Mama Grizzly Palin & The Four F's
As the dust from the mid-term elections begins to settle, it is obvious that the men who represent what passes for the Republican establishment have yet again successfully employed the Four F's, a crude sexual expression popular back in my high school days. That is, "Find Them, Feel Them, F--- Them and Forget Them."
The first instance that I can recall of what some pundits more politely call the "fake right" strategy was during the Reagan Era. The Gipper and his legislative gurus raised taxes, expanded the size of government and pretty much ignored the religious right's legislative priorities, all the while talking a far different game to placate the conservative base.
That is pretty much what today's party establishment -- represented by McConnell, Boehner and Rove -- did with the Family Values crowd during the Bush Era: Paid lip service to their extreme positions, took their money and occasionally campaigned for them, but once the establishment's goals were achieved, pretty much abandoned them.
And so it is with the Tea Partiers.
The GOP establishment has achieved the first of its two major goals -- recapturing the House (making Barack Obama a one-term president is the second) -- but before the ink on the last exit poll was dry it had begun a concerted effort to make sure that Sarah Palin, the movement's Mama Grizzly standard bearer and, regardless of one's politics, the impetus for a lot of Republican mid-term fund raising and enthusiasm, is not the party's 2012 presidential nominee.
In other words, to assure that the corporate takeover of the Washington country club continues apace by stopping trailer trash Tea Partiers like Palin in their tracks.
One irony of this latest successful employment of the Four F's is that the Republican electoral gains were largely undeserved, and the very establishment Republicans who enabled George Bush's failed agenda and were accomplices in running the economy into a ditch will still be running the country club membership committee.
There is nothing unethical, let alone illegal, about this crass manipulation. In fact, you can make the case that Barack Obama wooed the hard left and then pretty much abandoned it after being elected.
Why does anyone think Sarah Palin wants to be President. You have to work when you are President. Now she can fly around (or others dime), get lots of face time on television and not have to do anything that requires using much brain.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you think she cares about those Tea Party folk other than to use them to keep her face in front of a camera (with all the money and clothes that come with that) then I have a bridge you can buy.
All I continue to hear from whites on either side of the political spectrum is that PBHO has abandoned them as a group as well as USA integrity. It has been especially frustrating to hear this mantra from the progressives as no matter what the evil neocons do, they eventually band together for effectiveness safe if nothing else. Btw I was progressive before you sappers knew what a pee was used for. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired so will withhold my future support from the democratic party.
ReplyDeleteDenise, I am also sick and tired of being S&T, as well as being of a certain age. And I have always been a progressive. In Texas. But one thing I will do is continue to vote, and unless the parties morph into something completely different, my vote will be for a Democratic ticket.
ReplyDeleteYes, they let us down time and again, but the alternative is a well-worn misery. I do not always work for candidates during campaigns, and I think that is okay. Sometimes backing away for a while can help. But I hope you continue to be involved. Hang in there.