Will They Care?

Today, the report on Sarah Palin's unethical behavior as governor of Alaska came out.

So, I hold my breath. Will the American people care?

"The belief that enhanced understanding will necessarily stir a nation or an organization to action is one of mankind's oldest illusions."
- Andrew Hacker

I felt so hopelessly deflated the first time I read this quote. I think it is my fundamental problem. I feel like if people understand, then they couldn't possibly...

But, it isn't true.

A friend of mine from high school recently wrote a blog where she said, "I will have to admit to my kids that this was the first election where I could not give two shits about the little guy, as I was far more concerned with building a nest egg for the family I would eventually start..."

So, she gets it, but is fundamentally more concerned with herself than the welfare of the nation?

Sist-A's boyfriend, KhakiRepublican, tried to justify women having to pay for rape kits in Wasilla by saying "they probably got a lot of false reporting."

While I adamantly disagree with KR's politics, in general, he's not a complete dumbass. He's capable of intelligent conversation, but is he blind or just willing to justify any sort of behavior as long as it's a Republican who does it?

I accept that people have different beliefs than I do. I'm not one of those people who feel like I need to surround myself with people who only believe as I do in order to validate my own opinions.

But, at my core is the belief that you have to care about other human beings. If we care about the lowest common denominator, then the collective welfare of the people improves. I believe that compassion and helping one another out is a good thing.

There are people who don't believe that. They look at the situation and really only care about themselves. It is not only an accepted notion, but an encouraged one in our capitalistic society.

So, back to my original point... will anyone care that Sarah Palin has been called out by her home state for being unethical? The Republican pundits will push their talking points "Obama is a terrorist" and fan-wank for Sarah. To be fair, if the situation were reversed, Democratic pundits would probably do the same thing.

I guess I have to hope Heather is wrong and "hockey moms" and "Joe Six-Packs" do care about crazy things like facts... or at the very minimum factual sound bites that are easily digestible.

I'd apologize for the long, rambling nature of this post, but nobody's forcing you to read it, jackass.