Honestly this just reads like an incoherent “Republicans bad” Don Lemon rant. I could read something similar in the Washington Post editorial section if I wanted to. Oh and by the way, no one actually cares what “respectable” Republicans think at this point. Republican voters have been screwed by their party establishment too many times (it’s almost like representative is supposed to mean something), Democrats never did and are just pretending to so they can score some political points (which they are going to need with how badly things are going), and Independents are independent for a reason. One last thing, don’t try to rewrite history with the culture wars Wiseman. Every Republican presidential and vice presidential candidate in my lifetime has been called an prudish, idiotic, redneck, philandering, rich boy, evil genius, second coming of Hitler by mainstream Democrats (just pretend the contradictions do not exist).
I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the article – hilarious. I don’t think the author would think all Republicans are bad, just the extremists and nutjobs represented by Greene, Palin et al. It’s the same on the left … the extreme woke fringe seem to have taken over the whole show, but out in the real world I suspect we still have the great bulk of people thinking of themselves as centre-left or centre-right, and just generally fed-up with the division & diversion brought upon us by the extremists.
Unfortunately I think most people are more fed up with the other side’s extremists. 2024 should be a fun year (if we even get there).
I enjoyed it also.
What is extremist and crazy about Palin? Woman in Alaska manages to become Governor of her state. She hunts, does adventurous things in the wilderness and is a Christian. If that makes her ‘crazy and an extremist’ it is you who is crazy and an extremist.
It doesn’t count when you believe certain things. There is only one accepted viewpoint to hold these days. That is what a true democracy looks like, after all!
Just the Washington Post? You forgot the NYT, LA Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, SNL, Chicago Tribune, etc. etc. etc.
Remember, Republicans throw grandma off the cliff and starve children whilst Democrats work hard every day to save the world with other people’s money.
I did not forget, I just tried to keep my word count down.
Graham Stull
2 years ago
“violent crescendo of January 6″ I stopped reading here, because I guessed what would follow. The author needs to back this statement up with something. Some evidence. Anything. Who was killed in January 6th? Does the author know what the word ‘crescendo’ means? The word ‘violent’? It makes me wonder, in all seriousness, if those belonging to the professional laptop class actually think about the words they type into their MacBook Air keyboards.
You don’t think it was a violent crescendo? You weren’t watching what everyone else was watching. Do you think the slaughtered civilians in Ukraine were planted? Seriously, shame on you.
“Do you think the slaughtered civilians in Ukraine were planted?”
Not all of them, only the ones in Donbass during the past eight years who were fake propaganda planted by Putinbots.
January 6 was mostly a politically motivated intelligence operation. The only deaths as a direct result were of Ashli Babbit and a woman named Boylan – at the hands of capitol police. Regardless of arguing that right now – the treatment of the detainees and other alleged “insurrectionists” has been unconstitutional and uncivilized. Like Trudeau and the truckers it is used to turn political opponents into “terrorists” so they can be treated as such and a message is sent. All that said – MTG was one of – if not the first – to actually visit the prisoners and attempt to get the word out about their treatment. Fuentes is a piece of scat and if she in anyway endorsed his views it was a serious error on her part. But I have not dug into that story. I am hopeful for a populist counter-squad with potentially MTG, Palin, Boebert, and another TBD fourth and pray MTG hasn’t mucked it up.
Addendum:The main goal of Jan 6 – like every thing else – was to stop Trump from being able to run again or otherwise fatally wound him politically. He will do that to himself here if he keeps pushing vax and warp speed as his greatest accomplishment. He will need to turn that one around 180 to have my future support. Till then: DeSantis/Gabbert 2024, Smaybe DeSantis/Reynolds, Reynolds/Gabbert….
Last edited 2 years ago by Richard Aylward
Jem Barnett
2 years ago
Sarah Palin got “Trump’d” by the media, long before Trump even came along. I know this will be an unpopular view, but she was a fantastic speaker, and she scared the life out of the media establishment because she had that same X factor thing that Trump has, where people really connect with her, especially when she speaks at length. Obama had this gift as well.
For those who don’t know much about her, check out the speech she gave at the RNC in 2008 when running with that crusty old loser McCain. Watch the way the crowd respond to her, and the things she is saying. They listened politely to McCain, but they respond to Sarah and connect with her. Fascinating to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCDxXJSucF4
Palin foreshadowed Trump — she front-ran that message that Trump later ran on; she appealed to the same voters; she was hated by the same core of establishment Republicans + Democrats; she got hounded by the media relentlessly and they attempted to humiliate and shame her …and her supporters.
