Ooooh, scary!
When it comes to politics, I spend a considerable amount of time alternatively wondering whether I’m being too paranoid, on the one hand, or not paranoid enough, on the other. I’ve always believed that the events of tomorrow are wholly predictable so long as I’m paying sufficient attention to the events of today. Otherwise, history wouldn’t make any sense, it wouldn’t be linear, and couldn’t be captured as a narrative. And then there’s Andrew Sullivan, writing today that “a new, proto-fascist political party [is forming] on television in front of our very eyes,” referring to the Palin/Fox News alliance.
Sullivan illustrates the difference between having a healthy sense of paranoia and being an alarmist. Palin-led fascism will not, I write with absolute conviction, replace representative democracy under the U.S. constitution. Demographics prove my point: the profile of the average Palin supporter (middle-aged, homogeneously white, uneducated, rural, evangelical) is shrinking. Meanwhile, the profile of the average Obama supporter (young, heterogeneously ethnic, educated, urban, atheist) is growing. In order for Palin to defeat Obama in a general presidential election, the reverse must be true. And in order to stage a coup d’état, she would need to seize command and control of the military (which seems, at best, all but impossible). So my advice to Sullivan is to stop hyperventilating, sit back, and enjoy the spectacle over at FNC for what it is: a political sideshow. Palin is the freak and Beck and his ilk are carnival barkers, willing to say anything just to get your attention.