Several Small Rants

1. 70% of Americans say Sarah Palin is not qualified to be president - No shit! If you are a tea-bagger, or a flat-earth-is-6000-years-old Republican, you don't care about her qualifications. She's your girl. The rest of us average, over-worked and under-paid Americans KNOW she's an idiot. Unless you live in a cave with no satellite TV you have heard her speak. Hearing her speak, you shake your head and wonder why you are hearing such a dunce mangle simple grammar while failing to make a cogent point. And the writing on the hand thing - 8th grade! I teach 8th grade, and that's what 8th grade girls do - write on their hands, arms and friends. This is like running a mean, stupid 8th grade girl for president.

My take, however, is that she may be OVER-qualified to be president. Apparently, the main qualification to be president of the United States is to suck the 'roni out of corporate dick. Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama all have scabby knees and a quick spit to the campaign coffers. Palin should be a natural. She was mired in corruption scandals in Alaska, and then quit governance (you know, actual work), to cash in on the lecture and TV parade. As President, she would have knee-pads to go with every outfit. By the way, mean and stupid? Bush was mean and stupid and served two terms. Maybe Palin should serve three?

2. Lost Generation? - I wonder if the lack of hope, let alone audacity in the Obama presidency has already wholly disaffected the youth vote that supported him in historically large numbers. (Traditionally, this demographic votes in the less than 20% range.) An ENTIRE GENERATION of Democratic-leaning voters was there for the taking. The under-thirties have heard from their cynical parents (like me) what scum-bags politicians are, and how the game is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful. Yet With some fight, and the forward movement of a progressive agenda, you know, some drama, the Democratic Party could have counted on the 18 - 30 vote to push the percentages.

However, Obama has so far proven us cranky old fucks right like no reality TV show could. In Massachusetts, the youth vote stayed home. Now, Obama is not as cool, he is with the bankers, and the health care companies. And, he has not ended the wars. And even worse, he gets his ass kicked by people like Mitch McConnel and John "Boner." What self-respecting Sherpa-hat wearing slacker is going to bother to vote for that?

3. Black Leaders Pissed at Obama - Al Sharpton and the head of the NAACP came out this week and asked "WTF?" They basically wondered aloud, to the media, "why is the first African American president the white bankers' bitch?" I know, you say that's over the top. But I say selling us out in plain sight, and then pretending the "change" we wanted was this phony "bipartisanship" is over the top! If you are the first black president, and the NAACP is criticizing you, AND you can't get shit done, you need to fire Rahm Emanuel quick! I'm not saying hire Reverend Wright, but Howard Dean would do. Howard Dean would never have lost Massachusetts...or health care.

4. The Republican 41 Seat Majority - Seriously, I have heard those words twice in the last week. "Forty one seat majority" in a senate of 100 people. And it wasn't done tongue-in-cheek! This is the meme that is in the mainstream media. And I listen to mostly liberal or public radio during my commute.

Never mind that 41/100 does not come to more than half. Never mind that the MATH DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! (And I mean BASIC math, grade school math, the kind that is not in question or open to interpretation.) The fact is that the Republicans are the MINORITY in two branches of government, and significantly so. They only hold a majority on the Supreme Court.

All this math means is that the Republicans can filibuster in the Senate. And apparently, in today's political reality, that means that they control government. I have also heard the term "super minority" bandied about. The barely nuanced meme here is that the Republicans must be "reached out to" by Obama and the Democrats, or they are perfectly within their rights, in fact it is perfectly normal, to block the very function of governance for the American people if they don't get everything, and I mean everything they want. I mean, FUCK the majority of the American people who wanted "change" from war, corporate whoredom, the destruction of the Constitution and persecution of gay people.

What this means at the core, though, is "fuck democracy." And the cable and network media propagates this idea. The idea that the minority, the group who lost the election, has the most sway in the debate over policy is degrading to the very idea of democracy. This is what makes people disengage from the political process. It apparently doesn't make a difference if I work hard to elect an candidate who runs on a populist message. It is no different than electing a Republican where major policy is concerned. And give this populist president a vast majority in both houses? For nought, for the most part. People are peeling away from the process rapidly as they see the traditional allies of the Republicans continue to get everything they want at our expense. Good luck turning out the youth vote, the Hispanic vote, and even the black vote in 2010.

And, good luck to all of us. We are pissed, but I don't know if that's enough.