Now most of you are undoubtedly already realizing how unbelievably ignorant this statement is, but for those among you who are a little slow off the mark let Salon point out the obvious:I hope history remembers those who gave up their conservative principles for the cult of personality and celebrity. And those who didn't.— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 3, 2016
The myopia here is staggering. Although she didn’t respond, I asked Meghan if she remembers an obscure, half-forgotten figure named Sarah Palin? I asked because, in so many ways, there is no Trump without Palin. Palin was Trump before Trump. The rambling incoherence, the vacuousness, the reality TV theatrics, the ghastly marriage of ignorance and confidence – Palin brought this to national politics long before Trump did.
And it was Meghan’s father, John McCain, who foisted this catastrophe upon the country.
It was the bottomless cynicism of McCain, the once serious Senator from Arizona, who helped pave the way for Trump. He sold his soul to the conservative media-industrial complex the day he choose that buffoonish celebrity as his running mate, a woman he knew was woefully unprepared for the job. And he choose her precisely because of her potential celebrity, because she polled well with evangelicals and because she was the darling of right-wing media.
Like Trump, Palin had no governing philosophy, no vision, and lacked a basic understanding of political life. But she was greeted as a rock star by conservative pundits, who were convinced they could sell her to the base. Trump no doubt noticed this, and took from 2008 an obvious lesson: Win the headlines and Republican primary voters will follow.
Yep. "There is no Trump without Palin," that is the unavoidable truth.
And for the rest of his life John McCain will have to live that simple fact.
Perhaps THAT is why Donald Trump gave a shout out to Palin during his Indiana victory speech. Because he was acknowledging that she blazed his pathway to the nomination.
And now I feel a little responsible.
Here I was making sure that Palin herself would never be a viable candidate for the White House that I forgot to pay close enough attention to the Palin clones.
Oops?
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