The coming years could be the "The Age of Palin." This is not because the half-term former governor will be elected for president in 2012. Her low approval rating--28%-- prohibits that.
The period might bear her name because she best exemplifies the explosion of political fundamentalism that has erupted in the wake of the multiple crises the nation faces. It was building before the financial and economic collapses of 2008. They simply triggered the eruption.
Unless the economy is quickly restored and people decide that the middle class again faces bright prospects, many Americans will seek emotional relief in what they think is the conventional wisdom: Social Darwinism, suspicion of the "Other," an aggressive foreign policy, and, above all, an unregulated economy.
Columnist Rick Horwitz wrote a humorous column on the Age of Palin. The key to it was that it was the “Age of Keepin’ it Simple.” “Simplistic” would be the preferable word. She specialized in selling the “Big Lie,” which has now become a common Republican practice and on the verge of being made respectable by the Gingrich has moved from predicted Republican electoral romp in November. Horwitz has noted that Newt’s strange talk about Obama’s “secular-socialist machine” to discussing Obama’s behavior as Keynian anti-colonialist. Its even stranger and inexplicable stuff and indicates that Newt thinks the Age of Palin will be here for a while.
Vice President Joe Biden has said that Washington is “broken” and Rahm Emmanuel has called the city “Fucknutsville.”
Irrationality has disabled the political system in the nation’s capital, and the national political system has also been disabled by it. The politicians in Washington who cater to the ignorance and paranoia of the Tea Baggers are not crazy and know perfectly well what they are doing. Outside of the Beltway, however, political madness has taken hold and great numbers of people believe the most absurd things. These are days when placards showing President Barack Obama with a Hitler mustache or maybe a hammer and sickle are unremarkable; there is so much of this stuff out there. The irrationality was accompanied by a flight from facts and resort to the “Big Lie” technique. Sarah Palin and many others insisted that the health care reform bill provided for “death panels.” When Wikileak started dumping U.S. secret documents onto the internet, Palin told her followers that Obama’s incompetence made this possible. Many claimed Barack Obama was a Muslim socialist born outside the United States.
Many religious leaders and the Pro-Life organizations, funded by billionaires and a Palin PAC, claimed that the health care bill opened the door to federally-funded abortions. They offered no evidence whatsoever; and Representative John Boehner added there would be an “abortion fee.” There is an almost endless list of these lies, but the fact is that the recent election legitimized the Big Lie technique.
Early in 2009, Speaker-designate John Boehner felt the groundswell and instructed his followers to ride the tied—even, it seems—when it meant endorsing talk of sedition and secession and the long repudiated theory of nullification.
Now that the election is over, pundits overlook all the crazy claims and violent language as they try to assign logical explanations for the great Democratic defeat. Though there have been many explanations of the Republican electoral triumph, the fact is that all the evidence is very contradictory. It is clear that independents abandoned Obama and Democrats in droves and that Republicans, along with many new converts, seemed super-charged and inspired by ideas that were once the exclusive domain of what was once called the lunatic fringe of the far right.
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As in several previous elections, anger over government failures was a major factor. This time, some very clever people on the right found out how to harnass and channel that anger. Anger existed in 2008, when voters turned on the Republicans due to the failed economy and financial system, but, at that time, there already existed the seed of the next wave of anger which would remove the Democrats from power in the House in 2010.
Already in 2008, people were showing up at Democratic events with weapons; and there were all sorts of manifestations of rage against Obama and progressives at the Palin rallies. No sooner was Obama in office, and angry people showed up to disrupt Democratic town hall meetings. The anger was building before anyone had time to address the nation’s many problems.
The 2010 election gave the Republicans a big majority in the House, and Republican-controlled redistricting could preserve or even extend it. Fate puts 23 Democratic Seats up for election in 2012, and it is hard to see how the Democrats can retain most of them. The 2010 election gave the Republicans big victories and the governor's chairs in Florida and Ohio. To win the presidency in 2012, Democrats need one of those states.
Republicans might be riding high for some years, and the Tea Bag wing will have much to say about what that party does. Sarah may not become president, but she will have a lot to say about what happens in the near future.