A good friend of The Contrarian named Nicolo (last name withheld to protect his dignity/employability) recently sent us an e-mail taking us to task for our ongoing broadsides of Sarah Palin and family. Here’s a slightly edited version of his message, reprinted with permission:
I think you degrade the quality of your blog by continuing to report on the Palins’ personal matters. During the election, maybe all was fair game. This stuff shouldn’t be part of our national dialogue, even though a lot of media has framed it as worthy of the public’s attention (do you really want to be like them?) When I see Sarah Palin as your number two cloud tag, it saddens me. There is something fundamentally flawed about continuing after her, and it’s against the values I voted for. It also doesn’t jive with the tone of the rest of your blog. Don’t get me wrong — she sucks, but she’s also been thoroughly defeated (maybe you think she’s coming back sometime). I don’t think she’s coming back, but if she does, go after her then, when she (and not her family) asks for it. The best of your blog has more weight without this tabloid crap.
Nicolo is a great guy, but I think his criticisms of our Palin coverage are a bit off the mark. Here’s my response:
1. Although it’s not in the “Music, Media, Metaphysics” header, satire is a major part of The Contrarian, and has been since the beginning. I see us as being like Bill Maher’s inquisitive, chubby progeny. Sarah Palin and her family are therefore within target range – let’s not forget how she elbowed her pregnant teen daughter into the national spotlight while simultaneously shoving her own regressive morals down the throats of anyone within range of broadcast media.
2. As long as these weirdos keep voluntarily going on TV (Bristol Palin went on Fox WITH HER MOM; Levi Johnston went on Tyra Banks WITH HIS MOM AND SISTER) they are very much “fair game.” I’m not forcing these people to reveal their tragic-comic Jerry Springer-style family feuds on national TV, but as long as they do, I reserve the right to make fun of them relentlessly, and with extreme prejudice. I’m not Barack Obama, and I didn’t campaign on a “nice guy” platform. Sometimes compassion is a sharp blade.
3. You’re right that Sarah Palin isn’t coming back, BECAUSE SHE NEVER WENT AWAY. Though appalled by her politics, we satirists are delighted that Sarah, immediately after losing the election, started a national PAC to fund her inevitable campaign for the presidency in 2012. Alaskan media reports indicate she’s spending more time raising money outside the state (apparently in those pockets of the country where “Real Americans” live) than she is governing. She’s given numerous speeches to national right-wing bigot orgs in which she spouts her Christianist rhetoric and defames not only her ex running mate, but also the president. I’d say that makes her fair fucking game, indeed.
4. Like it or not, Sarah Palin’s candidacy for VP brought her to the national stage, and dragged with it the sundry political scandals of her native Alaska. That means that Troopergate is worth reporting, as is the her anti-environmental policies, sweetheart oil deals (and “redistributionist” taxpayer refunds), animal cruelty, etc. That the “executive” of the largest nanny state in the country makes such a display of not accepting federal stimulus dollars is both hypocritical and hilarious. And we think it’s worth pointing out publicly.
5. You might think that Palin is an “easy target.” Well, I see nothing benign about apocalyptic Christianist nutjobs like Palin. I think they’re dangerous, and the fact that we had one on the national ticket should frankly scare you to death (say what you will about Dubya, but his religiosity was seemingly a matter of booze-related convenience). The most effective weapon we have against these people is ridicule — demonstrating their unfitness to lead by repeatedly comparing their words and actions to those of sane human beings.
I think I’ve more than made my case here. But keep in mind that the reason she rates so high in the tag cloud is because we wrote about her a lot during the election cycle. Believe me, if I didn’t exercise editorial restraint re: Palin, we’d never have room for anything else.
Nicolo responded to that with a more direct question: “How seriously do you want your political thoughts to be taken?”
I’m not sure I have an answer for that one, so I’ll crowdsource the question: how seriously do you take my political thoughts?
April 8th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Casey–
Your response was spot on. The idea that a right-wing fundamentalist extremist was so close to being “one heartbeat” from the nuclear codes frightens me to this day. She gained popularity by whoring out her family as “perfect American Joes” and a huge part of the population bit that hook, line & sinker. It’s important that her posturing and hypocrisy are exposed every time they rear their head, because Americans tend to forget quickly unless they’re reminded (quickly as in, say, every four years?).
April 8th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I will take the lion’s share of responsibility for the glut of Palin posting as I tend to dump on her a lot. I will readily admit that she is “low hanging fruit”. She is a nightmare trainwreck of a politician and the way she conducts herself is embarassing as all hell. That being said, I feel that it is my patriotic duty to highlight her misadventures. She inexplicably remains to this day the number one “star” in the GOP, which means that in roughly 3 years, (probably more like 2 yrs these days), we are going to see the GOP trot her out and run her all over the country. If anything, I hope these articles pop up in google searches forever so we, the people can be reminded what a BAD CHOICE she is to lead this great nation of ours. Her platform is one of anti-intellectualism and rhetoric and ideaology over common sense and virtue. In my very humble opinion, she needs to be kept as far away from the national stage as humanly possible. Personally, i keep hoping for a freak accident, involving a snowmobile, some arctic wolves and Larry Flynt, but as that is just a pipe dream, I will content myself by cracking wise when she gets into a pissing match w/ a 19 year old kid on tabloid tv or gives interviews in front of turkey carnage, or having to fill a vacant democratic state senate seat by appointing a republican who switched party affiliation the week before in order to be eligible. Short answer: she sucks and until the right stops putting her up on this pigslop pedestal, I’m going to keep pointing out how disgustingly unqualified for national office this Joke of a human being is. I say good day!