A great example was the way they meme’d the “I can see Russia from my house” thing and made it an emblem for her stupidity. SNL did skits on it, the NYT and WAPO ran features on how dumb she was. Of course they all knew exactly what she had really said, which was that the continent of Russia is literally a stone’s throw from the coast of Alaska, which it is. You can in fact see Russia from Alaska. But this one off-the-cuff figurative statement was enough to push her out of civilised society for more than a decade.
I remember thinking way back then that she wasn’t the sort of person I would vote for, but that the power of the media and what they did to her reputation was such an obvious lie, and yet it completely silenced her and pushed her off the stage of federal level politics into the gutter. Articles like this one, even so many years later, still take that narrative about her as an assumed baseline. Powerful stuff, what the media can do. Bernie Sanders is another who seems to get hounded and misrepresented in this manner also.
One other fascinating part about Palin was how ok it was to attack her as a woman.
Especially by feminists who otherwise would consider any criticism of a woman as “sexist” and “misogyny”
Good point, this does actually seem like a political divide, the different treatment of women. I have noticed for example with first ladies/first families the really obvious differences in the way they’re treated and spoken about depending on whether they’re Dems or Republicans.
The Republicans and their media (such as Fox, Daily Wire etc) seem much more careful and reserved about saying vicious things about say, Michelle Obama, or Jill Biden, or Biden’s daughters. But that same reservation does not play in reverse. The Dems and their media allies were vicious beyond belief about Melania and Ivanka, and about Bush’s daughters. Interesting. That actually would be an interesting topic for an article, to explore why such a convention is not respected equally by both sides.
The one exception I think worth noting here is Trump, who was a Republican (although many would disagree and say he was actually rogue agent who simply performed a hostile takeover of the party he fancied using to become President! …after all, the Republican establishment seemed to hate him even more than the Dems did)… But Trump broke the convention for R’s for playing nicer with the ladies, and he went in for Hilary just as hard as she did. He treated her like all the others, irrespective of her sex.
Contrast that to the debate with Kamala and Mike Pence, where you see that he’s not going to come for her like she was for him; he acted differently than he would have if a man was opposing him. Worth some thought. Thanks for your comment.
People remember where they were during historic events like 9/11 and the murder of JFK. I remember where I was when I heard, “I’m a hockey mom.” That speech spawned the Trump / MAGA / America First populist movement that is realigning our nation to this day. It also pulled up a (Neenah Foundry) sewer cover releasing legions of hateful demons from the very bowels of the Inferno. That is when everything the political right did became an existential threat justifying any illegal, unethical, unconstitutional, or just plain nasty tactic in response. On that note, VDH had a good one yesterday – “In comparison to Kamala Harris Sarah Palin is Cicero.”
….feminism is dying or let’s hope so : ) it’s lost its raison d’etre. It’s just one more victimization group, so tedious.
Last edited 2 years ago by Cathy Carron
William Hickey
2 years ago
Say the words “Massachusetts Democrat” or “San Francisco Democrat” or “New York City Democrat” and everyone in America has a pretty good idea what those words mean.
Ted Kennedy. Nancy Pelosi. Bill de Blasio. AOC.
That’s because deep “blue” states and cities send folks to Congress and to their governors’ mansions who are as left wing as they are. They elect — and get— what they want.
Now say the words “Wyoming Republican” or “Mississippi Republican” or “South Carolina Republican” or “Utah Republican.”
What do you get?
Liz Cheney. Roger Wicker. Tim Scott. Spencer Cox.
See the problem?
For far, far too long the most conservative states have sent not reliable fire-breathing equivalents of Ilhan Omar, Barney Frank and Gavin Newsom, but “bidniz-friendly” libertarians and non-entities like John Cornyn and Mike Crapo.
Thus the legislative momentum for change is only pushed in one direction — to the left.
Conservative and traditionalist Americans have had enough of the trimming of donor puppets. We want warriors who will censure and if necessary expel left-wing Democrats; who will investigate left-wing institutions; and who will put items in the legislative hopper — like immigration moratoriums and prayer in schools — that the majority of voters want.
Let the Democrats oppose them.
We want the Overton Window of acceptable politics to move WAY right. MTG, Paul Gosar, Matt Cawthorn and candidates like Joe Kent and Robby Starbuck are the right messengers for that task, not Mitt Romney and Tim Scott.
Back in the Sixties the anti-war left used to say, “Two, three, many Vietnams.”
I say, “Two, three, many MTGs.”
Andrew Lale
2 years ago
Republicans: be dutiful and low-key while we dismantle the republic and every institution in America which works.
