Thursday, September 04, 2008
Beholding the "base"
I did something I shouldn't have last night before going to bed. Having missed the Palin speech in primetime, I saw the feed of it on the RNC's website. The second half, at least. I missed the part where she talks about her family, touts her accomplishments in government, and likens herself to a pit bull. I caught the part where she rails against Obama, saying he will forfeit the war in Iraq, etc.
I was struck by a couple things about the convention.
One is that inscrutable expression that you see on the faces of Republican conventioneers as they watch the speeches. There's always the ugly, sneering, fanged grin. But nearly always with that is this shifty, sidelong, furtive glance thing they do with their eyes. It's the look you might imagine crossing the face of a disturbed, masochistic child bully who's witnessing the rape of a puppy. Something they're clearly enjoying seeing, but -- with the eyes, darting this way and that, as if to scan if anyone's looking -- something they vaguely realize is wrong and that they'd probably better not be caught watching and enjoying so much.
Which, of course, is odder still because the whole craven puppy-rape spectacle is being televised for all to see, with copious puppy-rape-fan reaction shots interspersed throughout.
The other concerns the existence/persistence of the audience itself. As the cameras pan across, you notice the composition of this crowd (white and whiter still, ugly and uglier, etc.), and you can't help but marvel at the Republican "base." I can't imagine there's a group of people more greedy, bigoted, or bloodthirsty anywhere on earth, nor one that has, directly or indirectly, loosed more pain, suffering, hatred, or killing on the world.
Yet here they are again, running a show exactly like the ones they put on in 2004, 2000, and before and before, no longer celebrating George W. Bush, but working toward the fulfillment of the exact same mission they launched in his name. Reinventing their iniquity in the name of McCain and Palin, global puppy-rape forever and ever.
In other words, an American family!
posted by Dawkins : 9/04/2008 11:24:00 AM
I was struck by a couple things about the convention.
One is that inscrutable expression that you see on the faces of Republican conventioneers as they watch the speeches. There's always the ugly, sneering, fanged grin. But nearly always with that is this shifty, sidelong, furtive glance thing they do with their eyes. It's the look you might imagine crossing the face of a disturbed, masochistic child bully who's witnessing the rape of a puppy. Something they're clearly enjoying seeing, but -- with the eyes, darting this way and that, as if to scan if anyone's looking -- something they vaguely realize is wrong and that they'd probably better not be caught watching and enjoying so much.
Which, of course, is odder still because the whole craven puppy-rape spectacle is being televised for all to see, with copious puppy-rape-fan reaction shots interspersed throughout.
The other concerns the existence/persistence of the audience itself. As the cameras pan across, you notice the composition of this crowd (white and whiter still, ugly and uglier, etc.), and you can't help but marvel at the Republican "base." I can't imagine there's a group of people more greedy, bigoted, or bloodthirsty anywhere on earth, nor one that has, directly or indirectly, loosed more pain, suffering, hatred, or killing on the world.
Yet here they are again, running a show exactly like the ones they put on in 2004, 2000, and before and before, no longer celebrating George W. Bush, but working toward the fulfillment of the exact same mission they launched in his name. Reinventing their iniquity in the name of McCain and Palin, global puppy-rape forever and ever.
In other words, an American family!
posted by Dawkins : 9/04/2008 11:24:00 AM
