November 23, 2009--"A Different Kind of Change"
It may be a case of pre-holiday stress disorder, but though Sarah Palin Week may be over in calendar and media terms—coverage of her book tour will slip below the fold and follow reports about the president pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey—I am still worried about her political potential.
Frank Rich, in yesterday’s New York Times, had it right: though it is tempting to dismiss her as a Fox-media darling whose 15 minutes of fame is about to end, she will likely be around for much longer than that and her influence among an increasingly large segment of the population will persist.
Yes, Jay Leno and Jon Stewart have been having a field day at her expense, as have the fact checkers, and those they take on this way, who are as apparently shallow as she and who have meteoric moments in the public eye before fading to obscurity—where is Joe the Plumber these days—tend to be gone forever; but those most enthusiastic about their Sarah, and who may sustain her, are the burgeoning crowds driving and lining up for days, even in the cold weather, to catch a glimpse of her or spend 15 seconds in her electric presence as she scrawls her signature on the inner cover of Going Rogue. (Great title by the way.)
I’ve been having this ongoing fight with a friend about the nature of her appeal and her staying power. He’s with Jon Stewart, feeling that she is nothing more than an over-hyped celebrity who appeals to people in the same way that Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan did. How can anyone, he asks, as ill educated, as obviously empty and unintelligent, as inexperienced as Sarah Palin ever be taken seriously as a candidate for high national office, much less the presidency? He notes that she was plucked out of virtually nowhere by a desperate McCain team to liven up his dormant presidential bid. And that like the shallow star she is—all surfaces—she did provide that for a few weeks; but as soon as the public figured out that she was an empty vessel, her and their standing in the polls collapsed.
In response I say to my friend, I wish this were true. Though you are essentially right about her star power, and that much of it is the product of her raw attractiveness and inner energy and not her knowledge about or facility in dealing with the issues, you are missing, I say to him, both the level of frustration out in the country with the way all things are and how she by her very being is resonating with that and communicating, virtually without words, what these frustrated and angry people are feeling and want to hear. And that this is both powerful and potentially long lasting because the sources for this frustration and growing rage are not going away any time soon.
Her followers—and they are literally followers—will not wake up one morning to find themselves better educated or working higher-paying or more secure jobs; they will not see their houses again rising in value; in spite of promises they will see their taxes continuing to rise; they will see more people of color in the midst; their kids will keep getting pregnant; their husbands will keep beating on them; and the Glenn Becks of the world will continue to fire their fury.
When they look at those who purport to represent them—from the demagogues on the right to the cool, hyper-educated on the left—no one makes their hearts beat faster than Sarah. To them she is Everywoman. She wears her life on her sleeve and they see there a reality much like their own. And they do not resent her success. In fact, it is very much like what they would wish for themselves and which propels the most desperate and assertive to push their way onto the “Jerry Springer” and “Doctor Phil” shows. Or for that matter, “Oprah” or the “Today” show which in many ways are more of the same albeit of a seemingly higher level of self-exposure and exploitation.
Sarah just does it better and more successfully. But more important, as well reported the other day in the Times from her book tour (linked below), in her self-confidence and clear sense of certainty, she offers a seeming living contrast to the disappointments many are feeling with the last “celebrity” they elected president—Barack Obama.
As a firefighter in the crowd in Fort Wayne put it, “He can’t even make a simple decision about what to do in Afghanistan. We’ve got men and women fighting overseas. Either man up and fight the war to win it, or get out.”
We know that he is feeling that Sarah the moose hunter is man enough to man up to get that job done.
And like Obama, she speaks hope to despair. A woman standing for hours in the icy rain in Grand Rapids—another brilliantly selected venue for her tour—compared the two: “I’m looking forward to her giving me hope.” She paused, well aware of the Obama campaign tag line—“Hope you can believe in”—and then knowingly added with a smile, “But it’s a different kind of hope.”
