Cody
Williams
The Great Right Hope
by Cody Williams
I guess one thing you can say about this year's presidential election is that winning it has nothing to do with being a white man for a change.
Just as an early season of American Idol pitted Kelly Clarkson against Justin Guarini, this election hinges on our country's acceptance of either an urbane young mulatto or a small town country white girl. The drama of cultural politics played out on grand scale.
I think it's what lead Republicans are saying when they claim winning this year has nothing to do with the issues we face as a nation: financial crisis, war, job lost, health care, education, international standing, ailing industries and the mortgage meltdown.
Why would these things distract us when far more trivial matters are at stake?
Barack Obama looks good in a nice Italian suite. And Sarah Palin may look good out of one.
Barack's fancy speeches move crowds. Sarah gives good punch line -- and with the comic deftness of the late Erma Bombeck.
Bomback once quipped, "the grass is always greener over the septic tank."
How appropriate.
The insertion of Palin into the lack-luster campaign of John McCain has done the equivalent of talking the conservative-right down from the ledge of political hari-kari. Look closer and you'll see that the Palin/McCain ticket is the septic tank that fertilizes the greener pastures of a comeback in popularity polls.
It seems no matter how foul the ice Palin trod through to get from Wasila to Alaska's statehouse these conservatives, like the pit bulls she likened herself to, have latched onto this candidate as a coming Savior.
She lies easily, regularly and blatantly. It doesn't matter. What good Christian can't forgive a whooper or two?
She inflates her state salary with bogus expense claims. No problem, all that talk about wasting tax payer's money was directed only at welfare cheats.
She's a mom with teenage daughters, one of whom is in crises. Again, all that teen pregnancy/unwed mother rhetoric was only meant to disparage and discourage ghetto baby mamas from being fruitful and multiplying.
She uses the power of her office and political accomplishments to settle personal and family vendettas. Vengeance is whose, sayeth the Lord?
The Great Right Hope. A woman, no less.
This just proves that all of politics is truly personal. Larger causes, be damned. We vote for those we like and we like those who are most like us.
The good Christian-Right is willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of Palin's family and the future of our nation at the altar of cultural politics. So much for family values.
In a stinging response to the McCain ad that linked Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears the hotel heiress reminded John just how old, unattractive and un-hip he is, his fly wife notwithstanding.
John saw that labeling Barack a 'celebrity' was not hurting the Democrat enough in the polls so what did he decide to do?
He decided to create a new celeb. The Angelina Jolie of the political evangelical conservative circuit. A pretty woman who can ice fish and spear chuck caribou in the morning, birth a baby that same afternoon, balance a state budget, perform her "wifely duties" with her husband and still not get her makeup messed up
Let's call this what it is.
Democracy, American Idol style.
© www.codywilliams.com 2008
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