$75,000 at Neimans

Okay, Simon, so why does this matter? 

It matters because in this one shopping trip, Sarah Palin spent more on her clothes than an average American family makes in an  entire year. And of course Sarah "Living Large" Palin didn't stop there - she just kept on going and spent another $75,000 at two more stores. All the while, her campaign was attacking Obama for being un-American, a socialist, an enemy of Joe Six Pack. I mean, she couldn't have spent $10,000?  $15,000? That wasn't enough? My God, what do you get for $75,000? I'm not sure I've spent $75,000 on my clothes in all my years put together.   

Somehow to me, this whole episode sums up the terribly disappointing era of late stage conservatism - long on marketing and short on governance. Palin looks good, excites the crowds, puts on a good show - but underneath it all are wacky and uninformed ideas (she still is not convinced global warming is manmade!), a willingness to degrade public discourse and lie lie lie about opponents and when in power, repeatedly abuse the public trust. I've come to believe that whatever its origins, late stage U.S. conservatism has become simply unconcerned about the common good; unwilling and unable to advance the interests of every day people over those with power and privilege; and much more concerned about politics than governing, more concerned about the appearance of governing than governing itself. 

In these last few years, this type of Republican has offered: an economic strategy that has left a typical family with less income while giving enormous tax breaks to the most privileged among us; millions more in bankruptcy, poverty and without health insurance; soldiers dying due to inadequate body armor in Iraq; as much new government debt as we had accrued in all 200 plus years of American history together; people dying in front of our eyes, on live television, in New Orleans while the government sat; a warming planet and nothing done; charging women who had been raped for rape kits; and the most systemic corruption of Congress in the last 100 years of American life.

How could this be?  Could it be that we have leaders, and a political party so unconcerned with the common good?  I have thought a great deal about this over the last few years and have become to believe, at a very basic level, that they just don't care about us. Career politicians all, guided by an anachronistic and bankrupt philosophy, they have come to care only about themselves, their power, their pals, their politics, their privilege, their Party.

Their $75,000 at Neimans.