April 8th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
As the author of the most recent Palin Family broadside – Thanks Casey! Well said indeed.
If they would simply leave the national aspirations behind them, I’d be happy to ignore the Jindals and Bachmanns and Palins of the world. But since they’re clearly Ramping up for Rapture or whatever they’re calling their 2012 electioneering strategerems, fair game for all.
Regarding your crowdsourced query, I take your political thoughts as seriously as that of any other outlet of journaltainment. I’d factor you less seriously than TPM but somewhat above Joe the Plumber. Here’s where I would put an emoticon if I used those sorts of things.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
And excellent photo choice. I’ve always thought that photo in particular really captures her vacuous gas-baggery quite well.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
As long as I’m above Joe the Plumber in your estimation, Alec, much (not all) is right with the world!
April 8th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Republican does not equal Rapture, y’all. I’m gonna pull a Nicolo and say that the comment left by M. Bauer degrades my vision of said Bauer’s thoughts. Whatever. No one cares. Shouldn’t Nicolo have his own blog where he whinily (in a whiny manner) asks people to tone down their blogs that he has every right to ignore? Who said that the Contrarian has to abide by the standards that Nicolo voted for? Whatta baby.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Republican might not equal Rapture, but SP certainly does. (Jindal equals self-loathing closeted weirdo; Bachmann equals unhinged psycho. . . should I stop there, or do we need Cantor and Boehner in the mix?)
I like your blog, Tracey.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Wait a minute – No one cares?!? Nooooo!!!!1!!1!1
Sadly it is true that Repub ≠ Rapture, but Ramping up to Rapture has such nice alliteration to it I thought I’d take the liberty. Taking liberty with the truth is something that comes so naturally to my comment’s subjects, I figured I might get me some of that as well. Liberty that is.
And again I concur with Casey – Nice blog Tracey. Are you however suggesting that Huy Fong’s Sriracha is actually awesome, or ironically awesome? Because me and Huy go way back.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Thanks for inviting me to thunderdome. More to come.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Master Blaster rules Contrarian-town!
April 9th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Stop the hate. Casey for Mayor!
April 9th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
There is nothing ironic about the things I like, thank you! I’m not some bipster/yipster/flipster/poopster who chuckles at any old thing! I bang my sweaty fist on the table at that! Splap, splap! Sriracha is the Cock of the Walk! As my tween sister would say, “it’s over 9000!”
Also, I think hot, sexy NWO Centralism = Rapture.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:28 am
You’re Hurting America.
A point by point Retort:
1 Satire. There are Stewarts in this world and there Kilborns, I’m merely encouraging you to go for the gold, not the low hanging fruit. Is she funny? Yes, she is. Is she off limits on any moral ground? No. When she does something that is news (not tabloid) worthy she should be mocked over the merits of her actions/ideas this should provide substantial material in it’s own right.
2 Family. Is family fair game? I’m not a big fan of reality television, while I can’t deny there is something inescapably captivating about a would be redneck princess almost capturing the heart of America and then her and her clan crashing and burning on prime time over and over again. Who doesn’t love watching a train wreck? On a more serious note when pushed to think about this I do have a serious problem with this on two counts.
One. I SHAME THEE…
Shame on Sarah for dragging her daughter and would be son-in-law into the spotlight, shame on the media for biting. Her Daughter was 17 when it was revealed that she was pregnant. She was not and is not an a fully independent adult (I don’t care if she’s 18 yet or not, I’m not talking legal here).
Sarah Palin’s first responsibility as a mother / expectant grandmother should have been to protect her children. Whether Bristol and co. chooses to go on TV now is a by product of being thrust into the spotlight. Look I’m not saying no one else is eating up this stuff, that doesn’t make it right. I say break the cycle, because it’s implications are as follows…
Two. This idea of family as fair target is legitimizing GUILT BY ASSOCIATION and that someone’s FAMILY LIFE IS RELEVANT as a political; tool or weapon or Achilles heel. Do you remember William Ayers? Do you remember Reverend Jeremiah Wright? Do you remember Monica Lewinsky? Do you remember Clinton’s dumb ass brother? Those stories were dangerous they distracted from debate about issues, remember the thing that we are supposed to be voting for or are we just critiquing the Tyra Banks show?
3 Did she win the election? No. Therefore she’s gone away! Is she running for president her self, so what? Should we start the election cycle now? What would you think of a blog going after John Edwards 5 months into W’s second term, (not newsworthy). Look we all know that the republican’s will be back someday, that’s the way of the sith. I propose a vigilant guard not a which hunt. There are other’s to pick on; Michael Steele, Limbaugh, Michelle Bachman said something dumb recently. You put a moratorium on Limbaugh related items (how about one on the families in general.)
