What do Oprah Winfrey, Glenn Beck and Bristol Palin have in common?

Multi-millionaire businesswoman Arianna Huffington may have unwittingly stumbled onto the truth again — see "A momentary flash of insight into that great abyss, the 'progressive' mind" for prior evidence — in the thesis of her new book, Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream. "The heart of the book is you can't do anything unless we reform the way that we pay for elections," Jon Stewart observed without irony in discussing the book with Huffington a few weeks back, apparently unaware that he and she were making a massive stealth campaign contribution even as they spoke. More about that below.

"I had my staff sneak into your studio with a little gift," Oprah told Comedy Central's Jon Stewart yesterday in a playfully presented if unwittingly (?) corrupt attempt to influence the forthcoming mid-term elections (h/t The Right Scoop on Twitter):

The daytime queen appeared via satellite on the Comedy Central show to announce that she was going to fly the audience to Washington, D.C., for Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity," taking place October 30.

She told the audience to look under their seats, where they found red envelopes, which they opened.

Winfrey — who previously showed her support for the rally via Twitter — also is planning to pay for the audience members' hotels, according to JustJared.com.

Oprah's astroturfing machinations come on the heels of Arianna Huffington's earlier announcement of a "surprise gift" to Jon Stewart, "an estimated $250,000 for 100 buses for thousands of New Yorkers" to fill the ranks of Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" and fellow Comedy Central "funnyman" Stephen Colbert's concomitant "March to Keep Fear Alive," both conceived as a glitzy, in-your-face response to Glenn Beck's grassroots "Restoring Honor" rally last summer. While most if not all of Beck's Tea Party crowd famously paid their own way, the powers that be on the other side of the aisle aren't leaving anything to chance. The modus operandi of each side perfectly embodies the top-down (astroturfing) vs bottom-up (grassroots) world views of Angelo Codevilla's self-appointed Ruling Class vs the newly awakening Country Class.

"I wasn't that afraid to face the judges just 'cause I've been through such tough criticism before," Bristol told ET with understatement in "Bristol Palin Rehearses 'Quickstep' in Alaska!" for "Dancing with the Stars."

And where does Bristol Palin fit into all of this? Following her mother's example, Sarah's eldest daughter has boldly embraced the full panoply of media — old and new, including Facebook — to disintermediate the gateway media and reach the hearts and minds of the Country Class on her own terms. In "Dancing with the Stars" with her partner Mark Ballas, she has dared to go where no Palin has gone before. In her perceptive post "Bristol Palin: Opening the door for conservatives in pop culture?" Sistah Grizzly Cubachi — who confided to us the other day that her very first political donation ever was to Sarah Palin when she was chosen as McCain's VP — explains:

Practically everyone in the liberal media has participated in one of the most vicious smear campaigns against the Palin family, the likes of which I have never seen before. Bristol’s appearance on the show will represent not only how much of a “normal” young woman she is, but it will demonstrate to the American public that the media has lied to them about who she and her mother are …

Maybe Bristol’s presence on this show is a catalyst for conservatives in the pop culture realm. Conservatives cannot win the pop culture realm if we don’t actively engage, be heard and be seen. Whether we like to admit it or not, pop culture rules the roost in our society. What people see and hear in music, movies and television influences their thinking. Conservatives must participate, while not compromising our principles. What is more mainstream than conservatism?

Sure enough, even the hard-boiled Jon Stewart was smitten:

That was kind of enjoyable. I actually enjoyed that. I thought she showed a lot of youthful exuberance, and I found it very appealing. Damn it! It's actually nice to see her go out there. No politics, no nothin', just have fun. She's a 20-year-old girl, ferchrissake. Maybe both sides now can give their complaints a rest.

Update: The Anchoress links! Check out our take in the comments there.

Update II: Da Tech Guy' Blog links!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[goomp]

Hopefully freedom from the liberal controlled press has arrived through the use of the internet by those who believe in freedom of expression for all.

[ajacksonian]

Mr. Codevilla's Country Class was prevously described by Walter Russell Mead. Of course no one dare say the name of that description... it isn't PC! Country Class is very PC, and so must be used... someday we will do away with PC-speak and say things as they are.

[Steve]

LOVE YOUR PAGE!!

Link Exchange?

Steve
Common Cents
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com