From Celebrity to Cliche

[talon]

Palin was once a decent celebrity.

She had a few intriguing differences, a spunkiness that set her apart from others, but over time, she's proven to be shallow. She claims to be a "maverick" and yet, she does nothing out of the ordinary and certainly doesn't do anything unpredictable or unifying. Granted, mavericks aren't supposed to be leaders or unifiers, but since she is presenting herself in the role of a leader, one would expect at least a token show of leadership.

She's a Johnny-one-note. She has a striking inability to acknowledge the views and needs of others - now, whether this is an innate character flaw or a calculated political move is anybody's guess right now. Given more than 2 years of her in-your-face media coverage, I'd say this is a character flaw and not a deliberate move on her part. She truly is that innately selfish. All her "enemies" (you're either fer her or agin her, tain't no other kind of person) are cast as completely evil - they are all part of some conspiracy of America-haters who want to steal our freedoms, silence patriots (ie her and her fan club, because only they are the true patriots of America), and to stifle the truth (her truth, that is, because hers is the only truth there is). She can't see that those who disagree with her are also patriotic Americans, people who want the truth out there, who want to retain all our freedoms and not just the freedom to own guns.

Palin's actions and words encourage divisiveness. This is the only play she has. It's worked for her for a long time, made her famous and wealthy, and she's not going to change it.

She's losing her celebrity status by being boringly predictable. Josh Marshall shot off a one-liner mocking Palin's solipsism: "Today has been set aside to honor the victims of the Tucson massacre. And Sarah Palin has apparently decided she's one of them." That is pretty much a death knell for her as a celebrity. She's become a caricature. All she has to offer us as a leader is contained within Josh Marshall's quote: Palin considers herself a perpetual victim, everything is all about her, and she can't see the bigger picture.

We deserve and need better leadership than Palin. Our leaders need to be able to see the big picture, to see beyond their personal grievances, to be able to offer a sincere and great apology when called for, to set high standards that we want to achieve. Our leaders need to be better than us en masse. Sarah Palin has never been leader material, and some people accepted her as leadership material only because people they trusted proclaimed her to be leadership material (I'm looking at you, McCain and the GOP). They are having a hard time admitting they've been duped. Some of them may take Palin's line and proclaim they are right in the face of all opposing evidence, preferring to believe water won't get them wet no matter how deeply immersed they are in it.

As a comedienne, Palin is proving to be dull, predictable, and repetitive. She latched onto a few catch-phrases and has worn them down into mockable clichés. Plop her into any situation and we can predict what she will say and how she will react - she's the victim, she's misunderstood, she's the only true patriot in the whole wide US, she's the only one fighting for our rights (the ones that aren't really endangered), people are picking on her (and her family), and gosh darn, isn't she cute, doncha know?

Boring.