Martin Bashir Reminds Us There’s Only One Way to Respond to Sarah Palin: Ignore Her

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

McMurry: Martin Bashir Reminds Us Theres Only One Way to Respond to Sarah Palin: Ignore Her

by Evan McMurry | 4:41 pm, November 24th, 2013

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On April 10, 2011, ABCs George Stephanopoulos asked President Barack Obama about Sarah Palins criticism of his proposal to reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Obama replied:

I really have no response. Because last I checked, Sarah Palins not much of an expert on nuclear issues. If the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, Im probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin.

Biff bang boom done. Obamas terse non-response, requiring no more effort than swatting away a fly, remains the smartest and most effective rejoinder to Palin on record, and it serves as a reminder that the only response to Sarah Palin is to ignore her.

MSNBCs Martin Bashir, as you well know, stepped in it last week when he addressed Palins debt=slavery comment. For what its worth, Bashir was absolutely correct in his rebuttal. The fringe right has a bad case of slavery Tourettes, a mean and offensive obsession with likening the imaginary oppressions of contemporary society to the most horrific, systematized, actual oppression in this countrys history. This comparison serves two simultaneous functions for the right: it casts its membership rolls as victims, often for no greater inconvenience than paying taxes in exchange for services; and it strips from the history of slavery its roots in the systemic racism that still infects American discoursean obvious benefit for a movement like the tea party, which is comprised largely of white voters despairing at their winnowing political influence.

In short, it turns slavery into slavery, a portable complaint that can be arrogated by anyone gauche enough to do so. Cue Palin. From palling around with terrorists to death panels, Palin is what we on the interweb machine call a troll, someone who does not make arguments to persuade but chucks provocative comments to knock her opponents off-balance, and, even better, off-topic. Palin, who didnt win the 2009 Lie of the Year Award for nuthin, is an major league troll, and she was 100% trolling when she compared the national debt to slavery.

Bashir took the bait. Its hard to blame him, as the cynical misuse of slavery as a moral referent is enough to drive any person with an historical awareness batty. But Bashir made the mistake of thinking Palin was serious, and so he seriously responded, reminding Palin of the horrors of slavery as a means of denying her the use of the concept. If you want to compare your petty ideological hangups to slavery, Bashir was saying, you have to own the whole of your comparison, including and especially the parts of slavery that involved not just the figurative ownership of Palins comment but also the most tactile, literal acts of dehumanizationlike, say, the slaveowner who made his slaves defecate into each others mouths.

This was a gross exampleeven, if you listen to his critics, vile and deplorable but it was not Bashir who made it gross, vile, and deplorable. It was Palin who brought up slavery; Bashir was just following out the awful tendrils of her analogy. Dont like stories about people being force-fed excrement? Dont compare things to slavery.

But now, here he is, apologizing for saying someone should sh*t in Palins mouth. Now here MSNBC is, getting heat for not disciplining him. Somehow Alec Baldwin is involved. Note, nobodys talking about the debt, because Palin was never serious about her analogy. But neither is anybody talking about slavery, because Palin was never sincere about that, either. Her aim was to drag someone exactly like Bashir, and an institution exactly like MSNBC, into the mud with her, and it worked like gangbusters. Palin now gets to play the victim, and just in time to hawk some copies of her Christmas book.

Bashir lost this round, but he lost it because he was battling somebody with nothing to lose. As Mediaites Tommy Christopher pointed out a few months ago, Palins star has fallen so low that when she recently announced she wouldnt be challenging Mark Begich (D-AK) for his Senate seat, literally nobody noticed. For Palin, any exposure is good exposure, so she has everything to gain by throwing out comments like debt= slavery, just to see who pushes back and whether cameras will follow.

That, by the way, was exactly what she was doing when she criticized Obamas nuclear policy. Obamas responseI have no responseleft her muttering something about community organizers as the cameras turned away. The only way to respond to Palin is to ignore her. Lets hope Martin Bashir is the last person to have to learn that lesson.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/martin-bashir-reminds-us-theres-only-one-way-to-respond-to-sarah-palin-ignore-her/ Edited December 6, 2013 by Papa Lazarou

[lostinblue 1,989]

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

OK. Prove it.

I live in vague hope that sooner or later a halfway coherent point will emerge from you that doesn't involve posting snide and stupid meme images. Hey ho.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Papa Lazarou

[lostinblue 1,989]

"The borrower is slave to the lender" (Prov. 22:7).

The kenyan had done everything in his power to enslave our young and future generations well beyond ........Bow down to your Chinese lords......

"Top Obama administration and Pentagon officials signaled a willingness to temporarily accept China's new, controversial air defense identification zone on Wednesday....".....Tells it all.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

When I said a half coherent point, I was thinking it would be more coherent than the sort of stuff I usually hear from the drunken, homeless (and quite possibly mentally ill) man I pass by on my way to the train station each morning.

My mistake.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Papa Lazarou

[Pooky 3,781]

If only he had realized this before he opened his big mouth.

He's such a doofus.

[unsmiley 111]

Leave it to an idiotic liberal (=the nobody who wrote the incredibly biased story quoted in the first post above) to turn around an utterly vile comment and somehow bash the victim of that quote. People can disagree without resorting to obscenities. Why on earth can't you admit that Bashir was completely inappropriate and deserves condemnation even from the left?

[GandD 5,966]

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Oh Jesus

Pull your pants up why don't you.