When John McCain chose Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, he sparked a ho-hum candidacy with an electric surge that sent fireworks all over the country. Everywhere Palin went tens of thousands turned out to see the Alaska soccer mom turned governor turned vice presidential candidate. One of the risks to McCain, in fact, was being upstaged by his smart, articulate, and beautiful running mate. Palin saved an unpopular candidate, in danger of losing much of the Republican base, from a complete meltdown at the polls. Despite being defeated handily by Obama, McCain won 46% of the popular vote and may well have done better but for the economic downturn, his refusal to engage the social issues, and the mainstream media’s relentless harping on trivial issues magnified into the latest Palin (blank)-gate. the obvious bias showed exactly how powerful Sarah Palin was. Obama got a pass and media excuses for his questionable associations, fundraising irregularities, and indeterminate citizenship; while Palin had to contend with hundreds of reporters roaming Alaska to root out anyone with a grudge. Throughout it all she retained her sense of humor, graciousness, and dignity. A lesser woman would have collapsed under the relentless assault.The savaging of Sarah Palin from liberal Democrats isn’t hard to understand. Liberals on both sides of the aisle hate her Christian take on social issues. Her unabashed pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-family credentials expose their own moral bankruptcy. The feminists, who should be thrilled at the rise of a woman through her own merits to run for the Vice Presidency, hold her in contempt for not being the “right kind” of woman. What’s that? One who will proudly kill her unborn child and unapologetically encourage her daughter to abort as well. The mean-spirited attack on little Piper Palin as she played mama cat to baby brother Trig at the Republican convention slicking down his hair with a few licks on her hand, showed how totally out of touch these angry women are with American families. The vicious rumors that Trig was Palin’s grandchild were particularly hateful. In the course of the feminist feeding frenzy, leaders from NOW, NARAL, etc. ignored Palin’s remarkable rise from small town council member to popular governor of the largest state in the country. They wanted her destroyed.
Although she's a woman with a thorough grasp of energy issues, feminists painted Palin as a diva, a prom queen, just another pretty face with no brains behind it. Their behavior was laughable. To see NOW question whether Palin could be a good mom and hold down a job at the same time made them patently (and hypocritically) ridiculous. After urging moms with children into the workforce for years, they could hardly be taken seriously. The Palin smear was reminiscent of the high tech lynching targeting Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation. Sarah, the uppity woman, meet Clarence, the uppity black.
But it isn’t just liberals who hate the governor as the nasty leaks from the McCain camp showed. The neo-con and country club Republicans detest Palin as well and appear bent on making sure this upstart soccer mom’s political career is nipped in the bud. Their anonymous attacks on her intelligence, her ability to work with others, the innuendo that she was responsible for the ridiculous wardrobe debacle, etc. were meant to undermine any future run for presidency. The Republican establishment doesn’t want Palin’s grassroots populism anywhere near the White House. Neither do they want to see a return to Reagan-style governance. Colin Powell, one more big government RINO (Republican in name only) recently joined the Palin attack basically calling on the party to move closer to the Democratics. That just indicates how very out of touch Powell is with reality. His recommendation is the very strategy that has brought the Republican party to near dissolution. Only by reclaiming authentic conservatism: less government, lower taxes, individual accountability, promotion of small businesses, etc. can the Republican party recover. Sarah Palin and other young turks like Bobby Jindal offer the best and brightest hope for a Republican comeback.
In the end, all the attack strategies against Sarah Palin are doomed to failure. Saxby Chambliss’ recent Senate run-off win in Georgia illustrates the Palin power. Despite the Obama campaign sending thousands of workers into the state to secure victory for Democrat Jim Martin and gain a filibuster-proof Senate, Chambliss won a stunning 57-43% victory. He credits it to Sarah Palin. "I can't overstate the impact she had down here," he told reporters, “when she walks in a room folks just explode.” The fireworks set off by Sarah Palin’s nomination as Vice President have just begun. She’s one smart lady with a bright political future and she has a growing fan club. Take a look at Team Sarah on the web.
All that you say is quite true of course, but the deepest hatred for
ReplyDeletePalin, from both men and women, was precisely the joy she takes in her
womanhood. So many women have sold their birthrite for a mess of pottage
and worse, and to see a woman who showed them how rich their lives might
have been had they not, necessarily provoked a kind of horror.
As to the men, Palin reminded them too of what little they got in return
for despising womanhood; and both the males and females understandably
transferred their quite justified self-hatred upon the woman who reminded
them of what they'd thrown away.
Politics was a part of it, but the hatred of Palin went much deeper than
just politics.
Antigon
I agree with Anonymous. The animosity expressed towards Palin was out of all proportion to her as a person and was directed paradigmatically at what she represented, a coherent idea at great variance with the horrific modernity that they had embraced.
ReplyDeleteI hope Sarah Palin will have the moxie to bear up and continue to provide that focus. It's a tall order.
America needs people like Sarah
ReplyDeleteActually Sarah Palin disagrees with all of you. Quoting "If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."
ReplyDeleteHer idea of the First Amendment is so dumb it hurts.
In sympathy however I do believe that she was thrust onto the national scene before she was ready. She is obviously charismatic and with time and hard work she may be ready in 2012.
However having said that please remember that her ideas are the same ideas that have given us the Bush recession and the despised republican empire.
TK: please remember that [Mrs. Palin's] ideas are the same that have given us the Bush recession and the despised republican empire.
ReplyDeleteThere is a deeper matter about the human condition to be explored here, & important for believers, in that fashion is what determines what most people think. They think what they think they're supposed to think, even when they don't really think it.
Focusing on Palin's manifest human virtues will give other people a chance to recognize their own (other than viscerally, & thus confusing this with Empire wars, which is how the neos will interpret their viscera for them), & the anemic Left's too since doing so which will only make their sad partisans more hysterical, thus fleshing further the discussion. Maybe even bring some poor fellow or femme around to recognizing the good they've thrown away, & might still recover.
As to the governor's politics, there surely is a serious political problem, quite apart from the inevitable & in her case usually delightful gaffes, for despite Mrs. Palin's dazzling presence and beauty & her fine brute of a husband (surely her best line of all was when at the convention with some perfect combination of shy decisiveness, she said, and marvelously meant, "he's still my guy") the very richness of her femininity has precluded her paying much attention to deep political questions, at least outside Alaska - and as it were, rightly so.
But policy matters too, & the neo-pimps clearly slaver to send her out to strut for their foul hungers. So if her wonders are but manipulated for evil, then no good of course. The paradox is: must she not diminish her glory in order genuinely to grasp & find the means to challenge the Empire that has enslaved us all? Hope not, hope she can bring off the personal and much larger political impossibility, save that it really is close to impossible. And so the fear is she will be done in not by her announced enemies, so manifestly her inferiors, as by her wicked faux allies.
And of course we may pray she returns to the Faith, in which she was baptized.
For the nonce, contrasting her feminine vividness to the pottage dripping down poor Couric & company's chins seems the more immediate task for bringing some light to our darkening dark age.
Antigon
Sarah who?
ReplyDeleteAll politicians fade into obscurity. Anybody remember Herb Harris? Congressman from Virginia? How about Barbara Kennelly from Connecticut? Ask some teenagers if they know who Jimmy Carter was? I predict blank stares.
ReplyDelete