Palinpalooza – DWTS Edition

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This shit got old a looooong time ago.

Amanda Marcotte at Slate:

For anyone who has any doubts that the main engine of the vicousness of the American political landscape is a pure culture war, I give to you the case of Bristol Palin hanging in on Dancing With the Stars. Palin is making a career out of conservative America using her to demonstrate that what matters most to them is that you’re a member of their tribe. You can break their strict sexual rules, and they’ll embrace you. You can have no talent whatsoever, and they’ll promote you. Just so long as you’re in the tribe. It’s how George W. Bush got to be president, so this shouldn’t be so shocking. Especially when you consider that cheeseball fare like Dancing With The Stars draws more Republican viewers than Democratic ones.

Tribal/cultural war is the only explanation. If this was actually about politics, it would only be about politics. Who wins on Dancing With the Stars has exactly zero impact on policy decision-making in Washington. It has nothing to do with those things that we keep hearing motivate the Tea Party–tax rates, “fiscal conservatism,” the auto bailout. But it has everything to do with scoring points in the ongoing war of sticking it to those latte-drinking liberals, who sneeringly believe the spawn of the martyred Sarah Palin shouldn’t win because she’s not good enough. The nerve!

Consider that the folks who are organizing to keep Bristol Palin on the show are easy to set off on rants about the evils of affirmative action, and much of what defines the current political landscape will become all too clear.

There’s more from Amanda in the comments:

Apparently. I don’t see why she can’t be a celebrity. She’s far from the only woman whose main claim to fame is that she’s given birth.

Read the rest of the comments. I’m surprised nobody came right out and called Bristol Palin a slut or a fat cow.

But Amanda wasn’t the only progressive female to cover herself in glory on this. Here’s Sally Quinn-Lite at the Chickenshit Ranch:

It’s been clear to me for some time that most of American politics is tribal and this is a perfect example of the phenomenon. And frankly, I’m fairly sure that liberals would rally around Sasha or Malia the same way although liberals wouldn’t simultaneously rail against affirmative action and take huge amounts of pride in their rugged individualism and ability to make it without any communal support and it’s doubtful they would see it as a perfect rebuke to conservative conspiracy that’s ruining America (although they probably should.)Liberals would root for the girls because they like them.

The big difference is that the conservatives would be staging a monumental hissy fit saying the voting is rigged and that Dancing With The Stars is a socialist, Soros funded conspiracy to ruin the competitive spirit of American youth. They know how to translate these tribal events into angry politics and liberals don’t.

But yeah, it’s tribal. What else is new?

Digby KNOWS what they’re thinking. She KNOWS there’s a big conspiracy of angry racists over in Wingnuttia determined to freep the voting just to piss off liberals. Of course neither Digby nor Amanda provide any evidence of this conspiracy.

As far as I know there have only been two blogs that encouraged people to vote for Bristol Palin. One is Conservatives4Palin, so they’re sorta obligated to support Sarah’s daughter.

The other blog is The Confluence, and I was motivated by snarky obnoxiousness because of this post by Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft:

Margaret Cho went home tonight on DWTS. She and Louie were in the bottom two, along with Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas.

Bristol is wooden, has zero musicality and even less dance ability. The judges seem to be afraid of hurting her feelings. Unlike every other contestant, she has no pre-existing fan base of her own. She didn’t star in a reality show or any tv show, she’s not a comic, a singer, or a top athlete.

The politicization of the show this season, casting this unaccomplished, untalented, non-star with no resume of her own, only because her mother is famous and polarizing which will bring in viewers, has left a permanent sour taste.

Margaret was clearly better than Bristol. But viewers voted in sufficient numbers to keep Bristol, so she stayed and Margaret got the axe. It’s obviously fans of her mother who are voting for her.

The show is called “Dancing With the Stars” because we’re supposed to be watching contestants who have some celebrity in their own right and performing talent in a field other than professional dancing. Most are actors, singers, or top athletes. The few exceptions — those without performing backgrounds like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak former House Speaker Tom DeLay and astronaut Buzz Aldrin — were well known because of their own careers.

Shame on ABC and shame on the judges for playing along and playing viewers.

That post by Jeralyn was just deranged. And let’s not forget when the proggers were giggling about how Sarah Palin got booed on the show (even though she didn’t.) So who started this?

Bristol Palin is a twenty year-old single mother with no dance experience. She was INVITED to be on the show and it took a lot of courage for her to put herself out there like that.

No, she doesn’t have a lot of talent. But she has worked hard and been a good sport. Give her a fucking break. It’s not her fault that her mother is the designated hate receptacle for all the progressives in the country.

IT’S A FUCKING TELEVISION SHOW, IT’S NOT REAL LIFE!

Let’s give Bristol Palin the last word:

“Well, thanks for hating on me because that’s just going to [give] me more motivation,” Palin said of how the haters have inspired her to improve by leaps and bounds.

“I’m blessed to still be around and I’m thankful for our fans that keep voting us through,” she added.

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Tune in to ABC tonight to see if Bristol and Mark will survive to dance for another week

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