For the last four years, one of the most popular political slogans in the United States as been against George W. Bush: Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot.
The trick was that Bush wasn’t really from Texas - he was from Connecticut, and was more of a citizen of the state than any place in particular, given the way that he rode his father’s coattails all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Sarah Palin is another story - a genuine village idiot. Everyone knows the village Sarah Palin is from, and that makes the equivalent slogan for Sarah Palin more specific:
The animosity Sarah Palin showed as mayor of Wasilla against the village librarian isn’t just a case of a personal feud or a problem with a few books. At its core, Sarah Palin’s attempt to intimidate the village librarian into censoring books from the Wasilla library is a problem because of the authoritarian and theocratic philosophy it reflects.
The practice of banning books, as Sarah Palin tried to do, is founded upon the idea that books are dangerous things that pollute the minds of the people who read them. Sarah Palin believes that it’s a good idea for the government to control the books that people read, because Sarah Palin believes that the government knows better than the American people what ideas are good for them.
Not just any government, of course. Sarah Palin hates the idea of the constitutional democracy established back in the 1700s at the birth of the USA with the Bill of Rights. Palin can’t stand the idea of the separation of church and state, or the right to a free press.
No, the kind of government that Sarah Palin seeks to lead is a theocratic government, in which fundamentalist Christian religion uses the federal government of the United States to force its beliefs on everyone else. She wants her religious beliefs taught in public school science classes. She wants libraries to ban the reading of books that don’t support her extremist right wing version of Christianity. Like the ayatollahs of Iran, Sarah Palin wants to ban books.
Unfortunately, a large segment of the population of the United States agrees with Sarah Palin. They love the idea of censoring books and other forms of free speech. They believe that it’s the government’s job to protect people from dissent.
Sound the warning that Sarah Palin, who would likely inherit the presidency from an elderly President John McCain, is an authoritarian who has no respect for the foundations of American liberty. Put this bumper sticker on your car to warn against the book burners for Palin.
Sarah Palin and other conservative Republicans mock Barack Obama’s experience as a community organizer, and Sarah Palin extols her identity as a governor. Sarah Palin also extols her credentials as a conservative Christian. Christian, governor, community organizer… isn’t there something in the Bible about all this?
The more you look around, the more communities you’ll find that have been disrespected by John McCain and Sarah Palin. Skateboarders, for example.
While she was mayor of the village of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin instituted a new law that outlawed the use of skateboards, in-line skates, scooters, and even bicycles in certain areas. Palin also declared that fines would be imposed against offending skaters and bicyclists, and their skates and bikes would be confiscated. (Source: Frontiersman, September 18, 1998)
In these days when big cars and trucks are burning up the planet with their gas guzzling engines, we ought to be encouraging people to find alternative forms of transportation - not punishing them. Sarah Palin and John McCain don’t understand that.
Polar bears had it hard enough before John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate in the Republican campaign for the White House. Polar bears are suffering the record melt of the polar ice on the Arctic Ocean. The bears depend upon that ice in order to hunt seals, their main prey. Now that significant amounts of ice are gone in the summertime, the bears are finding it difficult to find enough food to eat.
So, after years of illegal delays by George W. Bush, the polar bears were finally given Endangered Species Act protection this year. Almost immediately, however, that victory for the polar bears was itself endangered. As Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin filed a frivolous lawsuit on behalf of the big oil companies in order to try to force the federal government to reverse the decision to protect polar bears.
Science was on the side of the polar bears. It’s clear that they’re a threatened species. Yet, Sarah Palin argued that polar bears ought to be allowed to die off because profits for oil corporations are more important.
America has suffered under that kind of anti-environment, anti-science attitude for eight long years. If Sarah Palin is elected Vice President… well, the plain fact is that John McCain is elderly, and he’s not in good health. McCain has had cancer four times, and has other serious health conditions. Sarah Palin would likely become President if John McCain were elected.
That’s why polar bears, and the people who care about their survival, are against Palin. These lapel stickers can be worn by those who want to spread the word, and speak for the bears (for the bears have silent tongues, and I’m telling you Palin, at the top of my lungs…)
(They’re available as campaign buttons there too, but given that the theme of this blog is progressive bumper stickers, I thought I’d stick with that.)
Oh dear. In a response to the 2006 Eagle Forum Questionnaire, Sarah Palin revealed the depth of her knowledge regarding the Pledge of Allegiance:
Question: Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
Sarah Palin: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
How plucky! The problem is, the founding fathers didn’t write the Pledge of Allegiance, and they certainly didn’t incorporate “Under God” in the U.S. Constitution. In fact, they kept any references to the divine out of the Constitution! Is this who you want to be one creaky heartbeat away from the presidency?
