The sizzle and steak of the election [op-ed 23 September 2008]

Oh, I’ve tried to resist the siren call. I’ve done my best to avoid writing about the Palin phenomenon. I’d rather write about a local story. But the thing is, it is the local story, it’s all we’re talking about. It’s irresistible. I feel myself inexorably sucked into it as into a black hole.

In the advertising game they talk of sizzle and steak. The point being that of the two, it’s a lot easier to sell the sizzle. Sarah Palin is all sizzle and since she was unveiled at the Republican convention has remained an easy sell, even as journalists have scrambled to reveal the steak itself. A woman, an attractive woman, an outdoorsy attractive woman–sizzle.

Handsome, rugged husband, so secure in his masculinity that a bit of Mr. Mom looks good on him. Hockey mom, special needs kid. All sizzle.

Even her wayward 17 year old pregnant daughter works as sizzle: Hey, everybody knows teen hormones can get out of hand. Republicans can be human. Who knew?

Palin. Better than Viagra for a flaccid campaign. And all sizzle.

Even the outrageous irresponsibility of choosing such an inexperienced person for the vice president most likely to become president of any VP choice in history is part of the s izzle. (Imagine the old guy being proving capable of such a shoot-from-the-hip move. Are these Republicans a wild-and-crazy bunch or what?)

Sensing that it’s McCain’s only chance, the Republicans have attempted to reduce Obama to sizzle too, a celebrity on the level of Paris Hilton, a carismatic bubble now deflating.

Steak and sizzle. We better hope we get clear in next few weeks which is which.

Sizzle: appealing woman looking to crack the glass ceiling.

Steak: her ideas, which would reverse the gains made by women in the past 40 years.

Sizzle: Palin as breath of fresh air, something new under the political sun.

Steak: a conservative package, including creationism and other fundamentalism more retrograde than McCain himselfor, for that matter, Bush.

Sizzle is the Republican party high on Palin.

Steak is the Republican record of the last eight years: the lowest ever ratings for getting us into a war on false pretenses, for making our name mud , when not a laughing stock, around the world., for attempting to legitimize torture, for suspension of civil rights, for what many think are indictable war crimes. That’s a big hunk of rotten meat currently stinking up the place.

Sizzle: Palin and her father figure posing as as reformers and outsiders promising to put something much more appetizing on the plate.

Steak: the fact that McCain has supported 95% of the Bush era, including the centerpiece of the war, and the likelihood that he will continue, for lack of any better ideas, an itchy trigger-fnger with regard to Iran, healthcare as usual, the assault on Roe v Wade, favoritism toward corporations and the long-stagnant wages of the middle class.

Republicans have tried to depict Obama’s obvious virtues as all sizzle. But in fact they are filet mignon: his obvious intelligence, his articulateness and ability to think on his feet, his carisma, will all be a huge advantage, in the tradition of FDR and JFK, in inspiring the country and re-constructing our reputation abroad.

Finally, perhaps more reliable than the campaign rhetoric of either party, there ‘s the steak of history: What are the basic ideas that separate the two parties? What do Republicans tend to do? What do Democrats tend to do? What party produced the social security reforms of the Depression, the checks on corporations? Which has traditionally been identified with civil rights and worker rights? What party, the last time it had the chance, balanced the budget and cut the rise of the national debt?

Sizzle and steak. An electorate that can’t tellor doesn’t care aboutthe distinction is in big trouble.

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