Consequences

I suppose it's encouraging to see erudite expatriate limeys such as Sully the Pooh and Hitchens come around to the side of common sense. The latter in particular is appropriately scathing in his denunciation of Palin's manifest unfitness for the office she seeks, as well as her unblinking hypocrisy and prevarication. Yet he seems unmindful of how the American political system has devolved to this point.

Hitchens was an occasional guest on Dennis Miller's old HBO show, back before the two of them became willing dupes for this nightmarish administration. I distinctly recall (though strangely, cannot find it on YouTube, amidst the numberless squids trying to teach a cat to skateboard or some such) one such instance, either right before or right after the 2000 electoral debacle. Miller and Hitchens were snickering, rightly so, at the prospect of a person such as George W. Bush even getting in the room, much less being granted the opportunity to set policy for this nation. Hitchens in particular riffed on someone else's (favorable) assessment of Fredo as being "able" and "capable", amused and mortified by the acquiescence of such a pale endorsement. Miller, as he always does, knowing his intellectual place around someone such as Hitchens, agreed with a cascade of giggles and esoteric references.

The thing is, Hitchens and Miller were absolutely correct at the time in their perception of Bush. And what Bush's reign of error has shown us is that even a disinterested, incompetent person can have torrents of unforeseen consequences. Possibly the most difficult to undo will be the infestation of federal departments by scads of Pat Robertson-bots, ideologically-driven religious fanatics committed to the mission of gumming up the workings of the federal government. This is a direct consequence of what Rove and Cheney brought to the table -- even if you win by one vote, govern as if you have a full mandate, and reward your base.

Which brings us to Palin's involvement in the current campaign, again an entirely natural consequence of a dumbed-down base endowed with an unearned sense of entitlement. This was McCain's (and, despite his protests, Rove's) present to the extra-chromosome bloc, which they need desperately to even remain notionally in contention. That in turn was because Rove and Bush and Cheney and the lot of them had proven that that sort of shit works, that if you incite the nastiest, most ignorant elements of American society with the most ludicrous fairy-tales, they will literally set aside their own rational self-interest and vote for pure nonsense and lies.

Political junkies, professional and amateur alike, typically focus on policy objectives first, then in how the proponents' temperament and character jibe with those objectives. This is understandable. One lesson every observer should draw from the last eight years, not that there aren't a whole mess of lessons to be drawn, is that a McPalin administration would most assuredly extend the internal efforts begun by Bush and Cheney. They'd probably replace Stevens and/or Ginsburg not with a Harriet Miers cheerleader, but some baby-faced shithead from Falwell's or Robertson's home-school-advancement cracker factories.

Republicanism as such is an incoherent mush of pseudopatriot memes and god-bothering piffle to whip up the base. Its intent is at once self-perpetuating and parasitic, which is ultimately far more destructive than the corporate homilies Obama and Biden have been riding on. Palin's selection says much more about the party's goals in renewing itself, than about McCain in particular. Hitch would do well to realize that the people he has aligned himself with don't compartmentalize things as well as he can. He's a skeptic's skeptic, and seems almost bemused that they believe this shit. It is all of a piece with this breed, and alliances of convenience with them are bound to turn sour.