I'm mad.
A lot of people who consider themselves smart, bought the Tina Fey package version of Sarah Palin.
The reality is that most of us are much closer to Sarah than we are to Barrack Obama. We didn't go to ivy league schools. We didn't spend our whole career orchestrating our way into the White House. Most of us were busy living our lives and like Sarah, in some situation, saw a problem and determined that if no one else was going to tackle it then we'd better.
Most moms who wind up Presidents of the School Board or Dads who wind up managing the finances for a volunteer organization, do so not because they have the training or the background but because they were willing to take risks and put themselves out there to do things. They trusted that their natural wisdom and enthusiasm and ability to listen to others, would guide them through the bumpy parts of taking on unexpected or difficult tasks.
Even now, as the election is long since past, political pundits smear her experience and intelligence. Since when is being a Governor or a mayor for that matter, such a paltry accomplishment? Many of the critics can't claim even to have been elected dog catcher in a town smaller than Wasilla.
As a side note, (before she announced her resignation), Sarah Palin worked in her state to manage things such that while there are countless states struggling to meet their fiscal obligations, Alaska is not one of them. Her FY Budget 2010 passed and was signed into law and ballanced by spending less than in FY 2009.
Apparently all the clever beautiful people in California can't be expected to manage a budget even with all their experience and better pedigrees and better management of the press.
This is what real people (leaders), do when money and situations get tight. When families need to save money, they cut back on extras like gym memberships or maids or yard service or subscriptions. They get their house in order by making sacrifices, by doing what will actually work (spending less money), rather than opening up a wallet and charging a credit card to the max to go on with buisness as usual in a time of crisis.
I don't know if Sarah Palin is planning to run for President or if she pulled out because the daily pain of fending off snarks from SNL and Vanity Fair and the countless frivilous law suits that have been ginned up by willing political hacks and attack dogs, cost her family financially and personally.
What I do know is that the harpies that hated her before she announced her resignation, hate her no less now.
Given the tenor of the Senate, House, White House and soon to be court, not to mention the entertainment industry and media, why does this one woman merit all this bluster and rage?
Answer: She doesn't. There must be a bigger reason for all this anger.
It's the 46 million who voted for her.
As one of them, I consider attacks on her person to be disengenuous and politically motivated attacks on me too.
One woman resigning cannot merit this much gleeful hate.
The hate must be for the 46 Million didn't vote for the current president or his party. Destroy this woman as much as possible, and others who think as she does, won't have the courage to speak or act on their convictions. They won't want the same treatment for themselves or their families.
So to them, I have one thing to say, "I am Sarah Palin."
17 comments:
that and they are afraid we'll vote for her AGAIN in 2012...and there might be more of us!!!
I believe that the 46 million votes were for ... ummm ... JOHN McCAIN! I (and my fellow harpies) certainly did not vote for Joe Biden!
I was very sad to see her resign and hope she doesn't disappear in the snow banks of Wasilla. She is worth her weight in comedic value even without SNL - pardoning a turkey in front of a turkey being mangled by a slaughtering machine - priceless.
She can balance a budget in a state rolling in oil money - only a complete moron could screw that up.
She may well be a wonderful person for all I know but I for one am thrilled to have an educated person representing our nation who doesn't embarrass us all speaking to the rest of the world with idiotically bungled English. But different strokes for different folks.
Cheers
Good points. Gave me a fresh look at Sarah Palin and, perhaps, myself and my criticism of her. But I'm still on the other side of the great divide and she lost me with her attack on the role of the community organizer. Seemed to belittle not only the job and the workers but the indigent people they try to help - - people i've come to know far better than hockey moms. In fairness, I don't know any hockey moms; they don't play it much on this side of the divide. Thanks for your post. Michele Vega
Well we are in agreement Karen, I wouldn't vote FOR Joe Biden either.
But more seriously, most of the Republicans I know, who voted in this election, voted FOR Sarah Palin AND John McCain.
Palin was much of the energy behind the campaign. She was the reason my daughters were excited about riding in a car for four hours to hear Palin speak in Pennsylvania, not John McCain.
She gave hope to those of us who think Abortion should NOT be federally funded and embryonic stem cell reasearch should NOT be conducted. She still does.
So again, the approach is to deface the actual accomplishment as not much. She's just a mayor. She's just a governor. She just made a state government spend less.
Once again, it's personal and political for you David.
Special thanks to Karen for the courage to continue to work on this piece and post it in the first place.
I'm sure that as a mayor and as a governor she has accomplished much of merit and in no way do I diminish the value or the difficulty of those jobs. I have been a local elected official and I know of which you speak. I was responding only to your accolade of balancing the Alaska budget. Do you think Saudi Arabia has a problem balancing their budget using oil revenues?
And of course it is political. She is a politician. She arrived on the American stage as a very partisan politician who was all too eager to denigrate others and their accomplishments. So, she is merely reaping what she has sown IMHO. Clearly, I don't know her personally and I'm guessing you don't either so all either of us has as a tool to evaluate her is her persona as a politician.
