Victim Conservatism And Lotsa Heart
Cathy Young has "limited sympathy" for Sarah Palin, she writes on her site in early July. Here's an excerpt from her piece on Palin from Real Clear Politics:
Yes, Palin has been the target of extremely vicious attacks (though the notion that no other politician has endured comparable nastiness would amuse Bill and Hillary Clinton). Her left-wing feminist foes have been especially rabid, mocking her in startlingly misogynistic language - "Republican blow-up doll" was one of the milder epithets - and denouncing "her pretense that she is a woman." The bizarre theory that Palin's youngest child, Trig, is really her grandson is still afloat in the gutters of the Internet.And yes, this hostility has an element of snobbery. Former New Republic editor-in-chief Andrew Sullivan, currently a blogger with a bad case of Palin Derangement Syndrome, recently posted a catalogue of Palin's sins that included "white trash concupiscence."
Yet, such revolting extremes aside, some of the unpleasantness has been self-inflicted. Palin agreed to be John McCain's running mate knowing her teenage daughter was pregnant and single. (Of course, if Chelsea Clinton had been the expecting unwed mom, not one unkind word would have crossed the lips of Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter.) Nor was she particularly eager to shield Bristol Palin from the spotlight.
And then there's the matter of Palin's fitness for the second-highest office in the land. I say this as someone who initially hoped she would be an inspiring standard-bearer for conservative/libertarian feminism, a model of a woman who had it all and was a winner, not a victim.
It's not just the "liberal elites" that found Palin clueless; so did many in her own camp. Indeed, Douthat concedes she has to "bone up on the issues" if she is to have a political future. Those who believe Palin held her own debating Joe Biden forget that the McCain camp had requested a less-challenging format for that debate, with follow-up questions limited.
Palin critics on the right - George Will, Peggy Noonan, David Frum - have been slammed by the Palinistas as "haters," elitists threatened by a political star without proper intellectual credentials. Yet these same conservatives have been devout admirers of Ronald Reagan, hardly a product of the Ivy League.
Some of Palin's followers see her as the second coming of Reagan. But Reagan, despised as a "dunce" by his liberal detractors, had extensively read, written, and talked about the key issues of his day. While not an intellectual, he was a man of ideas. Palin is not known to harbor those. Her appeal is described in terms of "speaking from heart" and exemplifying the virtues of faith and family - which is ironic, given the usual conservative derision of emotion-based liberal politics. Shortly after Palin's nomination, former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson suggested that her choice to bear a child with Down's Syndrome rather than have an abortion was an adequate substitute for a political philosophy.
Compare Reagin, speaking on socialized medicine, from when he was still a private citizen.
And then there's this, from commenter Brad on Young's site:
Whatever one thinks of Sara Palin, she is not the cause of the current and unprecedented crisis, or the idiotic remedies. Could an unqualified, inexperienced, country bumpkin, or other such outsider, engineer as much fiscal insanity, malfeasance, duplicity, fraud, disregard of the law and criminality as the "best and brightest?" Perhaps, we'll find out, although the "qualified" have set a high perhaps a insurmountable standard for any unqualified aspirant to match.
I love Cathy Young, even when she's wrong.
Crid [CridComment@gmail] at July 30, 2009 7:02 AM
Oh look -- Cathy Young being so pathologically desperate to temporize that she'll throw any BS counter-argument to the obvious reality of a situation that she can find at it, and then pretend really really hard with her eyes squinched up that it's sticking even as it actually bounces off like a hard gutta-percha ball and rolls across the floor and out of sight through an open doorway.
Cathy Young, pfeh.
Acksiom at July 30, 2009 7:09 AM
I think Brad pretty much nails it - this whole "electing the Ivy League grad" has really worked out great so far, why stop now? If nothing else, Sarah Palin knows that she doesn't know it all, that she doesn't have the answer to everything, but she's damn well willing to learn and do her best. She's certainly not the type to just "Do something" for the sake of doing something.
jake at July 30, 2009 7:32 AM
I like her, She wasn't well versed on oil and gas at first either, but she's got that nailed pretty well. I think she's a quick study, and has a brain with common sense in it, which Washington desperately needs.