4 Frequency.
“Troopergate is worth reporting” – Yes
“her anti-environmental policies” – Ok
“sweetheart oil deals” – Sure
“animal cruelty, etc” – Alright
“not accepting federal stimulus $” – Yeah, sure
It’s the frequency of her as a topic, I wouldn’t think much of it, but if I were to describe the politics section of the blog shortly it would be “Sarah Palin’s a dumb-ho-beast and some other stuff.”
It’s definitely not just the Contrarian I’m looking at, I intend to start here after I’ve convinced all the Contrarian readers that she’s not so interesting I’ll move on to convincing “Real America.”
5 Fear. Clearly you are afraid. I too, am frightened of her. But… I am more frightened of becoming like my enemies. Using tactics I once condemned them for. Winning at all costs. But more than losing one’s self if you let Fox News (AKA this tabloid shit) decide what’s legitimate and hence what rules we’ll play by (see Guilt by Association) maybe she will be back. I am frightened, I’m frightened that the hollow liberal Screaming of the Air America’s of the world will become the dominant retort to Fox. With that kind of noise who could tell the difference between the two.
So, yes you’re hurting America (maybe not a lot, but a little). Please stop.
-Nick
(campaigning on the nice guy platform for 2012)
April 10th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Dearest Casey:
Nicolo has slaughtered you like a spring lamb. What seperates the John Stewarts from the Perez Hiltons is the intellectual flexibility to address the larger questions by mocking a variety of targets, bringing fresh light to an issue with fresh blood on the floor.
Palin is your crutch – a synecdoche for all the conservative ideology that we know is wounded, but is gathering to spring back. They’re re-grouping and you want to hit them while they’re down. That’s admirable. Even necessary. But, by focusing your scorn on Palin, you have beat her so badly you have no more solid points to make. As she drifts into a deserved obscurity, you are striking at the few things left to mock: her little poster-child of failed abstinence-only education.
Why so lazy Casey? Lay off Bristol and try your hand at Glenn Beck. I think you’ll like it.
April 10th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Um, I can tell Rob R. hasn’t been following our work for as long as some others — I’m not the Palin guy. That would be Matthew F. King. I think I can probably claim a handful of anti-Palin rants during the course of the campaign, but nothing like our other fine contributors. (For the record, I’m the Hillary guy, for which I took a fair amount of primary season heat.)
That said, I stand by all of our mocking of the elegant and charming Mrs. Palin. Bozos like Glenn Beck have yet to hold a public office or run on a national ticket. Compare the two at your own argumentative peril.
I’ll let you know when Palin has drifted “into obscurity.” No small amount of wishful thinking on your part has yet made it so, but maybe if you keep clicking those loafers together. . .
April 12th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
FOR PRETRIB RAPTURE REPEATERS
Congratulations! You are now fulfilling the Bible which says “Come now, and let us repeat together.”
Be sure to repeat what Walvoord, Lindsey, LaHaye, Ice etc. repeat what their own teachers repeat what their own teachers repeat etc. etc. etc.!
Repeat that Christ’s return is imminent because we’re told to “watch” (Matt. 24, 25) for it. So is the “day of God” (II Pet. 3:12) – which you admit is at least 1000 years ahead – also imminent because we’re told to be “looking for” it?
Also repeat the pretrib myths about the “Jewish wedding stages” and “Jewish feasts” (where’s your “church/Israel dichotomy” now?) even though Christ and Paul knew nothing about a “pretrib stage” and neither did any official theological creed or organized church before 1830!
You should read “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” on the “Powered by Christ Ministries” site to find out why you shouldn’t repeat everything your pretrib teachers repeat.
Do I have to repeat this?
(The fundies’ rapture is a latter-day hoax. Read all about it. Shane)
April 12th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Um, wha?
April 13th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Casey, you cannot use the phrase “Nicolo is a great guy, but I think his criticisms of our Palin coverage are a bit off the mark. Here’s my response:” and then shift blame to an underling. I was addressing your arguments, not your posts. And while you should give you writers the freedom they richly deserve, an editor should take an active roll in shaping the corpus it rules over.
Also, Palin’s national influence comes from her role as a commentator and a spokesperson for the concervatives, not from her current position as Alaska’s governor. The comparison to Glenn Beck is apt, especially now that her run for national office is blessedly over. (As Nicolo said earlier, if she actually gets back on a national ticket, have at ‘er.)
So, talk to Mr. King a bit and see if he can come up with some new rightwing punching bags. He’s sure to follow you sagely advice.
April 13th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Refreshing discussion folks. Points well made (and taken) all around.
April 13th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Rob, you don’t have to be on a national ticket to campaign for national office, which Palin is still doing. Should I not have picked on Romney, Giuliani and Thompson until they were the official nominee? Your logic is lacking.
But I will take your advice re: spreading the hate. You hearing this Matty? Here’s Boehner’s scent — now sic ‘em!
April 17th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
All readers should read “The Newest Pretrib Calendar” on Google! Tom