in her speech last night sarah palin mentioned that:
hockey moms are pitbulls with lipstick.
she, apparently, is a hockey mom.
“dick cheney is the pitbull of the republican party.”
sarah palin is dick cheney with lipstick.
that’s the way she sounded to me.
the crowd responded passionately to her, in particular near the end when she said something about dealing with the terrorists and how her opponents were concerned with reading them their rights.
in class yesterday we talked about interaction, and how interaction is a relationship of mutual influence. we also talked about operative knowledge, which we defined as awareness to the degrees to which, within an interaction, you are influencing something AND how it is influencing you.
with the republicans leaning heavily on the pathos, heroism, and indignation they associate with McCain’s imprisonment and torture, i thought it strikingly short-sighted to suggest that not playing by rules designed to at least minimally acknowledge a prisoner’s humanity by making him aware of his rights while being held captive is somehow ok if we do it.
in general i found palin’s well written and well performed speech to successfully reach and stimulate my inner caveman.
it occurred to me that much of the rhetoric of the Right seems designed to resonate with that violent, uneducated, short-sighted, frightened cave dweller persona that lives in many of us, and then match that stupid thing with a candidate who seems to preach those very values as a code to live and govern by.
i accept my inner caveman. i prefer to have my leaders speak to, and inspire my thoughtful, empathic, productive identity.
also, at some point during her speech i actually thought i heard some people in the crowd chanting “four more years!”, maybe they were – would be a good protest chant at their appearances.