These ARE the End Times

[oselle]

Twice in the past week I have found myself watching Sarah Palin on television. You who follow my journal know what a fan I am of apocalyptic fiction, yet in all my travels through that genre I have never met a fictitious dystopian villain as over the top as Sarah Palin is in real life. The one that may come the closest is Randall Flagg, Stephen King's grinning, denim-clad antichrist in The Stand. Folksy psychopath (and would-be President of the U.S.) Greg Stillson, from King's The Dead Zone, is also a contender. But none of these characters -- NO fictional character -- even comes close to what Palin puts out there. Her shtick makes the Walkin' Dude look like a two-bit carny hustler. Some people laugh at her but I don't. She scares the living shit out of me.

Comments

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

You are 100% correct in your comparisons here. I may not sleep for a week.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Did you see her today at that McCain rally? She just needed to throw in some jackboots to go with that black leather ensemble. I'd love to know what Stephen King makes of her because she's like all of his villains rolled into one terrifying package of folksy, beehived grotesquery.

[liptonrm.livejournal.com]

Did you hear about her reality tv show? The End is extremely fucking nigh, my friend.

All I see, whenever I think of her, is a video of supporters lined up to see her speak during the presidential campaign. They were a group of the vilest, most hate-filled people I'd ever seen. Which is pretty damn indicative of the kind of person Palin is.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've heard about her reality show. She's the fucking Snooki of Alaska. I take that back, because Snooki's a role model in comparison. The only good thing about Sarah Palin becoming such a media star is that all that filthy lucre will keep her out of the relatively low-paying world of politics...but these days, she could probably find a way to do both.

What I don't understand are all these people who not only believe her, but who find her delightful and charming. I look at her and I just see this thing out of a horror movie. I mean she's just physically repulsive with all her tics and twitches and grimaces. And that's with the sound turned down. Then you listen to her and it's like, Christ, get the holy water.

[sixth-queen.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the WINK during the VP debate! That told me all I needed to know. The Presidential debates should be some of the most serious footage on televisions, where the state of the nation is literally at stake, and all she could do was sex her way through it. And unfortunately, the tactic seems to be working. Even "soulmate" McCain is taken aback.

And is it just me, or did somebody stuff her bra under that leather?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Oh please, the winking. She's almost fifty years old and she still thinks she's the fucking beauty pageant contestant she was 25 years ago. I'm surprised she didn't show up for the debate in a swimsuit. And yes, she was looking rather...pneumatic under all that leather.

[elvisglasses5.livejournal.com]

No one makes me raaaaage like Sarah Palin. Nobody, not even Glen Fucking Beck. I need a buffer, like Jon Stewart, to keep me from putting my fist straight through my laptop screen whenever I have to hear about her.

(Why is my flist so chatty tonight? CAN'T STOP REPLYING.)

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Do not EVER watch her unfiltered on something like that Sean Hannity show because WOW. But it's quite an education to see her in full-Fox mode. Not one coherent or even true thing comes out of her mouth and it's all strung together with these little folksy sayings and giddy high-pitched exclamations and the sneering and the grinning and the twitching...

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

holy shit, the comparisons are chilling! i like to point and mock, but you know, she hasn't gone away and it is more than a little scary that she's still holding her own out there in her folksy you-betcha kind of a way...

[oselle.livejournal.com]

It also cracks me up that she's out there stumping for McCain when his entire campaign staff hated her guts and essentially blamed her for losing the election. That nasty old son-of-a-bitch has no shame either. Why doesn't he just take his toys and go home, like he childishly said he would do after HCR passed?

[corbyinoz.livejournal.com]

There are some things that an outsider just can't understand about America. Like - how come health care reform was called an 'abomination to God'. Because making sure everyone gets looked after is so evil? And Sarah Palin. Look, I break out into a cold sweat whenever I see her, and I'm half a world away. I don't know how the sane folk in the US cope.

Here's the thing; Hitler was regarded as a joke when he began his political career in the 20s. And right up until he took power, the smart, sane, civilized people were saying to each other, "They're kidding, right? No one could fall for that hate filled looney tune."

[oselle.livejournal.com]

how come health care reform was called an 'abomination to God'.

The Republican propaganda about healthcare reform spread thick layers of apocalyptic-sounding lies that many, many people in this country swallowed hook, line and sinker. To name just a few:

Death Panels: If the government "controls" healthcare, they'll ration it out to those who are young, healthy and productive. Faceless government bureaucrats will sit on "death panels" that will literally "pull the plug on grandma." BTW: It was Mrs. Palin herself who coined the term "death panels."

Abortion: Good Christians who are morally opposed to abortion will be tyranically forced to fund the slaughter of innocent little fetuses via their tax dollars. The number of abortions will also go up because women will have access to free, unlimited abortions unwillingly paid for by these tormented Christians.

Communism: Obama's ultimate goal is to turn America into a Godless, communist state. Socialized medicine is the first step towards that goal.