Bush and Ms Clinton got a lot of flak, but what Palin's gotten goes way beyond. And Clinton's daughter didn't get near as much as Bristol. Clinton probably would have mama-beared just like Palin if she had.
I'm not so sure that the crazy guy down on the corner wouldn't be better than what we've currently got, though.
momof4 at July 30, 2009 7:40 AM
Ok, first off all, I didn't like her as a candidate, but I was still disappointed when she resigned. It's basically saying to all of those people who complained that she couldn't be a mother to that many children (and a special needs child) AND be a high ranking politician, "Yes, you are right." I seriously doubt that she’s gotten to the level she’s gotten to and is really that thin skinned, in fact she seems very tough, and blaming the media as part of the problem, citing coverage of her family and children, seems like weak sauce to me. If it was an investigation/money being spent on it issue, it’s not like leaving will stop all of the charges from being dealt with and acted on or dismissed in any case. Most of those cases she brought up herself (good for her), and was already covered in the budget within the regular pay of the Alaskan governments lawyers. If it’s to avoid a lame duck session, wait until you’re actually closer to the election cycle. If it’s to continue your political career, or to move to do books and public speaking, just state something that sounds noble like, “I’ve heard from so many people around the country that I have inspired them to continue on to their own goals, and to be active in their communities politics. I want to continue to give hope and inspire and reinvigorate our party wherever I can, and I don’t wish to shortchange my Alaskan state by not giving them my 100%, therefore I am resigning from my post as governor in hopes of affecting greater change around the country.” If that really is what she is doing, she shouldn’t have mentioned all of the other stuff, which has just clouded the issue and made it more a media frenzy than it needed to be.
Stacy at July 30, 2009 9:07 AM
One thing that has become clear about Palin: she does things her own way. She actually is the kind of political mavrick that McCain fancies himself to be. Is she good Presidential material? Hard to say at this point; I think she's got a ways to go yet. But as Stacy pointed out, she's a pretty quick study, and I think she did remarkably well last year considering how abruptly she was thrown into the national spotlight. (And how desparately some of McCain's campaign people were working to sabotage her.)
So was her resignation career suicide, or a genius move? Time will tell. One thing is for sure: it's a risk not many politicians in her situation would take. For that, in itself, I've got to give her at least a few props.
Cousin Dave at July 30, 2009 10:08 AM
Eh, it looks more and more like she resigned exactly for the reason she stated... she's getting sued constantly over ethics complaints etc.. Alaskan law doesn't allow politicians to create a legal defense fund for such actions. Hard to believe of a politico but she may well not want to waste Alaskan's tax dollars defending her from many frivolous or otherwise complaints.
Sio at July 30, 2009 10:09 AM
"While not an intellectual, he was a man of ideas. Palin is not known to harbor those."
Finding stink bombs like that embedded in some pretty good writing gives this away for the prettied up hit piece it turns out to be.
brobin at July 30, 2009 12:44 PM
Bah.
She caved. End of story. Was it for the best for her family? Almost certainly.
Best for the country? Well...we'll never know how well she would have done.
As far as how women go after her...anyone surprised by this has never met a woman.
No one is harder on women than women.
Robert at July 30, 2009 4:46 PM
> She caved. End of story.
It's weird how everyone sees her as this sort of leather-clad warrior-sex figure, one who was supposed to tell us a different "story"
These people, her enemies no less than her supporters, had a very precise idea of the rhetorical space that she was expects to fulfill in their lives over the next few years. There was no mental processing involved... Until she made one small deviation from the predictable path.
This proves to me that the response to this woman was absolutely robotic and spiritual. The people who hated her never had to read one speech or interview to know what they wanted from her.
Crid [CridComment@gmail] at July 30, 2009 6:41 PM
"she's damn well willing to learn and do her best. She's certainly not the type to just "Do something" for the sake of doing something."
