The Sarah Palin Files, Pt. 19

Hardcore conservatives describe Sarah Palin as a "rising star."

A more sober assessment? Average.

McCain not only has thrown all sensible concerns about good governance aside merely to pander to a sliver of female and masses of conservative Christian voters, he has turned this period of American history into an episode of high-stakes reality television: Don't look now, but our cousin Sarah just became leader of the free world! Tune in next week and watch her get sassy with Pakistan!

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves...

... Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages -- and loses -- both necessary and unnecessary wars.

Although, compared to Dubya Bush, being average would qualify you as a political rockstar in the modern Republican party....

More to the point, though, I agree with the last paragraph wholeheartedly. In 2004, the urban vote broke for Kerry, the suburbs were more even - taken as a whole - and rural votes went overwhelmingly Bush. When I looked and saw this, I decided to become Anti-Farm Aid.

Don't laugh, I'm serious.

If you are, say, a family farmer in the midwest or anywhere for that matter, and your concern for whether gays could get married in California or Massachusetts - two place you likely have never visited and likely will never visit - trumped your economic concerns, and your greatest economic fears became a reality, well, sorry. But, do not get on TV with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Dave Matthews and ask me or anyone else to bail you out. Your inability to get your priorities straight is not my problem.