PALIN SHOVEL:

The pursuit of intellectual mediocrity in an ever-demanding and dangerous world.


I wonder what William F. Buckley would say about Sarah Palin’s performance last night in the vice presidential debate. Probably the same thing that George Will said about John McCain a couple of weeks ago.

“Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.”

That both McCain and Palin would try to steer the debate away from the last eight years of incompetence under Republican stewardship is of course to be expected. What else can they do? That they have done so not by reaching for the stars of hope, but by diving down to the lowest common denominator and “dummying up” as it were the whole process is beyond contempt. By appealing to the “average” person’s level of understanding they have, in actuality diminished the very offices for which they seek election to. Last night offered a stark contrast not just in styles, but in substance and temperament. On the one hand, you had Joe Biden, who brought with him 30 plus years of effective leadership in the Senate and answered each question posed to him by facts; on the other hand you had Sarah Palin, who for the first time in almost a month managed not to look like a deer caught in someone’s headlights, but who never directly answered the questions posed to her; in deed showing contempt even for moderator Gwen Ifill. When in doubt, blame the mainstream and elitist press. Joe Sixpack was her intended audience, anyway, not all us elitists.

Conservatives like Buckley and Will belong to a fast fading contingent of intellectual thinkers on the Right, who, while I disagreed with their view points, offered challenging and thought-provoking insight into topics that were of national importance. Buckley, in particular, never failed to provoke a visceral response in his opponents. You may have despised what he stood for, but you could never challenge the intelligence of the man. Today you would be hard-pressed to find any one of the caliber of a Buckley or even a Will within the Republican party. The Mitt Romney’s, the Rudy Giuliani’s (a noun, a verb and 9/11 is what Biden once called him), and now the Sarah Palin’s of the world have taken over the dialogue. Anyone caught using a vocabulary above a 6th grader has to stay after school and write 1,000 times on the blackboard, “Though shall keep it simple for the simpletons!”

When did the pursuit of intellectual mediocrity become a virtue? Why was the bar set so appallingly low for a vice-presidential candidate that the fact that she managed to get through an hour and a half debate without fainting is considered a victory? I don’t know about you, but I want the next president and vice president to be smarter than me. It’s nice that they can identify with people in my tax bracket, but it’s far more important that they be able to help people like me in my tax bracket. Big words have become a thing of the past. Our expectations, along with our aspirations, have become the stuff of stereotypes. College graduate? You must be an elitist! Work on an assembly line? You’re Joey sixpack! Don’t engage me in a stimulating conversation; that might be too confusing. Instead, send out a few sound bites. Maverick will do. What, you say you want some examples? I’ll get back to ya on that. Maybe you’ll forget the question and just focus on the sound bite. It’s all too confusing anyway. All that technical stuff is for egg heads. How 'bout I just give ya a wink and a smile?

What worries me most is that this disgusting strategy might just work. In my own line of work – sales – I have often found that the most successful sales people keep technical jargon out of their discussions about the product. Don’t confuse the customer, lest he leave with his wallet. The Republican party has a lot of good old-fashioned salesmen in its ranks. They have a lot of crap to sell the American public, most of it defective. They are good at marketing and selling this crap; they ought to be. The current president has managed to steal one election and hoodwink a nation into re-electing him in another. And all the while convincing them that he was “one of them.” The ultimate con job. The nation needs a doctor, so send in a bar tender and pour another round of drinks. What’s another four years on the tab anyway?

It was Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, who once said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” Much as I think that is a grand statement, the one that comes to mind most and the one that I fear is most pertinent to what is going on in this nation, comes from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

Scene II, The Forum, after Brutus explains why Caesar had to be killed. Mark Antony is addressing the mob.

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones;So let it be with Caesar. The noble BrutusHath told you Caesar was ambitious:If it were so, it was a grievous fault,And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--For Brutus is an honourable man;So are they all, all honourable men--Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.He was my friend, faithful and just to me:But Brutus says he was ambitious;And Brutus is an honourable man.He hath brought many captives home to RomeWhose ransoms did the general coffers fill:Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;And Brutus is an honourable man.You all did see that on the LupercalI thrice presented him a kingly crown,Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;And, sure, he is an honourable man.I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,But here I am to speak what I do know.You all did love him once, not without cause:What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,And I must pause till it come back to me.”

We all know what happened next; the mob turned on Brutus, and what was once considered an act of bravery became an act of treason. I think Shakespeare nailed it; don’t you?