I'll never make a wish again.
Many years ago (1980 — ask your great-grandparents kiddies!), caught between shame over the emasculated Jimmie Carter, and terrified of the Hollywood Hero of the World War Training Film, I decided that there had to be another option for the voters to select. It had become clear to me that the two-party system was obviously no longer meeting the national need. Despite having lots of problems with the only available alternative, I held my nose and voted for John Anderson, whose allegiance to the GOP was shattered when they selected a movie star when other attributes and experiences seemed necessary. I felt that it might help to establish a precedent. I wished to make it so.
It was the beginning of a long and frustrating effort.
There is a popular proverb which warns that one should be careful what one wishes for. One might get it. Based on what I'm seeing today, I do see the signs that there just might be a resolution to my wishfulness - and the apocryphal warning immediately comes to mind.
Allow me to establish the scene. Sarah Palin has resigned as of the end of July as Governor of Alaska. Immediately, the minds explode in theories and explanations. For instance, Levi Johnston claims he heard Palin announce that it would be nice to take advantage of the lucrative deals that were being offered. P M Carpenter agrees that Palin may well be pondering such remunerations, but declares Palin a "brazenly flaky pol" and "an unscrupulous harpie" stuffed with self-interest. Carpenter admits he can't understand how Her Quitterness even has any supporters now that she's run out on them to pump up her personal portmanteau until plush with pelf.
Some do think they know why Sarah is still in the news. SF Gate Columnist Mark Morford is convinced that Palin's popularity with the rural portions of the GOP "base" has to do with the fact that "you had so captivated a nation's imagination" while "no one could quite understand how the hell you made it up on that stage in the first place." Morford makes Palin sound like a sort-of political reality show - America's Most Stunted? - where the winner earns 15 minutes of fame and whatever commercial endorsements one's agent can arrange.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy
So many of you Americans seem to mistake stupid for uneducated. You've not seen the last of Sarah Palin. If indeed as the author suggests, she will campaign for those candidates she believes believe in the right stuff, her gut will lead her to pick the right issues. She did not become a mayor for nothing, and she did not become a governor for nothing. And there are things she can campaign for in a morally sick America that need pushing - badly.
Her own expereience with a daughter who would not listen to her sexual teachings, who spread her legs for a boy she loved and became pregnant, only to see the boy back away, will give Mrs. Palin, the mother, a credibility with thousands upon thousands of parents who have similar problems. The imperfect woman striving to improve is a very potent symbol among a population of spiritually wounded people.
And as time wears on, Americans will start to see themselves that way.
2 - Joanne Huspek
This is why we need a real alternative. Everyone pooh-poohs the third party concept, but I'm sick to death of the wheeling-dealing that both sides are into. We need a giant shop vac and clean the halls of Congress, start off with new blood (hopefully none of them lawyers... mix some economists in there and people who can READ legislation with a small amount of common sense) and get a new revolution going.
It worked for the founding fathers.