Sarah Palin appears to me to be the personification of the dumbed-down popularist culture that seems to invade our lives. It can be seen on the front of every edition of the likes of Heat magazine and it's insipid celebrities. The only difference between the US and the UK being that here in the UK we're only slightly removed from having an idiot like her in a position of political power. (Although I may be proven wrong on this.)

For me, its the institutionalised stupidity of some our current (I hesitate to use the word 'Western') culture that causes vile opinions like hers to be allowed to flourish. In other words, there is something about our society that seems to allow the eminently stupid and unqualified to ascend to unconscionable levels of popularity, fame, wealth or power. It regularly astounds me.