An Appalling Speech

Finally, finally I mustered the stomach and the resolve to watch Sarah Palin's speech.

As an unfunny, mean spirited, petty, insincere, z-list comedy routine, it could pass muster, if you were stuck in podunk somewhere and there was nothing else to do on a Sunday night but watch the open mike local talent at the only bar in town. 

As the speech delivered by the person who may be the vice president, or even the president of this country (or of any country for that matter), it was one of the most undignified, unseemly, revolting, embarrassing things I've ever heard. It was the speech of a bully. Nasty, lowest common denominator, without charm nor grace, nor real intelligence. 

And the audience, just as boorish, lapped it up. 

Judith Warner in the New York Times makes a powerful case of the speech being a disgrace for women but I think it is a disgrace for men and women of all genders (!), for its own party and for this stupid ass country where such things happen as Sarah Palin for VP.  

Palin's poor son, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights, was paraded around for enlisting and deploying on, surprise, 9/11. He looked like he wanted to go AWOL from the entire thing.  And then the pregnant teenage daughter and the boyfriend... 

And we are supposed to applaud this as "real", as if real is only whatever resembles a soap opera or a reality show or what you see on the Maury Povich show.  

One thing I will say for Palin, she was a good girl and she learned her lines well. She performed like a trouper. She was clearly enjoying her moment in the spotlight. She was there to raise some heat for her big daddy John McCain and that was almost all she did. I kept expecting her to mention her antediluvian views on abortion and abstinence, but she was not forthcoming. Even the Republicans know this shit scares people off. It scares the bejesus out of women.

 

This country is truly batshit nuts. Totally schizophrenic. Like Sybill, but with two personalities. 

If it was up to me, it would be divided into 2 republics, one of red states and one of blue. 

Hey, let's actually have a referendum on this. It totally makes sense. 

This way, the reds could have their creationism and their theocracy, their firearms in every home, and their misbegotten wars, and the blues could finally live in a decent country with truly decent values. 

Why do we have to deal with the medieval mishegoss of the religious right and the nastiness of the Republicans? Why do they have to deal with our pinko ideals? It looks like never the twain shall meet so why don't we just call it a day and to each his own? I'm serious. 

The most confounding thing is that the Republicans, who would not piss on a poor person if it was on fire, or as it happened in actuality, would not rescue those from drowning (I strongly recommend you watch the Katrina documentary Trouble the Water), are now supposed to be the party of the people, and the Democrats are supposed to be the elitists. This is insane. 

I just hope that come November 4, (please come soon, I beg you) Americans will turn to the little common sense they may have left and save their country from its own disgrace.