Obama and the Palin Effect
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.
Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
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Good article which sheds light on the method used to win elections in America; WAKE UP AMERICA !!
Excellent post, stated perfectly. I could not agree more.
Oh Boy... our own real live comic book heroes and villains. Let's hope the American heart is in the right place and the good guys win in the end.
She's a cheerleader.
A Stepford wife, an automaton who delivers speeches written by other people as if the words were her own.
They weren't Sarah Palin isn't eloquent enough to craft a speech like that last night. We in this country seem to forget the narrative of politics, as in movies has writers behind it, and politicians like actors simply deliver the lines. While Sarah Palin and tall might agree with the sentiments of that speech, she did not originate them.
And this pit bull metaphor, is perplexing. Do we love pit bulls now?
We need owls in Washington, men and women of wisdom, not rabid dogs who chew up the Constitution and bite any person wearing a turban. Pit bulls aren't thinking animals.
Barack for Dogcatcher.
The big, big problem of the US of A is that its founders were Enlightenment ideologues, convinced of the necessity of the separation of Church and State (i.e., that the State should not enforce religious ideas on citizens).
This all works out if religious persons of all denominations believe this is the "right thing".
But what you see now is that the immigrants of then (loosely: "Europeans") start to drop that ideal, while - because it's still enshrined in the Constitution and the American Dream - it attracts those who want to leave their theocracies abroad for equal chance, equal treatment, equal pay in the US.
Perhaps the swing goes to the newcomers this time - perhaps not yet.
Bravo. Thank you for this!
It has been Obama's call to the best in us that has energized so many of us who had become apathetic, feeling powerless, believing that the best of what this country has represented has been spoiled and squandered by our leadership, lost forever. Freeom of religion, decency, compassion, truthfulness, honor and responsibility for the common good.
He woke us up from our discouragement in our government and in our society. Racism, sexism, homophobia and bigotries of any kind don't have to rule. Rigid ideologues don't have to rule. Greed and lust for power don't have to rule. We can be again step toward being the nation our forefathers envisioned, based on freedoms and rights FOR ALL.
Thank you, thank you for your words. Maybe they be borne on the wind and on the internet for all to read and consider.
That's a beautifully articulated post. She is his shadow. It's interesting that as they pain Obama as a messianic figure, they create their own version of its' antithesis.
Our hero now has a villain.
Right on.
BH
Very insightful comment.
AIP: Secedeing from United States. Is her heart in Alaska or United States?
AIP and secedeing from United States. The question is should she be V. Pres.?
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