blog @ xanatos.ca

The Pitbull

Well, since political season is in full swing these days, I thought I'd share a particularly insightful article by Matt Taibi (from The Rolling Stone).

It's about Sarah Palin, who'll become America's first female vice president in January, assuming John McCain wins the upcoming election. And if that happens, she might end up becoming America's first female president, too.

John McCain is, after all, in his seventies, and he's had cancer. At his age, the actuarial data suggests that he'll probably become severely incapacitated (or die of old age) sometime in the next four to eight years. If that happens, the presidency would automatically pass on to Palin.

This would be a disaster, because Sarah Palin is so unfit to govern that she actually makes the current president look competent. The fact that she might one day have his job is terrifying--it really might be the most tragic example of mass lunacy that has occurred in my lifetime. Just ask Matt Damon.

This all begs the question, why? Why would people willingly elect George Bush (twice), and then go straight from him to someone like Sarah Palin?

From the article:

The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic, as they would for reality-show contestants or sitcom characters. Hicks root for hicks, moms for moms, born-agains for born-agains.

If you want, you can read the rest of Taibi's article here. I should warn you that Matt Taibi is not known for being a politically correct (or family friendly) writer, so skip it if you are easily offended.