Frankly, I am very conflicted with Bristol Palin's involvement on Dancing with the Stars. There are several issues that need to be contended with her.
First and foremost, I know that at the heart of things, this is just a show. Pure and simple, nothing more. Fun and comraderie are the key here.
As everyone may know, Bristol Palin, Sarah's oldest daughter, has been competing on the show. The dancers are rated based upon a combination of votes by judges along with call-in voting by television audience participation. While for the most part such a rating system is usually within the realm of relative fairness, in this case I believe that call-in voting is being skewed because of audience approval for Sarah Palin more than Bristol's dancing ability over that of Brandy.
As someone who only reacts to the grace and beauty of dance in the eyes of the average American citizen's non-technical judgments, I cannot, with a straight face, say that Bristol's dancing ability was even close to that of Brandy. The judges are far more qualified than myself to judge technical ability, but it is obvious (to me) that the call-in votes were made for Bristol strictly (not mainly) on the fact that her mother is Sarah Palin.
(NOTE ON JUDGES: I am assuming that the judges are, by and large, socialist. But in this particular case, they have shown a credible pattern of judging DANCE ability; therefore, the best they can do if they were biased against the person is to downplay some favorable dance moves, while highlighting negative dance moves. They can NOT pull a "Perez Hilton" moment to discredit the dancers, though.)
It can be argued that the SAME phenomenon can be applied the OTHER way: that people would be able to vote AGAINST Bristol, even if she was the actual better dancer, precisely BECAUSE she is the daughter of the despised, vile Sarah Palin. But in this case, it is not the same, because of the methodology of voting.
Now, understand that right now, Sarah is my own current choice for '12. But it is because she represents my OWN desire to see a society that is judged primarily on individual meritocracy, and NOT blind devotion. So, it comes down to the following bullet points.
- Brandy dances better than Bristol, which is confirmed by the technical judge's votes
- The call-in votes are overwhelmingly in favor of Bristol because Tea Party people like Sarah Palin
- Therefore, Sarah Palin's popularity is more important that Brandy's dance technique to winning Dancing With the Stars
Now, this is not just a diss of the show. It CERTAINLY is not a diss of Bristol's ability. But if I were watching two unknown dancers and had to pick the better of the two, it would be no contest. Frankly, I saw this happening a long time ago. Not so much Bristol's feat, but the fact that I frankly saw no merit at her involvement with DWTS strictly based upon her being Sarah's daughter.
Finally, it also highlights ANOTHER fact I've always known: that this country has far more people who believe in true constitutional conservative/libertarian (Tea Party) principals than believe in socialist, or even liberal principals. I frankly think that ABC is shocked at this to a certain degree. I actually believe (and have reason to confirm this belief) that ABC had originally invited Bristol because they think the Tea Party is nothing but a popular fad, but has no real substance. And now, they are observing the TRUE NATURE of this phenomenon. I have NO DOUBT that there is hand-wrangling going on in the executive offices over this development. Normally, this would make me happy, but this is not something I celebrate with honest emotions.
So my question is this: Did anyone else get a troubling feeling from Bristol's episode?