And that's just a few. There's also a lot of bizarre mishmash about "freedom" that I barely understand and I've lived here all my life -- something about how if the government covers people's healthcare, then none of us are "free" anymore. It makes no sense at all. The sainted Ronald Reagan was spewing the same bullshit forty years ago when the Republicans were trying to kill Medicare (Medicare is, literally, socialized medicine for senior citizens, which, in forty years, has not yet managed to turn America into a Godless, communist state, like Reagan and others predicted).

Because making sure everyone gets looked after is so evil?

The dark underbelly of the American character is that we don't want everyone to be looked after. There are many people here who think that something like healthcare is a privilege that should only go -- at a high price -- to those worthy enough to earn it. And those who are "unworthy" really don't deserve to live anyway. Fuck 'em.

I often think about how people laughed at Hitler for many years. And then look what happened.

[sixth-queen.livejournal.com]

Specifics on the "privilege" talking points:

"Why should I pay for somebody else's insurance. They're trying to spread my wealth!"
"I work hard to pay for my own insurance, why should I support these freeloaders?"
"Go to Canada. Oh that's right, you have to wait 6 months to see a doctor in Canada. We have the best health care system in the world..."
"These uninsured are just choosing not to buy insurance."
"Get a job!"

I was just discussing this with a nurse friend of mine. Health insurance companies are now hiring consulting companies who specialize in how to look for loopholes and drop people from their insurance plans. Yes you read that right.

This, of course, blows the Privilege talking point out of the water. These people DO work hard, they DO have jobs, they pay for their OWN insurance, nobody is spreading ANY wealth to them. And yet HI companies are STILL screwing them over. And it's only going to get worse as the date for the Exchanges nears. The credit cards did the same thing -- jacked-screwed us before the new law kicked in. But there's a huge different between credit and physical pain.

It wouldn't surprise me, really, if the next Congress puts in for a Public Option, under the radar. It's easier to play the reconciliation card the second time.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

These people DO work hard, they DO have jobs, they pay for their OWN insurance, nobody is spreading ANY wealth to them. And yet HI companies are STILL screwing them over.

Aaaah, but then these folks are supposed to rely on the good Christian charity of their family, friends and neighbors. I know over the summer several Republican lawmakers plainly stated that what we "really needed" was for people to help each other more...and the audience applauded. It's the sort of thing that sounds real pretty and folks lap it up without thinking about what it actually means. They think it means doing something kind, now and then, when you can. But bringing a casserole over to your ailing neighbor's house isn't going to pay for his chemotherapy. A community bake sale wouldn't cover one month of hospitalization for someone who was seriously sick or injured. And how funny that people stand up and cheer for this warm-n-fuzzy notion of folks comin' together...when these very same people go into a spitting rampage over the idea of just a few their tax dollars being used to help out those same "somebody elses." Yeah, I really want to be dependent on the human kindness of people like that. Assholes.

[sixth-queen.livejournal.com]

"Aaaah, but then these folks are supposed to rely on the good Christian charity of their family, friends and neighbors."

Not only that, but rich people should get a better tax break for donating to said Christian charities This is what John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, wrote in his Wall Street Journal editorial. I still haven't bought anything at a Whole Foods since, and I don't intend to.

There's a huge difference between acting like a real Christian and just scoring brownie points with God -- while others are watching, of course.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Well, we all know that tax breaks for the rich are the cure to all our problems. Because wealth trickles down and rising tides lift all boats and without them none of us would have a job because they're the thinkers and creators and producers who make our society run and so we should all be grateful to our corporate overlords and give them many, many, many tax cuts.

[ann-tara.livejournal.com]

It's the fawning over Palin, the cable popularity of Faux News, and the hatred for the population on the part of what is now considerfed the Republican Party that are just a few of the things that make me truly despair for this country. I don't know what we are anymore.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I don't know either. The entire Republican party and conservative movement is rotten to the core and people have been whipped up into a sick frenzy. This country is really showing what it's made of.

[the0neru.livejournal.com]

Reading your entry and the comparisons to Flagg (eeek, although Flagg still frightens me more because at least he was/is *intelligent*) and Stillson (closer analogy, IMO - more like puppets), it occurred to me: given that the Bible was written from a patriarchal viewpoint, of course most of the prominent figures are male. But how much of Palin's "character"/persona lines up with that of the Antichrist?!

Talk about bringing the Apocalypse down in tone. o_O

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I saw a picture of Palin today in the black leather getup she was wearing at that McCain rally and I'll say one thing for Repubs: they are not afraid to dress like the supervillains they are.

[the0neru.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that outfit? In the South that falls under the "trying too hard" and "she really ought to be ashamed of herself" categories.

On the... "plus" (?) side, she's providing TONS of amusement to folks this side of the pond.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Well, over here, if a Democratic woman were wearing such a thing, Glenn Beck would be showing (via his Blackboard of Doom) how IT PROVES SHE'S A NAZI because Nazis all wore leather. But when a Republican does it she's "spunky!"

I'm glad you're all laughing at our downfall over there. WE'RE TAKING YOU WITH US, YOU KNOW!

[cpsings4him.livejournal.com]

Sarah Palin is the scariest thing I've seen in politics in a very long time. And that's including GWB. O_O