In the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes - Andy Warhol
Failed VP candidate Sarah Palin is holding on for dear life what Warhol so famously quipped about! It's a looong way to 2012 though! I had a laugh as her continued attention addiction led her this week to complain Caroline Kennedy gets the white glove treatment and how the big bad bloggers openly ridiculed her. Why should she care what we think? We're just "losers who live in the basement and wear pjs" anyway. Psst! We have moved on - and so should you pretty lady with the guns. I needed a Sunday filler post to be frank and I do derive a little bit of pleasure poking fun at her. It's the hypocrisy that compels me to discuss this though.
This reminds me of last spring's Democratic primary when Hillary Clinton would not leave. She had been trailing since Iowa in reality and never recovered from the Obama Movement, but being the fighter that she is meant wearing out her welcome. She still has campaign debt by the way even though she and Bill are worth 8 figures. She's not the most qualified candidate for the job either but she's likely to be our next Secretary of State. They all think they're Effie White, justified in their stubbornness and unfairly cast aside. What happened to competing on a level playing field? Why the huge sense of entitlement? The reality is their time was just up. Or at least it should have been. Hillary still got a fat reward for being Obama's nemesis.
The thing she and Sarah have in common besides ovaries is the all-hallowed WPP. White Woman Privilege - or White Woman Pedestal depending on how you'd like to define the situation. It's how Ann Coulter and Elisabeth Hasslebeck bask in their pedestal privilege while sneering at Michelle Obama but get away with it because they "have friends who are or date Black men". In Sarah's case it's when you get praised for your mediocrity while claiming to be at a disadvantage. What else explains the corporate media fawning? Openly courting racists? Especially after (nearly) everyone had figured out what a fraud her image was compared to the reality. In Hillary's case it was the ridiculous argument that sexism trumped racism in the Oppression Olympics which it clearly doesn't when there's zero consideration of any non-white women in this equation. Hello!!!
WPP is why Affirmative Action mostly benefits the Sarahs, the Anns as well as the Hillarys of this country. That and legacy admissions/promotions and having your relationship with a male relative be a boon to you career-wise. Be it generational wealth or generational considerations it's hard not to succeed when it is expected for you to do so and a path has been cleared. Not that we all don't have our individual trials and tribulations, but certainly we can see they are all still here and that the Hill & Bill show will never be cancelled.
The only push back I noticed was from certain members of the Republican wing who didn't like their accidental Chosen One. She believed all of her own hype - remember how shocked she looked when McCain conceded? Your gonna love me - or else! It wasn't the Democrats that leaked the clothing non-troversy. Even I thought that was rather low (some of the time) but some quarters of society view the dumbing down of their party a serious mistake. They'll take the votes of course but they don't want to actually have to see or interact with their minions.
They would've had to relinquish the moral superiority crown and they did not want to be seen as common. The Republicans are known to be rich, elite, intelligent but exclusive (at least in their minds). Cocktails at the country club are de rigeur, not beer bongs and strip malls. The Palin clan came chock full o' nuts: kids with funny names, kids who'd dropped out of high school, kid(s) who had unintended and unplanned for pregnancies: if they weren't white they would've been the talking points of everything that's wrong with other people. How can they fundraise with the steerage passengers running the ship. Nuh unh!
So if you're not familiar with the talent show, Showtime at the Apollo you'd recall the time after the crowd has spoken and the curtain is about to be drawn on the performer who has bombed? The show runners brought out the Sandman who yanked them off with his hook as he tap danced. Check out this hilarious sequence on the Cosby Show - no embedding allowed :(. Now I don't care for or underestimate the appeal that some still have for Sarah but I still say the exit is located Stage Left.....
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