Sarah Palin Dumps Joe the Plumber for Ed the Dairyman

Sarah Palin once talked about Joe Six-Pack. Joe Six-Pack was the guy next door. He was a hard working blue-collar kind of guy. Then hockey-mom Sarah Palin dumped him. She dumped him for another Joe - Joe the Plumber. It didn't matter that she traded in a guy that didn't exist for a plumber that didn't exist. It simply did not matter. She was just using him anyway. And so it was that she also used Joe the Plumber, who apparently had a sister named Jane (details about Jane have been sketchy and it is uncertain whether she exists, either), long enough to get around the East Coast. Then she made her way out West to Roswell, New Mexico, where she promptly dumped Joe the Plumber for Ed the Dairyman.

As far as most people know, Ed the Dairyman actually exists, holding up an identifying sign in a crowd at a Roswell, New Mexico, rally like a limo driver awaiting his charge.

Roswell, New Mexico, is home of the infamous Roswell Incident, the site of an alleged UFO crash in 1947 that was and is allegedly being covered up by the United States government. Roswell has built an entire tourist industry around the UFO story. And although Ed the Dairyman was taking a good-natured swipe at the newly anointed pop culture phenomenon known as Joe the Plumber, he might have been better served holding up a sign that read "Ed the UFO pilot."

Instead, Ed made it clear he was a Dairyman. He had a sign. And Sarah Palin saw the sign.

Sounds like the storyline and setting for a really bad soap opera.

Instead, it is the Republican vice presidential candidate's attempts at applying a metaphorical Everyman to the public she is desperately trying to convince to vote for her and her running mate, Senator John McCain. It is an attempt to connect with the mainstream voters that are feeling the crush of the financial crisis that the country not only faces but is actually in. It is an attempt to distance the McCain-Palin ticket as far from the unpopular corporate welfare system that has become the political structure within the Beltway in Washington.

But appealing to the fringe elements seems to be more Governor Palin's forte. She is so anti-abortion that she even disagrees that a woman who has become impregnated through rape and incest should have a choice. She believes there should be a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. She does not believe that global warming is real or that its effects are caused by man-made excesses. She believes the Earth is a mere 6000 years old.

So how does a fringe thinker appeal to the average Joe - or Ed, as the case now seems to be? By finding common ground with the common man (or woman). By misleading the rally-goers and convincing them that Senator Barack Obama's tax plans will raise their taxes (which it does for only 5% of the population). She told her listeners in Roswell: "Barack Obama calls it spreading the wealth. Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic. But Joe the Plumber and Ed the Dairyman, I believe they think it sounds more like socialism." Using terms like "socialism" has an old-line "dirty communist" sound to it.

Governor Palin goes the divisive route in other ways as well. By indirectly implying that Senator Obama is a terrorist by association with domestic terrorists like William Ayers (no matter how fleeting those associations seem to be). By indirectly accusing Senator Obama of being somehow un-American or different, feeding into issues of race and religion (with lines like "he doesn't see America like we see America" and " he's not one of us"). By the misleading statements that Senator Obama is somehow an elitist because he speaks well ("eloquence" is the word being used most often) and graduated from Harvard (through scholarships) while implying that Senator McCain is not (although he received his appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy - where he was nearly expelled several times - simply because his father and grandfather were admirals in the U. S. Navy and not by merit of his grades). By telling voters that Senator Obama supports abortions without exception (which he does not). And by telling voters that Senator Obama is part of the infamous Chicago Democratic political machine (which implies that Senator Obama is connected to the corruption and scandals associated with old-style Chicago machine politics, which in turn implies that Chicago still operates politically the same way it did half a century ago).

All of these issues are fair game in politics, even if some are a bit misleading. But to the common man, to Joe the Plumber and Ed the Dairyman, hard-working people who do not have time to properly research each issue, these are issues that matter and issues that will alter their vote. Because Joe Six-Pack,Joe the Plumber, and Ed the Dairyman are emotionally invested in these issues. They care about how the next guy sitting in the Oval Office thinks about them. And when candidates begin slinging disingenuous and divisive phrases like they are facts, a good number of average voters tend to take them at their word.

So Governor Palin wanders the country, going from political rally to political rally, conjuring up a fictitious connection with Joe (Ed) Everyman, promoting the political tactics of division. So it was with Joe Six-Pack. And Joe (and Jane) the Plumber. And, now, Ed the Dairyman.

Ed the Dairyman should be warned: Palin simply demonstrates the fickleness of the opportunist, saying anything to get elected, and Ed the Dairyman might want to take into consideration that Governor Palin has already dumped two metaphorical Joes to get to him. There can be little doubt that she will dump Ed the Dairyman as well. Palin is not so subtle where her true allegiance lies, that Joe Six-Pack and Joe the Plumber (and, yes, Ed the Dairyman) are mere dalliances, simple political tools conveniently used in her march alongside John McCain to the White House.

Because, in the end, she will dump them all. Her true connection and interest is with Dick the Oilman.

Source:

Associated Press