Sarah Palin and Occupy Could Be Friends
CPAC culminated with a dozen standing ovations for Sarah Palin. The queen of conservatism told the audience, “The President says small Americans, small-town Americans—we bitterly cling to our religion and our guns. You say, I say, we say—keep your change. We’ll keep our God. We’ll keep our guns.”
Throughout the three days of CPAC it didn’t really matter what a speaker said from the podium; if they hated on Obama or talked about guns, Washington insiders, the liberal media, God or Reagan, they were hailed by the audience.
Every major candidate did their best to bring all those factors into their speeches, but Palin, not a candidate and surprisingly still relevant, did it best.
On her 48th birthday, she extolled Washington’s wealthy and joked with Obama’s slogans to the amusement of her adoring audience. At one point a group of occupy protesters attempted to mic-check her mid-speech, but were drowned out by loud chants of USA! USA! then Sarah! Sarah!
Members of the crowd had to wait over two hours just to get into the speech. The line to enter the massive ballroom snaked all the way back to the security area where speakers enter the stage. Many were kept out, due to fire restrictions and had to watch the speech in other conference rooms where screens had been set up for overflow viewing.
I entered one of these rooms. One older gentleman was recording the television screen playing Palin’s speech. They cheered her “zingers” like fans watching a football game at a bar.
“Hope and change. Yeah, you gotta hope things change,” said Palin.
After three days at CPAC my senses had dulled to the attacks on Obama. But, my ears perked when Palin made a point that wasn’t divisive about crony capitalism. She said “crony capitalism” had infected Washington and that those who criticize Washington as a “cesspool” end up in the “hot tub.”
Palin made a similar point in Iowa on September 3, 2011, two weeks before protesters occupied Zuccotti Park. She said, “It’s not the capitalism of free men and free markets of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and risk. No this is the capitalism of connections and government bailouts and handouts… and influence peddling and corporate welfare,” according to an article about the speech in the Washington Post.
Back then, she was flirting with running for President and she also pitched an economic plan. She called for an end to tax loopholes, corporate welfare and bailouts.
Today, she didn’t delve into economic policies, instead choosing to stay focused on attacking Obama and hyping up the conservative base.
But just the brief mention of crony capitalism was important. Even her restraint to not criticize the protesters (she told the audience they won after the protesters left) meant she might understand her Tea Party and their Occupy share similar populist ideas. The roots of the real Tea Party lie in a backlash against the bailouts.
If there’s going to be dramatic change in the political system it’s going to take more than one side screaming at the other, clinging to their guns or to their tents. And while it’s easy for Democrats to belittle the Tea Party as an astroturfing movement and for the Republicans to belittle Occupy as stinky vandals, it’s far more difficult to build coalitions behind common causes.
I was happy to see protesters and conference attendees debating amicably on the sidewalk across from the hotel as I left CPAC. After three days of listening to unquestioned attacks on liberals from Republicans, it was nice to see legitimate conversations.
Who cares about Palin? She is really old news and a washed up Teabagger LOSER. Only the ignorant, desperate and really stupid from the right could possibly listen to her hateful screeching anymore. The Reslug whore looks way older than she actually is from obviously from sleeping herself to the top.
than the elites concerted efforts to confuse the masses.
Condemn income redistribution while taking advantage of tax laws to redisitribute to yourself, or hide from potential taxation, is one tool.
Sarah is another!
We ignore their value as such to our peril!
Recovered believer of myth that no government is better than no government.
It would be nice to see her return for the past few years. Someone who screams about money so much must have something to hide. She is just a common everyday Merican. The right clings to the hope they can all get to bang her, but age is starting to show. Time for a facelift Sarah.
I agree that the message of corporate influence in Washington is one that 'baggers could share with many on the left but to have caribou barbie be the messenger is a bit much.
she might understand her Tea Party and their Occupy share similar populist ideas. The roots of the real Tea Party lie in a backlash against the bailouts.
Oh please! The only thing that woman understands is how to grift for her next paycheck.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
Lord!
What fun it would be to watch that circus next year.
Ignorance is parent to religion.
Religion is parent to Hate.
Remembering Matthew Shepard:
http://vimeo.com/fuksnickityClam/matthew
When I listened to her speech yesterday it sounded to me as though she was reading far right bumper stickers. No substance just jeers toward the President.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
But, as ever, Sarah Palin's rhetoric only constitutes half of a fully-formed idea. What do conservatives mean when they talk about "crony capitalism"? They mean Unions. They mean federal loans for renewable energy (because soemtimes companies tank! OMG SCANDAL!). When Palin talked about "fat cats" in Washington getting rich off of the government, what group did she specifically call out by name? The EPA. Yes, federal regulators are the ones who make the big bucks here.
And what don't they mean, by contrast? The influence of corporate money in politics, and the role of lobbyists and contractors -the actual people getting rich from the federal government and making Fairfax and Louden counties the wealthiest in the country- in federal policy. To the Right, Solyndra is "the biggest instance of corruption since Teapot Dome", while the Bush-era Department of Interior's sex-and-drug parties with lobbyists are beneath mention. To the Right, Labor has outsize influence on the political process, and federal workers are overpaid, while the top 400 households in America suffer from not having enough political influence and are badly underpaid for their contributions to society.
In short, the Right loves to use populist notes and embellishments, but their definitions of populism, and of 'crony capitalism', are built on a foundation of lies.
Exactly. To even think that her words are speaking the same language as Occupy is outright absurd.
