Frontline: Divided States of America - Did anyone else watch?

[TheCowsCameHome]

Two part PBS series, the first episode aired last night and finishes tonight.

Very informative programming, as usual.

The biggest takeaway IMHO was John McCain essentially giving birth to the tea party movement by dragging Sarah Palin out of the wilderness and into the national spotlight.

[cilla4progress]

1. I couldn't bear it

I'm sick of the rehashing. I probably should.

I agree with the Palin conclusion. Ironic because McCain is more or less one of the good Republicans. He definitely tapped into a recurring vile populist thread in America. Do you conclude he knew that when he picked her? I wonder if the pick was someone else on his team?

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. I don't think McCain realized

what would eventually happen to the party by bringing her to the forefront.

Why her? Other than because she was rather good looking woman who would appeal to a lot of males, I have no idea. It certainly wasn't her intellectual properties.

But look at the results of his action - everything changed.

[Hamlette]

12. Watch Game Change, it's about just that issue

McCain wanted Lieberman but the party told him no. He went through the other possible VP picks with his top aids and they all decided none of them would be the game change they needed to win the election. In large part that was because he was doing poorly with women. So McCain said "find me a woman" They went through all the republican women they could and rejected them (some because they were pro choice!) and finally found Palin. There were a couple of people pushing her (not shown in the show but in the book) and she had hosted a stop on some GOP cruise and impressed some GOPers (also not in show) but she sounded good on paper. Remember Palin had an 80% approval rating in Alaska at the time and they did not know how stupid and mean she was until after the GOP convention.

The movie is great because it shows Steve Schmidt (sp?) and Nicole Wallace coming to terms with how awful she was. It starts with Steve being interviewed after the election and being asked "would you pick her again?" and the show is in flashback.

I can understand how they did it but they needed more vetting (only had 5 days). That being said, I remember when the news broke on the Internet. The first responses were "she looks great" but within about 24 hours the shit hit the fan (online) as people from Alaska (the 20%) started letting us know about how awful she was. Even moderate republicans turned on her early (I remember Andrew Sullivan chasing the "its not her baby" rumor for a long time).

[LeftInTX]

15. My son has HBO, so I'll check it out when I babysit on Thursday.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Palin's awakening of the wingnut racist troglodytes begat Trump.

It was a glacial avalanche that the Democrats did little to combat. They got bested by a party whose values and thinking are stuck in the 15th century.

[cilla4progress]

4. It's a failure of imagination

Seems like Dem leadership is often caught flat-footed on the depths to which the right will stoop. Or just not willing to go there.

[HughBeaumont]

8. I vote "just not willing to go there".

Sorry to tell the Democratic party, "Being the better person" will get you beat in a fight with a sociopath. Politics aren't fair. The leadership needs to figure this out and FAST, lest they want yet another REDMAP to happen.

[Hamlette]

13. oh, yeah? What were we supposed to do?

Once Palin was picked we destroyed her and they lost. I admit she awakened the troglodytes but how could we have stopped that? We were not flat footed nor were we afraid to go there. They just don't give a shit. They love Trump because he is crude so the more we point out he is crude, the more people come to his cause. Same with Palin.

[cilla4progress]

14. I'd like to see EVERY Dem senator and congressperson

take it to them, like Warren.

More than that, fight dirty.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. It's surely on my DVR, but I haven't seen it yet.

Frontline is usually enlightening, at least in some way.

[KittyWampus]

6. The Teaparty would have happened with or without McCain. Did he "normalize" them?

Perhaps.

But part of the same dynamics have and are happening on the Left.

Extremist ideologues on the Left who were legitimized by a 'mainstream' politician.

[kenfrequed]

17. False equivalency much?

Yeah... those extreme ideologues?

I haven't heard a lot of "workers of the world" speeches lately, nor have I heard anyone calling on workers to organize to smash the state and seize the means of production to be run collectively. Not a lot of violence being called upon by the left either.

At best The Left is asking for watered down versions of Canadian and Scandinavian policies.

So maybe you should quit it with the false equivalency a bit.

[eissa]

7. It was both sad and fascinating

A great president could have been so much more if not for the unprecedented level of obstruction he faced.

P.S. Fuck Palin.

[milestogo]

9. Watched the first hour, then changed to a serial killer movie

which was much more uplifting.

[cilla4progress]

10. Good one.

[Lurks Often]

11. We were already on that path long before Palin ended up as McCain's VP pick

as a country we grow farther and farther apart every year and condemning the ones you don't agree with isn't working and won't change the growing split in the country. Equally, neither side is going to embrace the other side.

I don't know what the future holds and I have no ideas on how to fix the divide.

[LeftInTX]

16. Yes. I watched part of it. Will finish watching this evening.