Will she or won't she? This question has been asked many times by people from all shades of the political spectrum since Sarah Palin quit the office of governor of Alaska. It became quite clear early on that the prospect of making huge amounts of money appeared to be her main motivation. That's fine. Go ahead Sarah, fleece your followers, bleed them dry. Have your Sarah Palin's Alaska next to the poodles, mall cops, strange pregnancies and all the other inspiring programs on TLC.
But a number of other things make the whole scenario very disturbing. Sarah Palin's Facebook notes used to be amusing in the good old days of settling scores with imagined perverted late night show hosts. Then they took a more sinister tone and it became obvious that they were not written by some misguided spokesperson in Alaska. We detected the hand of an ex-c4p attack dog as her notes started to display copious footnotes. So far so good. When a couple of notes appeared on Bill Kristol's site before being published on Facebook, the alarm bells rang. A lot of notes were beyond the scope of Rebecca Mansour, the ones that attempted to disrupt the healthcare debate, the ones about oil, energy and the environment. We could see the Neocons and Corporate America behind them.
Don't forget the Supreme Court decision that granted personhood to the corporations.
I have a theory. The book tour was an exercise in testing the waters. The puppetmasters had a reasonably attractive woman pitched against a president who faced enormous challenges (and black to boot) regarding the economy. The book tour went reasonably well. Then came Fox News and the speaking engagements. Sarah Palin started speaking for the nation, becoming increasingly more aggressive. The media dutifully reported on her every word, she was never out of the headlines. Tea parties and a few endorsements kept the momentum.
If interest started waning, a new enemy was quickly found and new fences quickly erected, not without endless whining interviews with Fox News colleagues. Another media frenzy.
They kept her controversial and hogging the media (again) by exploiting the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Extreme greenies and "Heck, gimme a call" guaranteed more hilarity and the ever important headlines.
They stepped up the endorsements in a timely fashion, the theme being a new brand of "feminism." Male or female, all her candidates are pro-life, pro-second amendment, commonsense conservatives who want to go back to the founding fathers and the constitution. This mantra is repeated again and again and again.
Primaries over? Interest on the wane again? No problem, let's have a boobiegate. Sarah goes rogue and shows up at traditional racetrack dressed for a picnic in the park flashing her twin peaks and the headlines are all hers again.
It doesn't matter if she's ridiculed. Their objective is name recognition and word association. Commonsense conservatism/low taxes/second amendment/pro-life/constitution go with the big or small boobed package. Every day, every hour, every single minute they can grab.
Away from Sarah Palin, they're drumming the beat that President Obama is a socialist. That's a four letter word for a great number of Americans.
There are plans to send her across the pond for a meeting with the woman who, together with Ronald Reagan, brought down the Soviet Union. See? Sarah Palin is NOT a socialist and rubs shoulders with a major player in the world of international politics. It doesn't matter that Thatcher is "non compos mentis."
The Republican Party is making it acceptable to have candidates refuse to debate their opponents or give interviews to the "lamestream" media. These would have been the biggest hurdles in Sarah Palin's way to the White House.
There is a strong possibility that a well timed major incident may be staged by the puppetmasters, plunging the present administration into a homeland security crisis.
The puppetmasters are cleverly making a great number of people identify with their mantra, making them feel important as "Real Americans." Sarah Palin is one of them. She's beautiful, shapely, her family has problems they can see as their own. She's a good Christian who turns to God for everything.
Many Americans don't bother to vote. Those who vote may face machines with a mind of their own. It worked for George W Bush.
Imagine a low information voter who was convinced to vote as a "Real American" looking at a ballot with the name of a white, attractive, outspoken, Christian woman they saw on the cover of numerous tabloids, glossy magazines and the TV against the still strange sounding name of a black, "muslim" socialist man who's going to take away their constitutional rights and who can't protect them against the enemy.
Another clever trick is to label the colluding sections media "lamestream," distancing herself from them. As well as Fox News, others also carry Sarah Palin's water and are very instrumental in reinforcing the myth, even when they appear to be critical, as they don't ask any relevant questions or contradict her statements. They ridicule but don't call her out on the issues. By referring to a "liberal" media in a sweeping generalization, Sarah Palin appears to be swimming against the current, enhancing her image as the outsider and underdog, a very appealing image for a petite but feisty woman. Of course, not all journalists play this game and regularly call her bluff. If only they had louder voices...
Sarah Palin's own father let it slip that she doesn't make her own decisions. Sometimes we think she's losing it and will not be viable as a candidate. To the puppetmasters it doesn't matter one bit what comes out of her mouth or gets posted on Facebook or Twitter, as long as the mantra is repeated and reinforced, as long as everybody instantly recognizes Sarah Palin, as long as large sections of the media play the game and report her insane rantings as something serious, without asking any awkward questions.
America is a very democratic country. People like Bonzo's partner and the Terminator can achieve high offices in government. Sarah Palin has already been there without having ever been a Hollywood star.
We live in a world where the cult of celebrity is all pervasive and it has spilled into politics. We live in a world where politics is almost the synonym of dirty tricks and in America, corporations are citizens.
We may laugh at Sarah Palin. But we can't let THEM have the last laugh.
Think about it.
(This post was written after some phone conversations with Kathleen and after I read some comments expressing the fears outlined above. H/Ts all round!).
