July 13, 2009--Sarah Redux
While on page 9 of the Sunday New York Times "Week In Review" Maureen Dowd rolls out a rollicking column made up of a fictional Twitter exchange between Sarah Palin and her erstwhile running mate, John McCain, an exchange with her beginning by tweeting, How the heck are ya, ya big hero. Long time no hear, pardner, Frank Rich on the facing page (linked below) warns that Palin may wind up having the last laugh.
While Maureen fans, especially the smuggest, most condescendingly elite, and best educated of them pee their pants, Sarah's fans, much more numerous, are not at all having a problem squaring how quitting is not quitting or reconciling how resigning in mid term is not evidence of weakness but rather a manifestation of toughness.
Rich reminds us that when Nixon quit politics and railed against the press ("You won't have me to kick around anymore") everyone in the media establishment was quick to write his political obituary while he went off to brood, plot his comeback, and before too long prevail. And he accomplished this without being able not to sweat while on TV and without hardly anyone liking, much less adoring him. Sarah, on the other hand, glows on television and her people simply love her.
So imagine what about-to-be-former-governor Palin might come up with as her second act as she barnstorms the country, for cash, drawing immense audiences, and awaits further economic bad news and the concomitant plunge in President Obama's fortunes that that would precipitate. Those of us who are certain to lose our lunch or leave the country over Sarah Palin's potential ascendancy had better pray for the return of economic good times well before 2012.
It is not hard to understand her appeal. All you have to do is get out of Manhattan, Hollywood, or Washington, go for coffee at a local diner, and talk to people sitting next to you at the counter. Out here where “real” folks live anger and frustration and fear—all interconnected—are palpable. And no one is shy to vent.
More than anything they are angry about governments. How they—national, state, and local—have screwed them by their out-of-touch, arrogant, incompetent, corrupt, and immoral behavior. They’ve taxed us to the breaking point and meddled in our lives while failing to protect us from a variety of threats that range from their own dishonesty, terrorists, immigrants, pornography, foreigners, affirmative action, child molesters, drugs, and homosexuality. Institutions that used to do right by us and could be depended upon are equally corrupt—our local banker no longer knows us when we get in trouble and need a little help; our kid’s teachers are more interested in political correctness and diversity than imposing discipline and teaching the basics; the media are all biased; the music and movies and video games are corrupting the young; and half the preachers are on TV confessing that they're either unfaithful or gay.
And of course most of the people they know have lost their jobs, are working part time, struggling to put food on the table, or trying to hang onto their houses. And what does government do in response to this—tax us more and spend money they don’t have, passing the debt on to our children. As one guy said to me the other morning in the Breakfast Nook, “They used to say the debt’s so big our kids will have to pay it back, if they have any money. But now with what they’re up to in Washington, it will be my grandkids who will get stuck with the due bill.”
These are Sarah Palin’s people. And there are a lot of them. She speaks for them and, though she and Todd reported income last year of more than $200,000, the life she appears or pretends to live looks a lot more like their own than all our other political leaders’. While we may have been convulsed with knowing laughter the other day when she showed up wearing waders and a full face of makeup as she purportedly went to help the First Dude with his fishing nets, that same guy at the Nook said, “Ain’t she somethin’?”
The more she’s ridiculed in the Washington Post, the more Tin Fey satirizes her on that smart-ass TV show Saturday Night Live that originates in, you know it, New York City, the more her supporters feel they are backing the right person. And when Palin faces legitimate criticism--like about what she reads or what she knows about foreign policy--the more her followers (and they are followers), feel personally attacked since they themselves are not much for reading newspapers or books about international affairs.
Her appeal is more cultural than ideological. That too, but for disaffiliated people culture trumps ideology and even economics. Actually, the more economic pressure they feel, the more they hold onto and defend the things they believe in--their faith, their local customs, their entertainments, their forms of recreation, their pickups and SUVs, their food and drink, the way they dress and do their hair and talk. And Sarah Palin. She directly touches all of these cultural hot buttons, so the more "they" attack or mock her the more they move in to support, embrace, and protect her. This is powerful stuff.
It is no curiosity then that when she announced she will be leaving office at the end of July rather than seeing her poll numbers go down--as all the media pundits, even on Fox, were saying--according to a USA Today/Gallup poll, 71 percent of Republicans say they would vote for her for president. This is much higher than before she "quit."