Also:
That's... not strictly true. The roots of the real Tea Party might have made it a point to reference the bailouts, but they were completely silent about TARP. Rick Santelli's famous rant came long after TARP, and was explicitly in response to the suggestion that underwater homeowners -or, to use his term, "losers"- might get some assistance.
The Tea Party might have managed to build some cachet by deliberately conflating the stimulus and homeowner assistance with TARP, after the fact, but they are, and always have been, opposed to government assistance to Main Street, and indifferent, at worst, to corporate welfare. The perfect Useful Idiots.
"Crony capitalism" is a new focus group tested phrase on the right, mainly used to attack Obama, and which will be conveniently discarded and forgotten if they retake the White House.
If you look at both movements on their face, yes, Tea & Occupy should be friends. However, reality is very different.
Occupy was a true grassroots movement about economic injustice, particularly about the law favoring the wealthy who influence the law. It is a democratic movement, and so one problem with that is it's slow and takes a while to gain clarity and focus on anything.
The Tea Party was essentially a marketing stunt. It started with grass roots activism in the Libertarian movement, but then gained corporate sponsorship through Fox News, and then Americans United. Marketing and messaging was tightly controlled, but management was really based on Southern Strategy. They tried to tap into people's economic and racial aggrievement, whip them up, and then give them a message to move on. The ugly, petulant anger of the people was always seething under the nicely printed signs, though. To me, one of the moments of clarity was the video clip of an old white man with a bull horn chasing a black woman shouting, "She's ACORN!!! She's ACORN!!!".
As for Sarah Palin, she won't be any commoner's friend. She's a social parasite. She tosses handfuls of word salad of resentment, entitlement, and anti-intellectual ignorance at her base. Because she's nicely dressed, pretty, slightly flirtatious, and has a nice rack, she gives the Constitution Freedom Jesus word salad the veneer of respectability. She lets these people think that their xenophobia is patriotic and their anger is Chrstian, and it all makes them youthful and sexy. For that, they pay her fistfuls of money for more speeches of word salad and books of Constitution Freedom Jesus in print form. Because she does this so well, the wingnut welfare system keeps her "gainfully" employed so they can get a steady stream of fees. Keep in mind that this is the same person who had her PAC buy palates of her own books to give out as campaign contribution gifts, which let her turn PAC contributions into personal wealth.
Peace
...are leaving out one glaring detail:
Sarah Palin has no idea what "crony capitalism" means.
She probably picked it up off her Facebook page via a comment from a fan, & ran with it.
This woman is unspeakably ignorant.
It's amazing how when she utters certain buzz words that sound pretty to a liberal's ear, suddenly Sarah Palin & OWS "have something in common."
Sarah Palin & OWS have literally nothing in common.
Sarah Palin has entered the sphere of the 1% via lies, con games & grift. In other words, she's the quintessential Republican.
So please stop taking this woman seriously.
When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in excess body fat & carrying a misspelled sign.
I like the line in the song, "I hear you're working for the CIA, they wouldn't have you in the Maf-i-a"
pretty similar organizations, for similar goals, and in this metaphor, the singer , for good reason, does not trust his "friend".
Just as Ms. Palin might share some of the more obvious viewpoints of the Occupy Movement, and that many of the attendees of this conference, under normal circumstance, are wonderful, warm , kind people, should we trust them NOT to submit to their Authoritarian leaders, when told to do so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
We know this phenomena, we have documented, studied, and developed accurate tests to predict who, how, and why these Authoritarian followers submit to their Social Dominating leaders. We all do it, just some more than others, and typically they are Conservatives.
They may be nice, contemplative folk, but when fear is applied, their natural, inner programming takes over and they will do some incredibly heinous things to whomever they are told is the cause of their fear.
Think I am full of BS? follow the links, kids.
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
Sarah Palin and Occupy could be friends? Have to call B.S. on this article. What's next, dogs and cats living together? Batman and Joker best buds? Hyenas and Lions sharing a meal peacefully? Itchy and Scratchy friends? Totally ludicrous .
If not now, when?
Crony Capitalism starts with and ends with those in power who deliver to their clients.
The government of the US is a money laundering cartel to the Oligarchy.
What the hell are you talking about here?
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
What conservatives mean by "crony capitalism" are government regulations, subsidies and loan guarantees specifically those championed by Democrats. When they decry the influence of "special interests" in Washington, they are only talking about labor unions, environmentalists and advocates for the poor and disenfranchised.
The Teabaggers and OWS will only find common ground in a shared belief that Obama is a criminal stooge of Wall Street, and so called "moderate Republicans" are his willing flunkies.
I am glad she finally found her "REAL AMERICA" right there inside the beltway.
If any other country in the world shouted this national narcissism at its' domestic events it would sound absolutely laughable....
.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
They could be friends in the same way that Jamie Dimon and Michael Moore could be friends. I could find a pot of gold today.....but I'm not banking on it. I think if the media didn't amplify and make the whole political process into some big money-grubbing, distorted, weird Winner-a-thon, the chance for Sarah to align with Occupy would be more plausible. But as it is, it's just a big game for the media and Sarah sees the lights go on and she unloads her time-tested passel of coded language and the wingers cream themselves and lose it a little more. Occupy and the basic message of the Tea Party - that leaders aren't listening - do align - but the media constantly distort and twist the message until all we have is Real Murica fighting against the Usurper.
with people who really don't get or care that the Republican party is command central for crony capitalism. Her adoring fans will scream like teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert without any understanding that crony capitalism is the mother's milk of their party. It's just another trigger phrase, like "class warfare" that they project onto their opponents. If Palin was actually elected president she would be bought and sold and leveraged to the max by big business faster than you can say the whore of babbling on.
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