Sarah Palin: The Face of Ugly Americanism

I know, I know: Sarah Palin is receiving rosy plaudits for her speech last night. She is being heralded as the savior of the GOP, someone with enough moxie to sustain the party's unholy alliance between the oil plutocrats and the oily preachocrats.

Many pundits in reviewing her polished performance claim to see an unflappable and gung-ho winner on stage. My honest-to-goodness visceral reaction was quite otherwise. What I saw on that stage was the personification of small-minded smugness, an utter lack of humility, a kind of self-righteous entitlement based on little more than puffed-up narrowness. She struck me not as plucky but, rather, as stunningly immodest--to the point of arrogance. Some people are arrogant and maybe deserve to be. They know it, and flaunt it, while everyone else thinks they are jerks. But there's another kind of arrogance, perhaps harder to spot at first, an arrogance that apparently doesn't even recognize itself as such, a sanctified, self-satisfied presumptuousness that flows from sheer naïveté about oneself and the world and manifests itself in giddy ambition.

Hey, I'm all for hockey teams, motherhood, snowmobiling, and small-town virtues. I grew up with such charms [indulgent personal digression here along those lines: Forty some years ago, whenever my family visited my grandparents' farm in Ossian, Iowa, that "event" would always make the front page of the Ossian Bee, right next to a story about someone's canned tomatoes going bad, which was positioned right next to the Ossian Bee's front-page obituaries column. Or, one time, among many, when we visited my father's parents' farm in Coggon, Iowa, we asked, fishing poles in hand, a local young boy for directions to a Bait and Tackle shop, and he gave us elaborate directions, about turning at this corner, and then at that stump, and then winding around some bend in the road, and looping back at the half-mile marker--directions that were almost comically complicated for such a small place. And then he ended his on-the-scene peroration: "But I don't think it's open today." As for snowmobiling, my daredevil cousins used to run snowmobiles on the (hopefully) frozen Cedar River, jumping over cracks and breaks in the ice if they encountered such. Heck, as for credentials, I still have my NRA shooting awards from Cub Scout summer camp.] Such small-town charms and virtues notwithstanding, I also recognize--especially when it's beaming right at me from my Chinese-manufactured television screen--small-town thinking when I see and hear it. What the world--what this country--doesn't need more of right now is Sarah Palin's defiant brand of self-assured provincialism.

Palin and McCain want the United States to consume more and more of the planet's energy resources--in the names of God, country, and industry. Palin believes that the Iraq War was God's will, even though she admits that she hasn't been paying close attention to that war (oh my Lord!). She believes that drilling in Alaska's natural splendor is blessed with Providential Approval. She promotes policies based on her unshakable belief that she herself has a direct pipeline (no pun intended) to the Almighty's intentions. What hubris! How dare she hijack and besmirch true belief for the sake of her particular economic predilections.

She mocks community organizing in Southside Chicago--but has she ever set foot in Chicago? She has no idea what it means to organize on the south side of Chicago--nor, I imagine, does her slickly sarcastic speechwriter. How many African-Americans lived in Wasilla during her tenure as mayor? She hasn't traveled through this great country of ours. She doesn't know its people, doesn't know its amazing and oftentimes vexing diversity. She hasn't traveled anywhere in the world, except one place. She presents herself as an all-American gal, but does she genuinely understand--beyond her own PTA-to-Juneau story--our country's rich and varied and complex history? She recently confessed that she doesn't even understand what the Vice President of the United States does, and her admirers heartily approve of her perversely willful ignorance.

Yes, she can bring a bunch of white people to their feet chanting USA, USA, USA. Good for her. But true leadership in these difficult times will require actual knowledge, not just personality. This world of ours, the past hundred years, has too frequently witnessed the dangers--nay, the evils--of compensatory nativism. Citizens in our own country should have learned one of the major lessons of these last eight years, namely that conviction should not serve as a trump card over competence. To me, Sarah Palin's grin looks like the grin of someone who doesn't feel she needs to think twice before pulling the trigger.

Read more analysis from HuffPost bloggers on Sarah Palin

Comments

[dokbob]

Great writing. Thanks.

