Gentilly Girl- a part of the 99%

as we wait with baited breath to witness the greatest humiliation of our time- Gov. Sarah Palin “does” a Debate.

This will be light years better than Sen. Ted Stevens’ “explanation” of the Intertoobs and how they work a few years back. (I thought that one was pretty stupid, and damn have I seen stupid in my time, but Palin is going to set a new high, or is that low, in this field.)

As Dan Quayle put it twenty years ago, “What a waste it is to lose a mind. Or not to have a mind is very wasteful. How true that is.”. Is rampant Republican stupidity a cyclical thing? Or is it just an inherent trait?

Maybe Dan Quayle was a prophet- “People that are very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.”

Frankly, I like weirdness “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”, but I don’t apply that to politics, only to living. I expect my politicians I elect to support their constituency, to actually BE OUR REPRESENTATIVES in Washington.  After all, this is a participatory democracy and most of us can’t just fly to D.C. on a whim.  I want someone better than myself to be my voice, or at least listen to it and ponder what I, and the others that make up our community, actually need under the Social Contract for our communities.

I don’t see this with either McCain or Palin. Or actually, I see these two clowns as representatives of an America I never believed in and not the one I fought for-

“The defining moment for me came shortly after Palin and her family stepped down from the stage to uproarious applause, looking happy enough to throw a whole library full of books into a sewer. In the crush to exit the stadium, a middle-aged woman wearing a cowboy hat, a red-white-and-blue shirt and an obvious eye job gushed to a male colleague they were both wearing badges identifying them as members of the Colorado delegation at the Xcel gates.

“She totally reminds me of my cousin!” the delegate screeched. “She’s a real woman! The real thing!”

I stared at her open-mouthed. In that moment, the rank cynicism of the whole sorry deal was laid bare. Here’s the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she’s a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed middle-American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin’ Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else’s, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning.”

Curtsey to Matt Taibbi for a description of this part of the electorate that I could not have said better.

Tonight’s debate will be a commentary on the true Culture War that is raging in this country- between those who try to make this country a good place to live and those cretinous myth-enslaved, unenlightened, stuck in the Past crackers that don’t have, and never will, a clue about Reality. A clash between the Spirits of the Future and the moronic inferno of the Past.

So at the Zero Hour, I’ll be downing a bottle of wine, some escargot and canapes as the Elitist bitch I supposedly am, and I’m going to witness the horrors that mirror much of the American people’s souls. Then I will hang my head, tears flowing for the country I was raised to believe in and respect.  My soul aches for what the Repugs have done to our Nation since 1980, and I will never forgive them and their supporters.

Here’s another take on Palin and tonight’s debate that caught my eye.