These kinds of numbers won't get you elected, but they sure will get you nominated. And who knows, if things continue to tank . . . watch out come November 2012. Stranger things have happened.
While Maureen fans, especially the smuggest, most condescendingly elite, and best educated of them pee their pants, Sarah's fans, much more numerous, are not at all having a problem squaring how quitting is not quitting or reconciling how resigning in mid term is not evidence of weakness but rather a manifestation of toughness.
Rich reminds us that when Nixon quit politics and railed against the press ("You won't have me to kick around anymore") everyone in the media establishment was quick to write his political obituary while he went off to brood, plot his comeback, and before too long prevail. And he accomplished this without being able not to sweat while on TV and without hardly anyone liking, much less adoring him. Sarah, on the other hand, glows on television and her people simply love her.
So imagine what about-to-be-former-governor Palin might come up with as her second act as she barnstorms the country, for cash, drawing immense audiences, and awaits further economic bad news and the concomitant plunge in President Obama's fortunes that that would precipitate. Those of us who are certain to lose our lunch or leave the country over Sarah Palin's potential ascendancy had better pray for the return of economic good times well before 2012.
It is not hard to understand her appeal. All you have to do is get out of Manhattan, Hollywood, or Washington, go for coffee at a local diner, and talk to people sitting next to you at the counter. Out here where “real” folks live anger and frustration and fear—all interconnected—are palpable. And no one is shy to vent.
More than anything they are angry about governments. How they—national, state, and local—have screwed them by their out-of-touch, arrogant, incompetent, corrupt, and immoral behavior. They’ve taxed us to the breaking point and meddled in our lives while failing to protect us from a variety of threats that range from their own dishonesty, terrorists, immigrants, pornography, foreigners, affirmative action, child molesters, drugs, and homosexuality. Institutions that used to do right by us and could be depended upon are equally corrupt—our local banker no longer knows us when we get in trouble and need a little help; our kid’s teachers are more interested in political correctness and diversity than imposing discipline and teaching the basics; the media are all biased; the music and movies and video games are corrupting the young; and half the preachers are on TV confessing that they're either unfaithful or gay.
And of course most of the people they know have lost their jobs, are working part time, struggling to put food on the table, or trying to hang onto their houses. And what does government do in response to this—tax us more and spend money they don’t have, passing the debt on to our children. As one guy said to me the other morning in the Breakfast Nook, “They used to say the debt’s so big our kids will have to pay it back, if they have any money. But now with what they’re up to in Washington, it will be my grandkids who will get stuck with the due bill.”
These are Sarah Palin’s people. And there are a lot of them. She speaks for them and, though she and Todd reported income last year of more than $200,000, the life she appears or pretends to live looks a lot more like their own than all our other political leaders’. While we may have been convulsed with knowing laughter the other day when she showed up wearing waders and a full face of makeup as she purportedly went to help the First Dude with his fishing nets, that same guy at the Nook said, “Ain’t she somethin’?”
The more she’s ridiculed in the Washington Post, the more Tin Fey satirizes her on that smart-ass TV show Saturday Night Live that originates in, you know it, New York City, the more her supporters feel they are backing the right person. And when Palin faces legitimate criticism--like about what she reads or what she knows about foreign policy--the more her followers (and they are followers), feel personally attacked since they themselves are not much for reading newspapers or books about international affairs.
Her appeal is more cultural than ideological. That too, but for disaffiliated people culture trumps ideology and even economics. Actually, the more economic pressure they feel, the more they hold onto and defend the things they believe in--their faith, their local customs, their entertainments, their forms of recreation, their pickups and SUVs, their food and drink, the way they dress and do their hair and talk. And Sarah Palin. She directly touches all of these cultural hot buttons, so the more "they" attack or mock her the more they move in to support, embrace, and protect her. This is powerful stuff.
It is no curiosity then that when she announced she will be leaving office at the end of July rather than seeing her poll numbers go down--as all the media pundits, even on Fox, were saying--according to a USA Today/Gallup poll, 71 percent of Republicans say they would vote for her for president. This is much higher than before she "quit."
These kinds of numbers won't get you elected, but they sure will get you nominated. And who knows, if things continue to tank . . . watch out come November 2012. Stranger things have happened.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:09 AM
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