Three Seconds of Dead Air

Ballerina Out of Control November 10, 2009

I promise – absolutely, positively 100% promise – that this will be the last thing I say about this yammering doofus, but Carrie Prejean’s interview with Meredith Vieira on The Today Show this morning was just too priceless to pass up.

Let’s recap who she is first.  She wins Miss USA after saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.  She goes on to become a darling of Fox News and other conservative media types.  She’s eventually removed from her position, allegedly because she failed to meet the commitments of the “office.”  Prejean sues.  Later we find out her boob job paid was paid for by pageant officials, and she’d taken some racy photos for a men’s magazine. Most recently, she dropped her lawsuit after the emergence of a tape wherein the GOP’s sweetheart was filmed practicing safe sex on herself.  In short, we have yet another example of a person of no consequence being elevated to a position of importance, essentially because she aired her bigoted views publicly, and then turned out to be a grade-A hypocrite.

The interview didn’t reflect any of this.  It was, in short,  a masterpiece of megalomanical delusion.  She’s convinced that her firing – and now this sex tape – is all part of grand liberal campaign to “silence” her.  Apparently she’s been diligently copying the notes she was given during her appearances on Fox News, because her talking points read like the How to Be a Young Republican Handbook. A few of the more exciting tidbits:

• There’s a plot in this country to silence conservative women.
• We have a liberal media.
• Because she came under fire for her comments about gay marriage, free speech doesn’t exist.
• “I’ve been Palinized.”
• Sean Hannity would be off the air if he said the same things about Michelle Obama that Keith Olbermann has said about her.

I don’t even really know where to start. The easiest place, I guess, is the last point.  To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen in the 1988 Vice-Presidential debates: Carrie, you’re no Michelle Obama.  You’re not even Sarah Palin.  You’re a talentless dingbat whose fifteen minutes of fame are just about up.  And if Hannity did criticize Michelle Obama, he wouldn’t be off the air.  Why?  Because he’s on Fox News.  If anything, he’d get a raise.

As for her first point, I’d argue that it’s not a plot to silence conservative women.  It’s a plot to silence stupid people.  Period.  Prejean, Sarah Palin, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Ann Coulter – what other conservative women could she be talking about?  Olympia Snowe?  Meghan McCain?  As far as I can tell, Snowe is enjoying increased prestige precisely because she’s a conservative woman who’s not a Stepford-esque twit.  She’s smart and principled, and that flies in the face of most current conservative rhetoric.  And Meghan McCain may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but people are willing to listen to her because she doesn’t stick to the accepted GOP talking points. If Prejean doesn’t want people to criticize what she says, she should stop spewing bigoted, hateful nonsense.

And that brings me to her point about the death of free speech.  It’s funny to hear her say this, because my response is the one I frequently hear conservatives give liberals.  Just because we have freedom of speech in this country doesn’t mean you can go around babbling whatever the hell you like without consequence.  You get to say it without being locked up in jail. That’s free speech.  If other entities want to criticize or sanction you because of what you said, well, that’s their prerogative.  Just ask the Dixie Chicks.  I think it’s great they had the courage to speak out against George W. Bush to their largely redneck, Bush-supporting fan base, but the ensuing backlash wasn’t censorship.  The fact that fans destroyed their records, and country music stations stopped playing their songs, struck me as a totally predictable, wholly reasonable response from that demographic.  If you’re going to have the balls to say something unpopular, then you’d also better have the balls to deal with the aftermath.

And that’s really the problem I have with Prejean.  She can’t own up to the fact that it’s not a plot to silence her.  It’s so much more convenient to turn herself into a victim – “I know I’m a homophobe, but look how mean everyone’s being to meeeeeeeee!”  She wants to live under this delusion that some huge lefty conclave gets together for coffee cake and decide who’s going to be blacklisted this month, rather than realize that if you say something bigoted and prejudicial on a national platform, there’s going to be a backlash.

Because, Carrie, some of us actually believe in gay marriage.  Some of us actually believe that whom you choose to marry isn’t going to unravel the fabric of the country.  Some of us believe in, you know, equal rights.  If you’re going to out yourself as an enemy of equality, Carrie, then the least you can do is have the self-awareness to realize what you represent.

*****

Current listening:

Drummer – Feel Good Together (2009)

Current reading:

Michael Chabon – The Yiddish Policemen’s Union