Exactly. What's the point of completing your responsibilities to the citizens who elected you when you have no chance of re-election? Best to just walk off the job and let someone else do it while you start on something new and, let's face it, more profitable. That's the honorable thing to do, the right thing to do, the moral thing to do, the Christian thing to do, the American thing to do, but will the liberal hippie beatnik dope-smoking college professors of the independent and completely non-corporate-funded mainstream media let her? Noooooo, of course not, they're all too busy riding around in limousines and stopping us from winning in Iraq!
Bastards.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at July 30, 2009 7:24 PM
I don't blame her -- she's getting out before she gets nailed with perjury (or similar) charges.
My issue with the sytem -- you hit anyone with enough depostions they are going to make a misstatement that can be raised to lying to [authority].
If you look at every White House prosecution from Ollie North on. Ninety percent of the convictions are in the perjury class -- not the deliberate crime.
If I ask "What did you discuss w/ your companions at dinner on Saturday the 23rd of July?" Could the five of you agree? Was Saturday the 23rd? Who did you have dinner with?
That is what does them in. Not an actual crime -- the act of a normal memory.
So she's sitting there, seeing an endless list of "ethics" charges coming her way. It becomes a matter of why take a chance.
Jim P. at July 30, 2009 7:43 PM
Jim P has a good point -- her political enemies in Alaska are doing their darndest to pull a Martha Stewart on her. By resigning now, she gets away from (most of) that.
Reflecting more on what Crid said: There's definitely a lot of projection that goes on with regard to Palin. Her enemies do it, and some of her supporters do it too. Sarah Palin, as a politician on the national level, really isn't well defined yet, and that's leaving a lot of room for people to see whatever it is that they want to see in her. And her actions as governor of Alaska don't necessarily constitute a good precedent, being that Alaska is an outlier among the 50 states, both geographically and culturally.
So right now I don't have a good read on her. (And all of the political sideshows attached to her haven't helped.) I have a suspicion that we didn't really see the true Sarah in 2008, given how much her handlers were trying to shape her in McCain's image. I really need to hear more from her in order to make up my mind, and I hope she'll start using her time to address national-level issues and explain her operating principles.
Cousin Dave at July 31, 2009 7:04 AM
So right now I don't have a good read on her.
I'm ambivalent on Palin as well.
She is a little too far to the right on some issues (religion, abortion, gay marriage). Then her stand on gun control is realistic.
Give her time to "mature" on national level issues and I could maybe vote for her. It also depends on who she is opposing.
Jim P. at July 31, 2009 7:33 AM
Never really had much of an opinion on her one way or the other.
I thought she let her ambition get in the way of her judgment a little bit, but that is hardly a federal crime. Certainly a fairly normal thing for a politician to fall prey to.
But, long and the short of it is that her day in the political sun is basically done.
She caved. The story is quite literally ended.
That she's still discussed at all, even contemptuously, is nothing less than a minor miracle, and though I hate to say it, if you look at what IS discussed, well it chiefly seems to revolve around her being a woman.
Not exactly a claim to fame, let alone credibility.
At this point I say, let it go. Time to look in a different direction.
Robert at July 31, 2009 6:23 PM
Sadly, I think its a bigger reflection of what kind of people we allow in office. Palin, someone who was down to earth, couldn't compete in an environment that almost demands people that don't answer questions, speak half-truths, and are willing to compromise values.
In the Navy, people push the whole "Honor, Courage, Commitment" thing. It seems cheesy, but it had the effect of weeding out most (not all, but most) of the cheats, and promoting a certain kind of person and values. Other businesses have similar slogans and can get similar results.
In the political side, what kind of morals are espoused? Definitely not truthfulness. Definitely not standing up for what you believe. We as Americans want politicians that are like celebrities, always popping up in the news for doing something dumb or newsworthy.
Financial scandals are boring, but sex scandals are great. Chris Dodd gets little attention about his mortgage crisis (well, the blogosphere was on him, but not CNN), but as soon as he's diagnosed with cancer, all eyes are on him. Bill Clinton's financial woes were ignored, until Monica dropped below his desk.
Politics in America attracts celebrities. Until we stop treating politicians as celebrities, they'll continue to act as such, and celebrities, not good administrators and caretakers of government, will continue to get elected to office.
Ryan at August 1, 2009 9:09 PM
Leave a comment