A great column by Steve Chapman over at the Tribune on The Subject I Just Can’t Bring Myself to Write About. Why? Because it’s just so depressing and it fills me with hopelessness. I know it’s fringe activity, and it should be treated as such, but…what was John McCain thinking, foisting her upon the scene and giving her legitimacy?
If her speech made anything clear, it’s that the shallow, ill-informed, truth-twisting demagogue seen in the 2008 presidential campaign is all she is and all she wants to be … facts have never been Palin’s strong suit. Nor do they matter because what infuriates her is the mere idea that constitutional protections would apply to “a terrorist who hates our Constitution and tries to destroy our Constitution.”
This is not some bizarre paradox. Lots of people who despise our Constitution — Nazis, communists, Klansmen, Alaska secessionists — enjoy its protections. Does she think the Bill of Rights should apply only to people who share her views? That would not leave much of the document she and the tea partyers claim to revere.
There is so much that makes no sense. So much that contradicts itself. So much that goes against everything I believe in and defies all reason and logic. And so it’s depressing because despite her very small group of loyal followers, the media will continue to cover her like she is Obama’s equal until she is eventually perceived that way by most of the country.
And then all bets are off.