bad combination.
The "Tea Party" crowd loved the empty platitudes. Attacking 'liberals' in general and Obama in particular, Palin got standing ovations. It's a tactic that will work for her. Her rhetoric stuck with the safe generalizations, and avoided any specifics, like "tax cuts" and "spending cuts" and the obligatory "war on terror" tough talk. "Common sense" jingoism about love of "god" and "country", and such, delivered with a wink and a folksy accent aimed at "real" Americans, don'tcha know.
And it worked for her. The anti-intellectual tone played perfectly to her dumbed down audience.
What scares me is that she is actually politically viable. Never underestimate the amount of mass stupidity in the electorate. There's a chunk of the public that dislikes, even resents, Obama's "intellectualism". You know, the "elitism" of seeming smarter than they are.
Myself, I prefer a president who's smarter than I am (as opposed to the last one, who was dumber than I am), even when I disagree with that president. Given the complexity of the world, I appreciate a certain amount of subtlety and nuance. That's not what appeals to the "Palin people"; they want "simple" answers. They really prefer stupid.
What's truly scary is that, after watching last night's speech, I think she might win.
Added: and the crib notes on her left hand...that's so presidential.

3 comments:

Greendayman said...

Palin is the eye candy that the repressed evangelilcal repubs always seek. Note that Wallace wanted her to sit on his lap. Any serious pol would not get the cance to sit on anyone's lap. BUT, the repugs eat that stuff up. They do not care if she can govern - due to the dumbing down of the Fox News watching American public. The majority of which really don't know what governing actually involves. It is a complex world but the conservatives are continually looking for simple answers like they get in church. "Why is the sky blue?" "Because God made it so". THIS is what we are up against. Faith-based politics. Dangerous and deadly to the middle class and our Democracy. I feel that until the Zombie Jesus and the Bible are looked upon as religous claptrap and not governmental necessities we are doomed to repeat this process.

Lockwood said...

I just caught that crib notes thing a bit ago. It's gone viral in the liberal blogosphere, but it'll be interesting to see the degree to which it penetrates MSM.

On the positive side, I read that the number of attendees was 600, plus 300 that paid $350 (!) just to see her speech. Umm... 900 sheeple does not a massive populist grassroots movement make.

Justin said...

i concur with these comments. Palin supporters are doing something subconscious. She is an obvious idiot but this does not matter. It must be an outlet, albeit a disturbing one, for the moral majority.