Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin lent her shrill voice of support to Donald Trump’s already grotesque campaign in Iowa this week, an event that was apparently important enough to warrant a massive amount of hyperbolic press coverage on network and cable television. ABC, for instance, referred to Palin’s endorsement of Trump as a “bombshell” rather than a “ghoulish footnote.” This time around, the internet might have been even more fascinated with John McCain’s erstwhile running mate than the mainstream media, judging by the sheer volume of Palin jokes circulating on Twitter. Meanwhile, over on SoundCloud, an account called Sam’s Cool Links has posted “The Impertinent Singing Palin,” a track that takes Palin’s enthusiastic but barely coherent speech and sets it to a tasty beat. The song’s creator has only one caveat: “I really hope this doesn’t count as a war crime.”
In this musical context, Palin becomes an avant garde poet, free-associating with abandon, recklessly jumping from one Trump talking point to the next with little consideration given to either logic or syntax. Palin’s strangely Muppet-like voice, totally inappropriate for a serious political speech, here becomes her strongest creative asset as she spits bizarre lines like: “Well, uh, Trump, and his, uh, Trumpeters, well, they’re not conservative enough! Oh my goodness gracious! What the heck would the establishment know about conservatism?” One might think that Palin’s disjointed speech is impossible to follow, but this track proves that isn’t the case. A careful listener will discern that there’s a keyboard part that follows her perfectly, syllable for glorious syllable.