HEAD OF SKATE
From the makers of "The Mighty Ducks" & "Syriana"
Pandering To The People
As with many elections throughout history, the current race for the presidency has become mired with the warm sounding rhetoric of populist politics. The air of this race has become thick with the nauseating odor of the standard populist appeals to the interests of regular, middle-class Americans. Unsurprisingly, America’s recent economic crisis has resulted in an amplification of populist rhetoric on the campaign trail, and nothing is more cliché than politicians claiming to be on the side of the average Joe. What makes this all the more sickening to a cynic, like myself, is that both parties have adopted this populist style of discourse, though obviously the McCain/Palin ticket is the late-comer to this rhetorical celebration of regular folks. What one should remember is that populism isn’t necessarily an ideological disposition or a specific set of policies. It is more like a style of political seduction, sophistry and spectacle for plebeian consumption.
Also, in this age of visual media, populism has been turned into image and appearances. Nowadays, candidates are either elites trying to put on the façade of being a regular Joe Sixpack or philistines attempting to masquerade themselves as competent enough to actually carry out the duties of the position they are seeking to fill. What we are examining in this article is the latter type of candidate, which is exemplified by America’s sweetheart Sarah Palin. Her appeal to average, down-home Middle Americans has become a political tool used by the Republican party and should not be underestimated and taken lightly by the Democratic party. Like our current dear leader George W. Bush, Sarah Palin’s appeal to politically illiterate Joe Schmoes could, scary as it may sound, be one of the deciding factors in this year’s elections. And what we all should do is to try to see these appeals to the common man for what they are: superficial and ultimately meaningless gift-wrappings used to make specific policies look sexier to the average voter. Only then can we force the image and illusion of having love for the people to become actual, material practice of showing love to the people.
“I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.” –Sarah Palin’s RNC speech
Ever since John McCain surprised us all with his pick of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, she has coated the Republican ticket’s campaign with a thick outer layer of conservative populism. It’s pretty safe to say that her appearance on the political scene was for nothing but mere appearances and was, in part, a result of the necessity for John McCain’s campaign to find a way to reach out to white, female voters and to the conservative Republican base. Like the beauty queen she is, she seems to expect that dolling herself up for the public, strutting on stage and saying the right combination of phrases will be enough to win over voters. Sarah Palin, right from her speech at the Republican convention, has gleefully waved around her credentials as your average, down-home Hockey mom who will use her powers of reform to fight against big government, high taxes, and wasteful spending. Armed with a fundamentalist Christian faith, five kids, a blue-collar husband, and a quaint accent, she has wooed traditional conservatives in Middle America and has stirred up excitement within the Republican party. Governor Palin’s obvious lack of foreign policy experience and her seemingly puerile approach to economic policy, which hardly seems to go beyond ranting against pork-barrel spending and high taxes, both clearly illustrate an unadulterated intellectual mediocrity. Her interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric have also helped to horrifically unveil the utter poverty of her intellectual capabilities and political-savviness. To people who Fox news viewers may label as “liberal elitists”, the spectacle of Sarah Palin has transformed into a terrifying yet comical parody of itself. Her claims that being able to see Russia from Alaska qualifies as foreign policy experience and that she reads all the newspapers that get put in front of her have been laughed at and mocked by liberals for good reason. But at the same time, her awe-inspiring ineptitude and apparent mis-education on the basics of politics is something that we all should fear.
“Oh I think they’re just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying you know what? It’s time that normal Joe Six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency. And I think that’s taken some people off guard, and they’re out of sorts, and they’re ticked off about it.” –Sarah Palin to Hugh Hewitt
But, to Palin and the Republicans’ credit, there’s a good chance that Sarah Barracuda’s uncut mediocrity is part of her populist appeal to many Americans in the heartland. Her culturally backwards and conspicuously uninformed positions on social issues such as gay-marriage, abortion, creationism/evolution in science classes, the drug war, and stem cell research are actually very popular amongst the demographic that she is supposed to court. Also, she and McCain have portrayed themselves as the champions of rallying against the “old boys’ network” in Washington, even though McCain has been a senator since 1987 and would be the oldest president ever to take office were he to be elected. They both have vowed to voters that they could be counted on to cleanse Washington and Wall Street of greed, corruption, and elitism as if they were Jesus driving the thieves from the temple. All of this obvious pandering to “regular people” has struck a chord amongst voters and like many elections past, the Republicans have managed to fool a sizable percentage of the electorate into believing that they are the party of the “average American”. And this is all mostly due to this boob with boobs, this hardheaded airhead, this politically illiterate politician, Sarah Palin. She has truly shown herself to be the archetypical Republican populist: a proudly ignorant, good-looking, folksy bimbo who makes decisions from the gut and “without blinking.” Now, the question we as voters should be asking ourselves is, are we ready to let the pure image and spectacle of populism deceive us into voting against our real interests or will we help strike a blow against all those Machiavellian political strategists who think that some nice-sounding words and a good back story is all a candidate needs to win elections? We shall see. But as I mentioned earlier, I’m a cynic.
