Political Irony

Less than two weeks ago, Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker at the “national tea party conference”, a conference that seemed primarily designed to make money for its organizer. But that didn’t stop her from saying things like “America is ready for another revolution and you are a part of this.” She also praised the tea partiers for their independence, saying that they were “real people, not politicos, inside-the-beltway professionals”.

The only thing she was short on was specific policies or plans. For that, you have to fast forward to this Tuesday, when she spoke at an Arkansas GOP fundraising event. Her specific plan for the tea partiers?

Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party. Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’.

Notice the coy way she is saying that they have to pick either R or D, and remember that she is speaking at a Republican fundraiser. Can you guess which party she thinks “reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken” (whatever that means)?

And just how many people, including Republicans, honestly think the last Republican administration was “smarter” (or even made government “smaller”)? Are you kidding me?

I guess I am glad that Palin is so transparent in her attempts to manipulate the tea party movement into giving the Republicans (including herself) more power. A better politician would be less obvious. The only question is, is she right — are the tea partiers really that stupid?

Of course, Democrats who call the tea partiers stupid to their face aren’t making this any better. There are legitimate reasons to be angry at the government and how screwed up it is, so when someone gets angry at the government it doesn’t help your case when you call them stupid. And if you were a typical, Fox News watching, Tea Party rally attending person, which party would you be attracted to? The one that calls you stupid, or the one that manipulates you and takes advantage of you? It is a tough choice.

UPDATE: Just to prove what a hypocritical carpetbagger she is, Sarah Palin gave a talk at the recent Sierra Cascade Logging Conference in northern California. The conference includes an exhibition of forest products and construction equipment, a “backhoe rodeo”, and a logging competition. But I guess in a small gesture for environmentalists, Palin stayed at the Gaia Shasta Hotel & Spa. There’s just one problem: The ecology-minded resort normally keeps a copy of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” in each room, but according to a hotel staffer, “We were under strict instructions” to remove the book from the rooms occupied by Palin and her party. Well, at least now we know what she doesn’t read.