Political satire comes with the territory when running for any political office and more so when it’s an executive office position such as president or vice president. Regarding the content of political satire, some would argue it’s disrespectful and disingenuous to the person and the office they hold or hope to hold. Others would argue, it’s all fair game because they are political figures and, like celebrities, different rules apply when it comes to potentially besmirching the person.
With McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for the office of Vice President and Barack Obama in the running for the office of President, the country has two firsts (oops, one) on its hands. A women is running for Vice President (sorry, forgot about Ferraro. no one’s perfect) and a black (OK, half) is running for President. We’ve seen the spoofs. Goofy pictures of Obama in his bathing suit or sporting a ‘fro as a kid; pictures of Palin in a red, white and blue bikini holding a rifle and all sorts of other stuff.
With a black man and a woman running for the highest offices in the land, it’s comforting, at least from what’s been done do far, the spoofs haven’t gone to the terrible places they so easily could. Racism and sexism, for the most part, have been absent from the daily barrage of spoofs floating around. Likely, there are some nasty ones out there but they don’t seem to have reached a widespread audience.
It certainly helps that Obama ad Palin are very intelligent and well-spoken people. It’s much harder to make fun of people who are not idiots. Oh yes, people are all over Palin for her unmarried, pregnant daughter and Obama for his inexperience but those two things don’t necessarily completely define the two candidates.
There are many fine, upstanding people who, for various circumstances, may find themselves in places not deemed 100 percent perfect by society but that doesn’t make them bad people. There have been plenty of unwed mothers (and their parents) who have positively contributed to society just as there have been inexperienced people placed in positions of power and done just fine.
Everyone loves a good laugh or to experience a bit of schadenfreude every so often and the media can’t help but provide that content. Though it’s a delicate balance between good, clean fun and lowest common denominator filth. All too often, the media tends to swing towards filth highlighting, proliferating and sensationalizing the tiny parts of people’s lives that aren’t, well, perfect according to some unwritten standards.
As we laugh at the spoofs of Palin, McCain, Obama and Biden, we should realize we are all imperfect and we all know people who are imperfect. To expect there will e perfect person, Republican or Democrat, chosen to run America is shortsighted. Not that too many people expect this but it’s sometimes hard to tell given the onslaught of trash routinely heaped upon those running for office.
Neither candidate is out to maliciously harm the country. Both fully intend to do what they think is best. They will, of course, take different paths towards that definition of best and that, my friends, is where the devil enters the details.