Dawn McD
2 years ago
The name of the town in Alaska where Palin was mayor is Wasilla (nitpicking, apologies). What bothered me about Palin was her stupidity. She couldn’t get through an interview without putting it on full display. My primary thought, whenever I see Kamala Harris speaking publicly, is “she reminds me of Sarah Palin.” The last prominent American politician before Palin who was such a public dummy was Dan Quayle.
Marjorie Taylor-Greene is usually just an amusing crackpot, but Madison Cawthorn is a transparent buffoon. I saw the video clip in which he described supposedly being invited to “a sexual get-together.” Who talks like that? This is a guy who doesn’t know how things actually work, just making it up as he goes along. I know the Republican Party is in a bad state, but people like this are not the answer to the problem. What we need is dozens and dozens of more people like Ron DeSantis, but they’re apparently nowhere to be found.
Lloyd Byler
2 years ago
What an utter waste of time to read this screed.
get me back by 5 minutes please…
the only thing I learned is that Mr. Airhead Wiseman is bottoms itching for Sarah Palin click bait trash articles.
I will make sure not to click on them.. thanks for the heads up, Mr. Bucko Wisecrack Yellow Journalism Media Mafia Brigade Clansman leader..
Vince B
2 years ago
It is indeed pretty bad when Sarah Palin starts looking statesmanlike. The GOP was already taking a weird turn into Palin Land before Trump came down the gilded escalator and made acting like a rowdy frat boy a savvy career move for young Republicans.
I am hoping and praying that we see a collapse of the woke left – I see cracks every day, from polls in France to comments on the NYT Op-Ed board – and an implosion of the Trumpified right.
Totalitarians to the left, fascists to the right. Leaders throughout the West with the courage to call out the extremists on their own side will seize the day. I’m no fan of Bill Clinton, but I give him credit for his Sister Souljah Moment, which was a prerequisite for Democrats to get anywhere near the White House at that time.
Last edited 2 years ago by Vince B
Ian Stewart
2 years ago
Well I thought this was ok. I especially like the application of time perspective on Palin.
But I knew it’s even handedness would upset the usual Unherd suspects .
Honestly this just reads like an incoherent “Republicans bad” Don Lemon rant. I could read something similar in the Washington Post editorial section if I wanted to. Oh and by the way, no one actually cares what “respectable” Republicans think at this point. Republican voters have been screwed by their party establishment too many times (it’s almost like representative is supposed to mean something), Democrats never did and are just pretending to so they can score some political points (which they are going to need with how badly things are going), and Independents are independent for a reason. One last thing, don’t try to rewrite history with the culture wars Wiseman. Every Republican presidential and vice presidential candidate in my lifetime has been called an prudish, idiotic, redneck, philandering, rich boy, evil genius, second coming of Hitler by mainstream Democrats (just pretend the contradictions do not exist).
I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the article – hilarious. I don’t think the author would think all Republicans are bad, just the extremists and nutjobs represented by Greene, Palin et al. It’s the same on the left … the extreme woke fringe seem to have taken over the whole show, but out in the real world I suspect we still have the great bulk of people thinking of themselves as centre-left or centre-right, and just generally fed-up with the division & diversion brought upon us by the extremists.
Unfortunately I think most people are more fed up with the other side’s extremists. 2024 should be a fun year (if we even get there).
I enjoyed it also.
What is extremist and crazy about Palin? Woman in Alaska manages to become Governor of her state. She hunts, does adventurous things in the wilderness and is a Christian. If that makes her ‘crazy and an extremist’ it is you who is crazy and an extremist.
I gave up part way through wondering why I was reading it.
Interesting piece by Tucker Carlson last night on FoxNews
Anyone with half a brain won’t be reading that.
I have a PhD in Philosophy, and will be reading that.
It doesn’t count when you believe certain things. There is only one accepted viewpoint to hold these days. That is what a true democracy looks like, after all!
I stand corrected.
I don’t think you are making the point you think you are making
QED – you’ve less than half a brain proven by you taking a PhD in Philosophy. And maybe less than that now you’re boasting about it.
Just the Washington Post? You forgot the NYT, LA Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, SNL, Chicago Tribune, etc. etc. etc.
Remember, Republicans throw grandma off the cliff and starve children whilst Democrats work hard every day to save the world with other people’s money.
I did not forget, I just tried to keep my word count down.
“violent crescendo of January 6″
I stopped reading here, because I guessed what would follow. The author needs to back this statement up with something. Some evidence. Anything. Who was killed in January 6th? Does the author know what the word ‘crescendo’ means? The word ‘violent’?