[timetraveler2039]

*/ Quotes by Governor Palin during a series of interviews by the
Anchorage Daily News in 2006 when she was running for Governor /*.

* On Creationism: *

The simple yet elegantly awkward moose proves God's creation and
not evolution is the source of all life. How could something as
oddly shaped and silly looking as a moose evolve through
so-called "natural selection?" Is evolution a committee? There is
nothing natural about a dorky moose! Only God could have made a
moose and given it huge antlers to fight off his predatory
enemies. God has a well known sense of humor, I mean He made the
platypus too.

* On oil exploration and drilling in the ANWR: *

God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed
creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became
petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them
in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats.

Now, as to the ANWR, Todd and I often enjoying caribou hunting
and one year we shot up a herd big time, I mean I personally
slaughtered around 40 of them with my new, at the time, custom
Austrian hunting rifle. And guess what? That caribou herd is
still around and even bigger than ever. Caribou herds actually
need culling, be it by rifles or wolves, or Exxon-Mobil oil rigs,
they do just great!

[ShawnMichel]

A suburban hockey mom shrew--president?

[SC341]

You make some good points in your article, however, I do not understand the Democrats unwillingness to drill for oil in this country. At the same time we need to promote the use of CNG (compressed natural gas) vehicles and plug in hybrids. We live in a large country. There are a lot of suburban and rural areas of the U.S. Many people have to drive long distances to get to work or go to a food store, etc. The country is also growing. Our population recently passed over 300 Million people. We can also become more fuel efficient and reduce our greenhouse gases. However, the Democrats seem to want to punish people for living. They want carbon credit taxes and a lot more conservation. Not all of live in a small state where mass transit is readily available, unfortunately. The government can give tax credits and other incentives to municipalities to adapt natural gas vehicles, hybrids, etc. in their fleets. They are doing it already in CA. Also, in Utah CNG vehicles are becoming much more common. We need these types of vehicles throughout the country. We also need to drill for oil just like all of the other countries around the world are doing. Also, green countries such as Japan and Germany are building nuclear power plants. They have no choice, they have to do it for their economies to prosper and grow. Democrats never mention these facts.

[Beca]

This article hit it on the mark! To add to this, one must remember that Bush also came to the White House with no legislative experience, no national or international affairs experience outside the name brand of his family, and was an "executive" as the President or something of a failed oil coumpany and then as the Gov. of Texas. He had absolutely no education or knowledge of the law and our Constitution. We can see now what that kind of limited narrow "executive" experience and lack of legal training can bring to America. Look at the mess he has created! Neither McCain nor Palin were very good students in their respective schools, and neither had any formal education on Law or any of its forms. How would they be expected to fulfill one of their most important jobs-to protect and defend the US Constitution if they have no idea what that is and I am sure neither of them have ever read it or studied it to its entirety. See the parallel with Bush?
Obama and Biden both have formal education in law, have successfully navigated the state and national legislative world and have a clear understanding of what Americans want and what America needs to be doing to get us back on a positive track.
Only fickle ignorant people would consider voting for such a dangerous team like the McCain/Palin team. They will only complete Bush's destruction of America as we know it.

[LITU]

You don't get it do you? The current manipulators of the B u s h A d m i n i s t r a t i o n will remain behind in January to indoctrinate and edumacate the incoming team on such matters as 'how it is', should McCain/Palin d e c e i v e enough voters in November.

B u s h has proven one thing if nothing else - the office of the P r e s i d e n t requires nothing more than a h e a r t b e a t. Now do you get it?

[Janney]

Great observation John. You are 100% correct.

[Grimble22]

Can I give an outside perspective as a Brit living in France? The rest of the world finds the US very difficult to understand - on one hand there's the nation of smart enterprise and very, very clever people, like those who created the superb Dell laptop with its Vista OS that I bought yesterday. There's the US which creates 'Frasier' and 'West Wing'....

But then we see the conventions on the TV, and it takes our breath away that the world's leading industrial country could even consider electing spectacularly stupid, narrow-minded, ill-informed people like Sarah Palin (McCain's not as bad, but hardly the sharpest knife in the drawer). I believe Palin is a Creationist... in which case I'm left speechless.