She knows what she means by that and so should we. And we also need to pay attention to its power. Or the jokes will be less on Sarah Palin and more on us.
Frank Rich, in yesterday’s New York Times, had it right: though it is tempting to dismiss her as a Fox-media darling whose 15 minutes of fame is about to end, she will likely be around for much longer than that and her influence among an increasingly large segment of the population will persist.
Yes, Jay Leno and Jon Stewart have been having a field day at her expense, as have the fact checkers, and those they take on this way, who are as apparently shallow as she and who have meteoric moments in the public eye before fading to obscurity—where is Joe the Plumber these days—tend to be gone forever; but those most enthusiastic about their Sarah, and who may sustain her, are the burgeoning crowds driving and lining up for days, even in the cold weather, to catch a glimpse of her or spend 15 seconds in her electric presence as she scrawls her signature on the inner cover of Going Rogue. (Great title by the way.)
I’ve been having this ongoing fight with a friend about the nature of her appeal and her staying power. He’s with Jon Stewart, feeling that she is nothing more than an over-hyped celebrity who appeals to people in the same way that Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan did. How can anyone, he asks, as ill educated, as obviously empty and unintelligent, as inexperienced as Sarah Palin ever be taken seriously as a candidate for high national office, much less the presidency? He notes that she was plucked out of virtually nowhere by a desperate McCain team to liven up his dormant presidential bid. And that like the shallow star she is—all surfaces—she did provide that for a few weeks; but as soon as the public figured out that she was an empty vessel, her and their standing in the polls collapsed.
In response I say to my friend, I wish this were true. Though you are essentially right about her star power, and that much of it is the product of her raw attractiveness and inner energy and not her knowledge about or facility in dealing with the issues, you are missing, I say to him, both the level of frustration out in the country with the way all things are and how she by her very being is resonating with that and communicating, virtually without words, what these frustrated and angry people are feeling and want to hear. And that this is both powerful and potentially long lasting because the sources for this frustration and growing rage are not going away any time soon.
Her followers—and they are literally followers—will not wake up one morning to find themselves better educated or working higher-paying or more secure jobs; they will not see their houses again rising in value; in spite of promises they will see their taxes continuing to rise; they will see more people of color in the midst; their kids will keep getting pregnant; their husbands will keep beating on them; and the Glenn Becks of the world will continue to fire their fury.
When they look at those who purport to represent them—from the demagogues on the right to the cool, hyper-educated on the left—no one makes their hearts beat faster than Sarah. To them she is Everywoman. She wears her life on her sleeve and they see there a reality much like their own. And they do not resent her success. In fact, it is very much like what they would wish for themselves and which propels the most desperate and assertive to push their way onto the “Jerry Springer” and “Doctor Phil” shows. Or for that matter, “Oprah” or the “Today” show which in many ways are more of the same albeit of a seemingly higher level of self-exposure and exploitation.
Sarah just does it better and more successfully. But more important, as well reported the other day in the Times from her book tour (linked below), in her self-confidence and clear sense of certainty, she offers a seeming living contrast to the disappointments many are feeling with the last “celebrity” they elected president—Barack Obama.
As a firefighter in the crowd in Fort Wayne put it, “He can’t even make a simple decision about what to do in Afghanistan. We’ve got men and women fighting overseas. Either man up and fight the war to win it, or get out.”
We know that he is feeling that Sarah the moose hunter is man enough to man up to get that job done.
And like Obama, she speaks hope to despair. A woman standing for hours in the icy rain in Grand Rapids—another brilliantly selected venue for her tour—compared the two: “I’m looking forward to her giving me hope.” She paused, well aware of the Obama campaign tag line—“Hope you can believe in”—and then knowingly added with a smile, “But it’s a different kind of hope.”
She knows what she means by that and so should we. And we also need to pay attention to its power. Or the jokes will be less on Sarah Palin and more on us.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:48 AM
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