Last Frontier of Sedition

One of the drawbacks liberals face is the fact that although we may find the words of such rousers as Sarah Palin distasteful, we will still defend her right to say those words. What we need to remember, however, is that our defense of the right to free speech does not extend to seditious speech. Palin and the Tea Party have entered sedition’s last frontier.

The recent pseudo-event with Sarah Palin headlining the Tea Party Express' Showdown in Searchlight, she addressed a throng of 9-thousand and attempted to sell a negative message to the disenfranchised of that crowd. Her disingenuous rhetoric aside, Sam Adams would have been proud of her. Sam knew a thing or two about pseudo-events and inciting a crowd. He headlined the original Boston Tea Party and proved that when you win a war, your thugs become patriots. Sedition is what gets things going.

Here is the short version. Sedition is “any act, writing, speech, etc., directed unlawfully against state authority, the government, or constitution, or calculated to bring it into contempt or to incite others to hostility, ill will or disaffection; it does not amount to treason and therefore is not a capital offense.”

After Palin posted the rifle scope cross hair target map on her Facebook page, she entered the frontier of sedition using Twitter. “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!” And on national television, in U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nevada, Palin proclaimed to the crowd that the big-government, big-debt spending spree of the Senate majority leader, Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over. “You’re fired!” she said.

The Donald Trump tag line is from the hit TV show "The Apprentice,” produced by Mark Burnett who also produces “Survivor.” Burnett is about to produce “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” The Learning Channel is said to be paying more than $1 million per episode for that Palin business. We will see what other words are loaded to her lips. Having loaded lips will be an audience pleaser since Palin gets $100 thousand per appearance.

Sarah Palin is like Anna Nicole Smith with glasses – known for being known and not standing for anything. It is fine to be a celebrity of a rally circuit in tertiary US metro-markets. It seems a bit much for the 6 figures pay for her to declare to the multitude “We're not going to sit down and shut up. Thank you for standing up." You’re welcome, but what are we supposed to do now that we are standing? In the frontier of sedition, this is where they pass out hoods for us to wear.

Palin Scopes Targets

I expect the Associated Press writing to be plagiaristic. Take the story headlined “Palin, Tea Party Take On Reid, Health Reform. “ Referring to a Tea Party rally in Arizona “that's been called a conservative Woodstock” is an example. Who called it that? The Woodstock comparison was first articulated on PBS Frontline about Karl Rove and it pertained to the Republican Convention of 1964 that nominated Barry Goldwater for President. But who needs editors when there is spell-check?

The “Tea Party movement” and Sarah Palin deserve lots of derision. The codswallop that they perpetrate is infectious to bigots. Using the posting graphics of rifle scope cross-hairs of a map to “target” Democrats up for re-election on her Facebook page and sending the tweet “Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" pander a demographic with disingenuous rhetoric pretending to be rogue conservativism. Barry Goldwater must be turning.

When a pop star backs a cause or a purpose, it is self-aggrandizement. Representing oneself is what pop stars do best. As a political pop-star, Palin is a Twitter natural. What better way to disseducate people than with Twitter, where one can use non-words to say virtually nothing of any import to everyone all the time. Pop stars have staffs of people and lots of fans to create image and manage media. The Betcha-Gotcha Palin staff appears to have hateful people on it who must be really irked by having to play nice with the Retiree-To-Be McCain staff and especially Cindy McCain.

The Boston Tea Party is one of those historical tales that has long lost its integrity. We never hear about Sam Adams and his bully boys, as they’ve been called. When you win a revolution, your thugs become known as patriots. The name Tea Party looks and sounds better than Loose Coalition of Conservative Groups Opposed to Anything Democratic.” Actually, the name Loose Cannons is more to the point.

It must be galling for John McCain to face a re-election bid so tough that his staff had to get with the Palin staff to bring the two electoral and popular vote losers together for a maverick reunion for camera lenses. George W. Bush’s staff doubtless said “Not at this time. We’re doing a presidential makeover with the Big Dog (Bill Clinton).”

Truly, a political off-season -- not being an elected official -- can be fickle. McCain is a handful of votes from having his off-season. Palin will make it so. Remember what Palin did for the last McCain campaign? Imagine what she can do for the GOP, the country for that matter.