It is a mystery to me why you would tell me that “once again it is personal and political” to me. What is your basis for saying that? It is in no way personal to me and my life. As I said, I don’t know her personally because I’ve never met her. But I’ve watched her speeches; I’ve read her political resume. I don’t question her intelligence. She is a bright woman and a shrewd politician.
I do have a question for you – you appropriately compliment the mom’s, dad’s and others who get engaged in their communities. But your heroine in this story ridiculed Mr. Obama for being a community organizer. Aren’t the local heros you admire also community organizers like those that Ms Palin denigrated?
I have to wonder if it is not all political for you. I read your tongue-in-cheek reference to “clever beautiful people” and “harpies”.
I do compliment you for approving my earlier comment. It would have been very easy to simply delete a comment with which you disagreed. I read your blog post, took it seriously, evaluated it and formulated a comment. I think blogs are a wonderful environment for a dialogue and I appreciate the opportunity you have provided for that today.
Cheers and best wishes.
I'm sorry but comparing a political speech in which she made a snarky "Community organizer" remark to the endless speculation that 1) Trig is not her son
2) she was some sort of demonic diva and 3) was a world class moron and 4) should be raped and watch her daughters raped,seems a bit thin skinned.
There were Halloween decorations that made national news with her being hung in effigy. There were porn films that used her likeness that also got national play. These were just SOME of the material and nonsense she's had to put up with for agreeing to be the VEEP pick.
Even Dan Quayle got gentler treatment and I was furious at that pick.
And none of this junk ever seems to get condemned by the same people who get upset if anyone says anything that isn't total praise of our current President.By your definition, I'm not sure any of us aren't community organizers.
But my definition of a hockey mom is broad too. I think if we are in the sevice of our children and their activities, we are for all purposes both a hockey mom, even if its Trombone lessons and a community organizer even if it's a volunteer reading program.
So I do think it's okay to occasionally make a jibe at one's opponent? You Betcha. It is part of the fun and war and games of politics, but it doesn't mean I don't think that it isn't truth to say it was overboard with her.
And yes, I took a swipe at the media that seems to cackle whenever Palin speaks, calling them harpies. It's my blog.
But seeing as I've been called via the blogisphere a right wing nut, an idiot and derranged for not derriding Sarah Palin, I must confess I don't feel terribly worked up about this point.
I read Slate and Salon and the New York Times regularly. I read Real Clear Politics Daily and watch as people cue up to show how they tripple dog dare to hate her more. It's like the whole game is who can out Keith Olberman Keith Olberman.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I don't mind opposing points of view. Who wants to live in an echo chamber?
Wow...so many assumptions. I have just stumbled upon your blog through the feed from Humor-blogs so I don't know anything about you being condemned in the past. My entire experience was this one blog post.
I think I had some gut reaction to the blanket statements included and reacted to them on their surface without knowing your personal or blogosphere background.
As for this; the endless speculation that 1) Trig is not her son 2) she was some sort of demonic diva and 3) was a world class moron and 4) should be raped and watch her daughters raped, seems a bit thin skinned.
I'm dumbfounded. Is there really endless speculation?? I had no idea so many people were endlessly interested in her.
Halloween decorations of her hung in effigy? I'm stunned. Clearly I must live in a place with a much lower level of Palin-hatred than you. I heard during the campaign that there was speculation that her travel and speech schedule suggested it was unlikely to be compatible with being 9 months pregnant and in labor.
However, I know nothing of any suggestion by anyone that she or her daughters should be raped. That is clearly ridiculous on the part of anyone who would be stupid enough to suggest such a dreadful thing. If you are referring to the David Letterman joke, it was the assumption of everyone I know that it was Bristol with her and lets acknowledge that the abstinence-only education was a clear failure – she does have that little history of teen pregnancy.
I am all in favor of teaching abstinence but it is foolish to suggest that it means not teaching teens how to avoid pregnancy and disease. I think I full well-rounded education is best. I can understand how Ms Palin would have a natural parental interest in protecting her children from sexual promiscuity. After all, I think we’ve all seen the documentation of the Palin’s wedding license and the birth certificate of the oldest son. Not too many 6-month-pregnancy premature babies around so it would be entirely responsible for her to try to prevent her children from falling into the same mistake she and Mr. Palin made.
btw - I agree that much of the so-called news media, punditry really, needs a good smack upside the head for intentionally misrepresenting people - be it Keith Olberman, Rush Limbaugh or Elisabeth Hasellbeck.
I don't regularly read all the publications/web broadcasts that you referenced, some but not all, but I don't believe that the NYT presents those issues in that light. Yes, they have a liberal bias but I haven't seen them promote any of the allegations about Ms Palin you claim from the "media".
You complained about her having said one thing and I was complaining about the spectrum of treatment she has received.
When I say I have been called this, it is because these many respectable publications and respectable journalists and respectable types in the media have no problem with calling people who loved her as a candidate, nut jobs. As one might imagine, that annoys after a time. If you'll allow humor, if we are nut jobs...should they really make us mad?
