June 3, 2011: For Whom the Bells Toll, Dumb is Forever, Teaching the Unwashed

“He who warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and, um, making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were going to be secure and we were going to be free” (1)
Erstwhile Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin speaking in Boston

Speaking this week at Boston’s Old North Church, Alaska’s resident idiot and former half-governor revealed once again the deep and dark intellectual void at the core of the conservative movement. One would think, given the trillions that Corporate America is currently sitting on, that the collective brains of the ‘trusts’ could come up with better shills to politically represent them. Instead we are faced with the horrifying prospect that the Rescumlican Party will, in convention, bestow legitimacy and political stature on this witless woman, or some reasonable facsimile. One wag, writing in the comments beneath the Yahoo page in which this story was posted wrote: “Beauty fades, dumb is forever.”

Palin, it seems, was in New England using the region as a backdrop for a tour to “educate” America about our founding fathers and our struggle for freedom. Perhaps, some have suggested, this is merely a prelude to launching her campaign for the White House. I’ve always held that the purpose of a political campaign, properly conducted, is to educate and enlighten both the candidate and the people. While the prospects of such an extended ordeal educating the candidate would, in this case, seem remote, a Palin candidacy does offer at least a back-hand approach to a national history and civics lesson. If it is true, as Ambrose Bierce once said, that “war is God’s way of teaching geography to Americans” then it would appear that the political equivalent of a Palin presidential campaign would surely be God’s way of teaching the great unwashed their own history. That is, jf they can keep up with the deluge of corrections and learn, as she does not, by her mistakes.


Footnotes:

1. http://beta.news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/palin-flubs-explanation-paul-revere-ride-215549982.html