Could someone please explain how the 2 nations can co-exist? - much ant-Americanism in the world is fuelled by genuine puzzlement over how such a sophisticated country is happy to be run by idiots. One can (and does) argue fiercely with the policies of leaders in the UK, France etc, but at least they're almost all highly intelligent people who understand how the world works.

[newpantaloons]

God, I wish I had an answer for you. Americans have been very lazy and did not pay attention while their country and liberty were quietly stolen from them. Now, they seem to be waking up and are trying to take their country (our country) back from these criminals and fascists. It is not easy, as there are a LOT of stupid people left in the country. Not only that, there are a LOT of greedy people out there, too. I am hoping the lesson has been learned, but it may take a couple of more election cycles before it sinks in. Of course, by then it may be too late!

[dukelady66]

Thank you for putting it into clear words. I knew there was something terribly offputting about her, and you're absolutely right! Smug, snide, wrapped in that sick, silky, "aw shucks" cowpoke. She is the equivalent of W, in a skirt. The completely amoral who cover themselves in flag and false morality....

I shudder to think of her ever being a heartbeat away...Excellent post!

[GJP2006]

Excellent post. Her selection is very troubling because this is the party that has controlled the WH for so many years and that reflects poorly on our country and what passes for leadership and competency in the US. This pick has caused a sober reflection in me with respect to my choice this cycle and with so much at stake, I may not have the luxury of voting third party for principles when we are looking at issue of survival.

[cdcharles1973]

For the precise reasons you listed, she was the perfect choice for VP. Couldn't have been better if Obama picked her himself. An American public is leering from what just listening to soundbites has gotten us. I truly feel that this election will be about denouncing the last 8 years, and the more that the hot librarian speaks, the more America will realize what a political stunt she was. While the republicans keep playing political games, Obama is surrounding himself with serious people willing to do serious work to fix very serious problems.

We Americans may be dumb, but I don't believe we are THAT dumb.

[max08]

This article is brilliant.

[magicmary]

I told my boss (a Dem) that I thought her speech could have been written by the two snotty Republicans we have to work with. It was a dittohead list of talking points. Don't they realize that one of the changes we want is for Americans to quit dissing other Americans? They need to get over themselves.

[dontgethuffy]

What an excellent analysis. I think you wrote exactly what I was trying to put my finger on about Palin. Thank you. I'll watch for more of your commentary. Palin has a built-in, upbeat aggressiveness, but it was scary how quickly she took to this. And for a woman who apparently first got her passport so she could go to Kuwait and Germany to visit Alaskan Guard troops, and then touts that trip's refueling stopover in Ireland as another international experience, well I'm getting queasy at the thought of her in the #2 spot. We know she has been to Washington several types to lobby for funds for Wasilla. (And she did bring home the bacon!) And she was in Texas when her water broke. (How she endangered the life of her unborn child by getting on that airplane is another story). She apparently tried a few months of college in Hawaii after high school. But I'm willing to bet she has never been to Chicago (my area) to get the real picture. I hope in the days to come she will be asked just where in this country she has actually been (before she went there on the McCain campaign bus).

[sarimn00]

Very well said.

[rkfdred]

I'm a 61 year old white woman who has come across many Sarah Palin's in my time. You know the type, all sugary sweet, while they stab you in the back. She wreaks of ambition - not a bad quality if you are up to the task. Sorry, she just isn't. I found her speech smarmy, condescending. Kind of like an angry PTA mom at a meeting. She is clearly full of herself and I don't think her credentials make her ready for prime time. I think there is a lot more to Sarah Palin than meets the eye. Hopefully it will come out in time. I know I won't vote republican this year. I can't afford either one of them.

[midtown]

You hit the nail on the head and I suspect the Hillary voters they thought Palin would appeal to are having the same thoughts. Those male Republican speechwriters didn't read this woman correctly. Every woman 50+ has had to deal with a bee-och like this. We can see right through this ambitious piece of meat.

[max08]

Apparently, you're not alone. This Alaska woman feels the same way:
http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

[longislandlol]

She's one of the reasons that some mothers stay away from the PTA--

[BrandNu]

My thoughts exactly. She may have succeeded in fooling some people, but that provincial, self righteous arrogance is definitely there for all to see.