As to not promoting hatchet jobs? The references I made are easily verifyable in this day and age. But as to assumptions, I will concede, living just outside the beltway makes one apt to hear much more political news than anything else. It practically turns one into a news junkie at least about politics.
What a great post. It highlights the problems that the so-called intellectual elite has when confronted by normal people who disagree with their points of view. Most of them couldn't be elected dogcatcher, notwithstanding David's unverified assertion of holding elective office.
The bottom line is this. Those who profess to be in favor of social justice from a liberal point of view very often know very little about behaving justly or how to "win" an argument without resorting to diversion or name calling. Facts and truth are something they do not employ. Here are some facts for you community organizers out there who say much and do so very little of substance. Read this very carefully posers.
Obama has, in fact, done nothing to end the Bush era policies the left professed to be so concerned about. Obama is busy sending drones illegally into Pakistan. He has engaged in more attacks in Pakistan than Bush did and has killed more people there without the benefit of a trial or confronting their accusers. So much for the rule of law. Their blood is officially on your hands David. Strike One.
Gitmo will not be closed until some vague future date. Why? Because Barry O had no plans to actually solve the problem. Uproar from the left. Minimal. Strike 2 on team O.
The government will continue its monitoring policies and has not absolutely actually disavowed the interrogation techniques employed by the last administration in all circumstances. Strike three. Obama's out.
Of course, this is not surprising for a man who is firmly committed to the culture of death. It is time for Democrats to embrace reason, logic, science and facts.
Until then, they can continue community organizing on bad data, myths and urban legends that preach the gospel of division and hate.
To answer the implied question, I live in Washington DC and was twice elected to the position of Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner on Capitol Hill, where I then lived, during the 1980's - I'm not sure how I should be able to document that to the satisfaction of anyone here. I was also actively involved with a historic preservation group and Neighborhood Watch during that period.
I thought we were discussing Ms Palin but somehow one of your anonymous readers has determined that the blood of Pakistanis is on my hands. That seems quite the leap. It seems that I have become a representative for the extreme liberal spectrum of America and I don't recall ever joining that group much less representing it.
I get it - a candidate you like held herself out to public scrutiny as a national candidate and got what you feel is unwarranted and unfair criticism. She is not satanic nor is she angelic.
I'm still confused about the conservative base finding her to be such a strong and admirable American given that she and her husband spent several years as members of a group of Alaskan's pushing for succession from the union. I wouldn't think conservatives would be supportive of succession candidates but politics makes for strange bedfellows as the old cliché goes.
Cheers and best wishes.
I wrote this before and had to delete it because of a typo.
Thanks for coming back David. I don't always do political stuff. Usually, it's much lighter fare.
I hope you will return and find things here that amuse as well as provoke.
I appreciate all people who take the time to read what I write --it's the only way in which a blogger without backers gets paid.
And I especially am grateful to anyone who bothers to give their own thoughts and feedback.
As you said, you get it. This piece was about illustrating perhaps to some, how the venemous attacks on her family and her person are perceived by those who liked her because of her values and their own politics.
I personally worry that we as a society will drive people to be fearful of entering public life if they've made errors, if they've had false starts or if they haven't lockstepped with whatever the political establishment deems important.
Were I to run for public office, every blog I've ever written, every comment on any other blog, every publication I've ever done would become political fodder for the opposition and I'd have to live with that consequence of my prior words, prior emotions and prior postings. I could live with that, but I'd also have to look at how the established media treated the whole family, and would I want my children to ever live a life with their backs against the wall in defense of their mother? The mom in me says, "No thank you."
But then I have to ask, have I been successfully cowed into silence? Is writing a clever piece extolling the virtue of courage in the face of adversity, which was what I saw her doing by having stepped into the spotlight to begin with, anything much at all?
In your last comment, you hit upon a topic that concerns me greatly - that of the horrendously intense media scrutiny preventing good, albeit not perfect, candidates from entering the political arena.
I fear it is the bane of sensible and rational political life and discourse for the nation.
I don't expect people to be perfect. We've all failed to follow our own moral compass at some point but as long as we make amends and correct our behavior, it should be the end of the line.
To digress, I will say that politicians who preach their morals from a soapbox at the rest of us and then blatantly violate the very principles, ethics and morals they have touted, I find to be hypocrites and am not so willing to ignore or forgive it. I draw the distinction between trying to live an ethical existence versus lecturing and chastising others while violating simultaneously but that problem is regardless of political party.
Yikes. Staying out of the political discussion here, but just wanted to add my kudos on a post well written and an opinion well stated. I agree with you. It is troubling, indeed, how Sarah Palin has been attacked. And I DO feel like it has been an attack on me, as well. A purposeful one.
I disagree Sherry, you are not Sarah Palin. You are much more articulate and well read. I'm sure she has done some, if not much, good in Alaska and Wasilla. But she was the reason I changed my vote away from John McCain. She had no national level experience, and little understanding of international issues. That, in conjunction with McCain's age, made her an unacceptable candidate to me. And did not even take into consideration my opposing opinions on a number of issues.
M
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