It makes me wonder, in all seriousness, if those belonging to the professional laptop class actually think about the words they type into their MacBook Air keyboards.
6th of January, no more than a “fart in a windstorm “ as they say in the Cotswolds.
You don’t think it was a violent crescendo? You weren’t watching what everyone else was watching. Do you think the slaughtered civilians in Ukraine were planted? Seriously, shame on you.
I’m pretty sure that G.Stull’s point is that January 6 was somewhat less violent than what is being inflicted on Ukrainian civilians.
“Do you think the slaughtered civilians in Ukraine were planted?”
Not all of them, only the ones in Donbass during the past eight years who were fake propaganda planted by Putinbots.
I was wondering when he would add the mandatory “mostly peaceful protests” line to this piece.
January 6 was mostly a politically motivated intelligence operation. The only deaths as a direct result were of Ashli Babbit and a woman named Boylan – at the hands of capitol police. Regardless of arguing that right now – the treatment of the detainees and other alleged “insurrectionists” has been unconstitutional and uncivilized. Like Trudeau and the truckers it is used to turn political opponents into “terrorists” so they can be treated as such and a message is sent. All that said – MTG was one of – if not the first – to actually visit the prisoners and attempt to get the word out about their treatment. Fuentes is a piece of scat and if she in anyway endorsed his views it was a serious error on her part. But I have not dug into that story. I am hopeful for a populist counter-squad with potentially MTG, Palin, Boebert, and another TBD fourth and pray MTG hasn’t mucked it up.
Addendum:The main goal of Jan 6 – like every thing else – was to stop Trump from being able to run again or otherwise fatally wound him politically. He will do that to himself here if he keeps pushing vax and warp speed as his greatest accomplishment. He will need to turn that one around 180 to have my future support. Till then: DeSantis/Gabbert 2024, Smaybe DeSantis/Reynolds, Reynolds/Gabbert….
Sarah Palin got “Trump’d” by the media, long before Trump even came along. I know this will be an unpopular view, but she was a fantastic speaker, and she scared the life out of the media establishment because she had that same X factor thing that Trump has, where people really connect with her, especially when she speaks at length. Obama had this gift as well.
For those who don’t know much about her, check out the speech she gave at the RNC in 2008 when running with that crusty old loser McCain. Watch the way the crowd respond to her, and the things she is saying. They listened politely to McCain, but they respond to Sarah and connect with her. Fascinating to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCDxXJSucF4
Palin foreshadowed Trump — she front-ran that message that Trump later ran on; she appealed to the same voters; she was hated by the same core of establishment Republicans + Democrats; she got hounded by the media relentlessly and they attempted to humiliate and shame her …and her supporters.
A great example was the way they meme’d the “I can see Russia from my house” thing and made it an emblem for her stupidity. SNL did skits on it, the NYT and WAPO ran features on how dumb she was. Of course they all knew exactly what she had really said, which was that the continent of Russia is literally a stone’s throw from the coast of Alaska, which it is. You can in fact see Russia from Alaska. But this one off-the-cuff figurative statement was enough to push her out of civilised society for more than a decade.
I remember thinking way back then that she wasn’t the sort of person I would vote for, but that the power of the media and what they did to her reputation was such an obvious lie, and yet it completely silenced her and pushed her off the stage of federal level politics into the gutter. Articles like this one, even so many years later, still take that narrative about her as an assumed baseline. Powerful stuff, what the media can do. Bernie Sanders is another who seems to get hounded and misrepresented in this manner also.
One other fascinating part about Palin was how ok it was to attack her as a woman.
Especially by feminists who otherwise would consider any criticism of a woman as “sexist” and “misogyny”
Good point, this does actually seem like a political divide, the different treatment of women. I have noticed for example with first ladies/first families the really obvious differences in the way they’re treated and spoken about depending on whether they’re Dems or Republicans.
The Republicans and their media (such as Fox, Daily Wire etc) seem much more careful and reserved about saying vicious things about say, Michelle Obama, or Jill Biden, or Biden’s daughters. But that same reservation does not play in reverse. The Dems and their media allies were vicious beyond belief about Melania and Ivanka, and about Bush’s daughters. Interesting. That actually would be an interesting topic for an article, to explore why such a convention is not respected equally by both sides.
The one exception I think worth noting here is Trump, who was a Republican (although many would disagree and say he was actually rogue agent who simply performed a hostile takeover of the party he fancied using to become President! …after all, the Republican establishment seemed to hate him even more than the Dems did)… But Trump broke the convention for R’s for playing nicer with the ladies, and he went in for Hilary just as hard as she did. He treated her like all the others, irrespective of her sex.
