Categories
Uncategorized

The Godmother of the Political Stupid lost her election, but that wasn’t the point of her campaign

Sarah Palin didn’t put stupid into politics.  Before Palin, there was W, the walking faux pas/war criminal.  And before W there was Dan Quayle and his boyish good looks… and little else.  There were many stupid politicians before Quayle, too.  But what Palin did was different than the Stupid before her.

Palin was the first politician to commercialize her stupidity.  She was the first to recognize that even people who wonder out loud, “What the fuck did she just say?” are still paying attention to her, so if she can capture their eyeballs, she can use her stupidity to capture their dollars.

And she didn’t just commercialize it; she capitalized on it.  She embraced it.  She made it her brand:  “Yep, I’m dumb.  I’m not as smart as some of those elites in Washington, but I’m smart enough to be your leader, and you should vote for me–and send me your money–to stick it to the elites.” 

The first Reality TeeVee politician, Palin paved the way for the Proudly Stupid caucus of the GOP, a wing populated by the likes of Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, people who leverage their stupidity to attract voters and donors:  “Look at how those elites sneer at us just ’cause we don’t know things like how government works.  You should vote for me–and send me your money–to stick it to the elites.”

Oh, there are many stupid politicians.  People like Louie Gohmert and Virginia Foxx are objectively stupid, but they don’t advertise it the way Palin did or the way Taylor and Boebert do.  Gohmert’s and Foxx’s stupidity were mainly limited to committee hearings and an occasional floor speech.  But Taylor and Boebert have weaponized their stupidity because they believe staying stupid is why they’re making so much money from donors.  Oh, yeah, and why they got elected, of course.

We have Sarah Palin to thank for that.  Unapologetically stupid, Palin leveraged that stupidity into a career in reality television after her time as a TeeVee pundit mercifully ended.  Fox decided it wasn’t sane to pay her seven figures to repeatedly claim that she’s just a soccer mom from Alaska who doesn’t know how the smart people would handle it, but being an Alaskan soccer mom, she would just cut through all the bull and get to a solution.  Nevermind that she never actually offered a solution.  Like many of the Stupid, she thinks just sayin’ she has a solution is solution enough… because stupid.

There’s a straight line between Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.  The autocratic tendencies.  The corruption.  The cults of personality.  Palin may have commercialized her stupidity, but Trump weaponized it.  He made being stupid something to defend to the death.  Literally.  If you were stupid enough to defend Donald Trump’s medical advice during the pandemic, you’re more likely to be dead.  Just ask Herman Cain.

With her latest attempt at a political comeback cast off to the scrap heap of history, Sarah Palin doesn’t have the entertainment capital to merit a new reality show.  Her schtick is now worse than stupid; it’s just downright pathetic, with her family life in shambles and no marketable talent except perhaps to, I don’t know, sell pillows maybe.  But she’ll end up with a show on RSBN.  Or a reality show with her abstinence-preaching daughter on One National Outdoors Patriotic News Outlet.  Because her brand of stupid pays.

The stupid will never go away, though.  Where once the Stupid would fade back into the shrubbery like a Homer Simpson gif, or Sean Spicer, they now have the means of making a living being stupid.  So Palin’s spiritual offspring will continue, just as the recently widely rejected Trumpism will carry on, ’cause it’s just stupid.

Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019

Axios blames Republicans for decline of religious faith in US

17 mins ago

Texas GOP figures caught attending militant “pro-life” cult meeting

57 mins ago

They should probably delete this

2 hours ago

Youngkin vetoes retail marijuana legalization bill in revenge for Democratic state legislature spiking Northern Virginia arena plan

6 hours ago

Bobulinski sues Fox’s Tarlov for defamation

7 hours ago

Republican-led states sue to revoke Biden student loan program

7 hours ago

Texas appeals court overturns five-year sentence of woman jailed who mistakenly voted while ineligible

8 hours ago

Junior promotes Baltimore bridge conspiracy before revealing truth

8 hours ago

Republicans’ obsession, seeing migrants everywhere, goes awry

9 hours ago

Trump’s fundraiser gonna be bigger than Biden’s, guys! Really!

10 hours ago

Government adds to list of groups offending Fox viewers

11 hours ago

Parnas releases evidence demonstrating Trump team knew Ukraine story was bogus, destroying GOP’s Burisma narrative

12 hours ago

Former Capitol cop furious over Trump campaigning at NYPD wake

12 hours ago

Four dead, seven wounded after Illinois stabbing spree

12 hours ago

Senate podcaster pushes amendment demanding police escorts through airport into legislation

13 hours ago

Comer requests Joe Biden come in to testify to House Oversight

14 hours ago

Orange Warlord makes campaign stop at slain NYPD cop’s wake

15 hours ago

Judge: GOP Party leader responsible for voter fraud in Georgia

15 hours ago

Alaska airport hires robo K9 to go undercover as fox to chase geese

16 hours ago

Mike Johnson to submit Mayorkas impeachment on April 10

17 hours ago

QAdulteress says the 11,780 votes are still “lost in the mail”

17 hours ago

Sam Bankrupt-Fried sentenced to 25 years in the clink

18 hours ago

RFK Jr running mate anti-IVF, pro-research into solar fertility

18 hours ago

Consumer confidence increases again in March

18 hours ago

WATCH LIVE: Team MAGA try to get charges dismissed in Fulton

19 hours ago

Trump minion locks outgoing RNC staffer out of office, data server

20 hours ago

US GDP rose 3.4 percent in Q4 2023

21 hours ago

Massachusetts robo K9 killed in the line of duty

21 hours ago

Catturd deeply offended by accurate criticism

22 hours ago

Orange Caesar “suspicious of the postal workers, of anyone who could touch the ballot,” tells minions all mail-in voting is “fraudulent”

22 hours ago

Biden campaign to raise $25 million in one night

23 hours ago

Fox News reports all of AI has weird, dated face

23 hours ago

Sentencing for woman who stole Ashley Biden’s diary delayed

1 day ago

Larry David is all of us

1 day ago

Hunter’s team makes motions to dismiss; judge doubts one filed with “no evidence” will pass muster

1 day ago

Hannity believes people want his meat, not in a Schlappy way

1 day ago

Schlapp’s accuser got $480,000 to drop harassment case

1 day ago

Real life Miami Vice plays out as Coast Guard seizes four tons of Junior’s “medicine” after high speed Caribbean Sea boat chase

1 day ago

Judge recommends MAGA lawyer John Eastman be disbarred

1 day ago

It’s a bad day for No Labels: Christie turns down presidential slot

1 day ago

No Labels chairman dies

1 day ago

California MAGA terrorist jailed for threats to Pelosi, Mayorkas

2 days ago

Capitals, Wizards actually not leaving DC for Northern Virginia

2 days ago

Why 2019 and not 2020?

2 days ago

Felony conviction would cost Trump 10 percent support: QU poll

2 days ago

New York Post finds Jon Stewart “overvalued” his NYC condo

2 days ago

Senate Dem finally sort of growing a pair of balls

2 days ago

Surprise! Stupid hick rejects request for Kushner investigation

2 days ago

Florida pedophile gets supervised release after 220 year sentence

2 days ago

Orange Fatass may have just violated Manhattan gag order

2 days ago

x
x
x
x
x
x