No, I’m not referring to Voldemort of the Harry Potter movies. I’m referring to Sarah Palin, who I’ve resisted mentioning, because she has been serving as the perfect freak show for our conflict-obsessed media, which uses her freakness simply to sell faux “news.” Or maybe not. Depending on who you listen to, she might actually be the future face of the Republican Party, despite the fact that she has never uttered an idea useful for solving a real-world political problem. Or maybe, as Andrew Sullivan writes, she is not a political phenomenon at all, but a religious leader. If you doubt Sullivan’s claim, check Palin’s recent quote, which Sullivan quotes at length in this post from The Daily Dish.
Sullivan’s characterization of Palin doesn’t surprise me, though; I’ve come to see most religions as special cases of politics. Both are elaborate systems that use vague and largely unsubstantiated fables and threats to enable small elite groups to coordinate and control much larger groups of people, for better and worse.
I managed to avoid nearly all coverage of the Tea-party convention all weekend. This morning, I found this little gem:
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CtcVMTZkTZQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CtcVMTZkTZQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
So, the teabaggers got a $110,000 handjob from Mrs. Palin? Eeeeeeeeeeeeew!
For most of us here in Nashville, the convention came and went without incidence. It was largely ignored by the media, except for the local Fox tv affiliate,
There was a little bit of controversy, however, when two of the speakers withdrew from the convention after finding that the convention was organized as a for profit event by a Nashville criminal lawyer.
About 1,000 people showed up to see Sarah Palin talk, and this garners lots of press coverage. http://cbs4.com/national/Sarah.Palin.Tea.2.147611…
When about 1,000 people protest a needless military occupation that has killed thousands of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, it gets no coverage from FOX (or from the local St. Louis Newspaper). http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/03/19/stop-…
About 1000 were there for the main event, only 600 or so registered for the whole convention.
For a national convention, that is really not a big turnout.
600 is plenty enough for a freak show for a network that has no plans to present real solutions for real problems. And I would add that FOX is only aberrant by a matter of degree compared to the other major networks.
Erich, most Nashvillians were much more interested in the Superbowl than in the TEA Party convention.
I found it somewhat telling that some of these proponents of unregulated capitalism got miffed when they discovered that someone was making a profit from the convention.