Contrast that to the debate with Kamala and Mike Pence, where you see that he’s not going to come for her like she was for him; he acted differently than he would have if a man was opposing him. Worth some thought. Thanks for your comment.
People remember where they were during historic events like 9/11 and the murder of JFK. I remember where I was when I heard, “I’m a hockey mom.” That speech spawned the Trump / MAGA / America First populist movement that is realigning our nation to this day. It also pulled up a (Neenah Foundry) sewer cover releasing legions of hateful demons from the very bowels of the Inferno. That is when everything the political right did became an existential threat justifying any illegal, unethical, unconstitutional, or just plain nasty tactic in response. On that note, VDH had a good one yesterday – “In comparison to Kamala Harris Sarah Palin is Cicero.”
….feminism is dying or let’s hope so : ) it’s lost its raison d’etre. It’s just one more victimization group, so tedious.
Say the words “Massachusetts Democrat” or “San Francisco Democrat” or “New York City Democrat” and everyone in America has a pretty good idea what those words mean.
Ted Kennedy. Nancy Pelosi. Bill de Blasio. AOC.
That’s because deep “blue” states and cities send folks to Congress and to their governors’ mansions who are as left wing as they are. They elect — and get— what they want.
Now say the words “Wyoming Republican” or “Mississippi Republican” or “South Carolina Republican” or “Utah Republican.”
What do you get?
Liz Cheney. Roger Wicker. Tim Scott. Spencer Cox.
See the problem?
For far, far too long the most conservative states have sent not reliable fire-breathing equivalents of Ilhan Omar, Barney Frank and Gavin Newsom, but “bidniz-friendly” libertarians and non-entities like John Cornyn and Mike Crapo.
Thus the legislative momentum for change is only pushed in one direction — to the left.
Conservative and traditionalist Americans have had enough of the trimming of donor puppets. We want warriors who will censure and if necessary expel left-wing Democrats; who will investigate left-wing institutions; and who will put items in the legislative hopper — like immigration moratoriums and prayer in schools — that the majority of voters want.
Let the Democrats oppose them.
We want the Overton Window of acceptable politics to move WAY right. MTG, Paul Gosar, Matt Cawthorn and candidates like Joe Kent and Robby Starbuck are the right messengers for that task, not Mitt Romney and Tim Scott.
Back in the Sixties the anti-war left used to say, “Two, three, many Vietnams.”
I say, “Two, three, many MTGs.”
Republicans: be dutiful and low-key while we dismantle the republic and every institution in America which works.
The name of the town in Alaska where Palin was mayor is Wasilla (nitpicking, apologies). What bothered me about Palin was her stupidity. She couldn’t get through an interview without putting it on full display. My primary thought, whenever I see Kamala Harris speaking publicly, is “she reminds me of Sarah Palin.” The last prominent American politician before Palin who was such a public dummy was Dan Quayle.
Marjorie Taylor-Greene is usually just an amusing crackpot, but Madison Cawthorn is a transparent buffoon. I saw the video clip in which he described supposedly being invited to “a sexual get-together.” Who talks like that? This is a guy who doesn’t know how things actually work, just making it up as he goes along. I know the Republican Party is in a bad state, but people like this are not the answer to the problem. What we need is dozens and dozens of more people like Ron DeSantis, but they’re apparently nowhere to be found.
What an utter waste of time to read this screed.
get me back by 5 minutes please…
the only thing I learned is that Mr. Airhead Wiseman is bottoms itching for Sarah Palin click bait trash articles.
I will make sure not to click on them.. thanks for the heads up, Mr. Bucko Wisecrack Yellow Journalism Media Mafia Brigade Clansman leader..
It is indeed pretty bad when Sarah Palin starts looking statesmanlike. The GOP was already taking a weird turn into Palin Land before Trump came down the gilded escalator and made acting like a rowdy frat boy a savvy career move for young Republicans.
I am hoping and praying that we see a collapse of the woke left – I see cracks every day, from polls in France to comments on the NYT Op-Ed board – and an implosion of the Trumpified right.
Totalitarians to the left, fascists to the right. Leaders throughout the West with the courage to call out the extremists on their own side will seize the day. I’m no fan of Bill Clinton, but I give him credit for his Sister Souljah Moment, which was a prerequisite for Democrats to get anywhere near the White House at that time.
Well I thought this was ok. I especially like the application of time perspective on Palin.
But I knew it’s even handedness would upset the usual Unherd suspects .