Why do so many people want to pal around with Sarah Palin? To most Democrats, she seems vulgar, untutored, alternately a rube and a vacuous former beauty queen. And of course most Democrats not only think her ill-prepared for office: they also find her politics and political tactics highly objectionable. Combine alleged stupidity with obvious stridency and she seems to Democrats eminently dismissible.
And yet: Much of what's been said about Palin was also said of another backwoods American whose values were honed on the frontier: President Andrew Jackson. Palin may be no Jackson, but the liberal media's sneering dismissal of her constitutes an indulgent, often self-congratulatory, narrative. It's also a repudiation of our Jacksonian heritage of tough-minded, plain-speaking independence.
Like Jackson, Palin makes no pretense about being a cultivated American. Like it or not, she's seen by her admirers as genuine precisely because she's not a conflicted intellectual -- precisely because she doesn't confuse her followers by revealing a fourth side to every three-sided problem. Gosh darn it, she just loves God and loves America and loves our troops and loves her special baby and ... well ... that's more than enough for her many admirers and followers.
Rural people in "fly-over" country are naturally suspicious of slick politicians who are both too smarmy and too clever for their own good. Palin is naturally "aw shucks" and seemingly content with her knowledge of the world. And, like Andrew Jackson before her, Palin is unapologetic, undeferential, and unabashedly proud to be an American. One simply can't imagine her making a "patronizing apology tour" of European capitals, as President Obama was accused of doing by conservatives.
Indeed, one gets a clear sense that Palin could care less about European or American elites; she'd rather hang out with plain folks who name their wolf-mix "Rogue" than sophisticates who name their purebred "Chaucer." Call her confident, call her brazen, call her arrogant, but whatever you call her, recognize her distinct Americanness.
Precisely because she's so brashly and unapologetically small-town America, Palin is here to stay. She'll continue to grab headlines, both because of her unique voice and because she moves our political discourse inexorably rightwards. Even if she never wins another election, Palin will continue to be the darling of men like Rupert Murdoch and media operations like Fox News, simply because nobody advances the Conservative agenda with more folksy charm and chutzpah.
So, what are non-roguish Democrats to do? Pallin' around with Palin may not be an option, but how about less dissing and more celebrating of America? How about pallin' around in the spirit of that folksy Democrat, Andrew Jackson?
After all, Sarah Palin's pals are good people; they can be our pals too, if we remember to celebrate our backwoods roots.
Professor Astore currently teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, PA. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and can be reached at wastore@pct.edu.
Geoffrey Dunn: Schmidt Calls Palin's Memoirs "Total Fiction"
Steve Schmidt now joins a host of former McCain staffers who have challenged the veracity of Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue, even before it hits the streets on Tuesday.
Robert J. Elisberg: The Sarah Palin-Carrie Prejean Two-for-One Tour
Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean are two peas in a pod. Both preening for the cameras, and unwilling to answer any question that forces them to process opinions different from their own.
Jeanne Devon ("AKMuckraker"): The Ugly Irony of Sarah Palin's Book Title
Perhaps the title is meant to encapsulate Sarah Palin's fierce, independent spirit. But there are many here in Alaska who heard Going Rogue, and were horrified by the ugly irony of her book title.
She couldn't get along with her own party's legislators for even a single term as governor.
An independent investigation found her to be Ethics challenged.
Her family's behavior was so bad, during her sister's divorce, that the judge orderd both families to behave, as they were causing harm to the children.
And she lies incessantly.
She hasn’t the self restraint to not continually bash her grandson’s father on a national level. A now middle aged well to do woman bashing and bad mouthing a 19 year old, is not the act of an emotionally mature adult. If she cannot rationally lead herself, how can she rationally lead anything else?
Those are not folksy characteristics, they are serious character flaws.
She is now going national and her folksy ignorance is not going to help solve complex national and international problems.
Palin is too simplistic to grasp that foreign policy today must consider what is happening "over there" as much as what's happening here, and that her version of religion cannot and should not be forced onto others.
Add in the fact that the "backwoods roots" process of governance that Palin and her ilk want will not work in a country as large and diverse as the USA. It is regressive in nature - it wants things to remain the same, no matter what, unless the change is specific to Palin & her minions immediate desires.. Things cannot remain the same. Palin is not one to look beyond her own back yard in terms of ideas or solution, nor she is capable of developing a thought process geared towards the whole world and its impact on the USA. We can't ignore what's happening "over there", whether it be politics, jobs, war, peace or developing a joint sense of sharing and solving in the problems the modern world faces today.
The internet, (which will turn out to be her bane, as everything is recorded for posterity and can be posted online in an instant), telephones, airplanes,computers, and satellites make the whole world one big sphere of immediate knowledge and interaction. Simply a desire for the "backwoods roots" good ole days won't work now.
Most of us realize this. Palin never will.
When Jackson was president, the country was much smaller, didn't have to deal with nuclear weapons, nor with a population thinking of present day entitlements (and I'm not talking about SS. Medicare, health care, etc), restriction of personal rights or major conflicts involving overseas wars and whatever sets them off . Most citizens only cared about one thing: a home where they could raise their families without worrying about the bad guys across the oceans. Other than tran-oceanic travel, there was no way to get here, no way to attack without warning. There was a sense of security. Foreign policy consisted mainly of ignoring what was happening "over there" beyond the borders unless diplomatic overtures were made for assistance/involvement . Religion, while a significant part of the every day lives of the citizens, was not forced onto anyone. Development of industry and jobs were a totally home grown effort because of the problem with getting things from "over there". The USA had to maintain a pioneering attitude to develop solutions for problems here.
cont'd...
I know, I know--just slightly better than aerial wolf hunting and a degree from Idaho.
But still.
And also, too, he got shot. Carried that bullet around until he died in his chest. He's gotta get some kind of gravitas for that.
I don't care how many lies she (ghost)writes, even Caribou Barbie doesn't have those creds.
I really loved it when she called her own book "articulate" and "well written." That's how we know she had absolutely nothing to do with that "writing" part of the book.
A successful, attractive, conservative woman drives some to irrationality. Why do you think that is?
I would hope that even in the most backwater corner of the country, a person has more information at their disposal than 175 years ago.
I grew up in a rural area in a 'flyover ' section of a vast western state too.
Growing up in such places doesn't mean you don't have a brain to cap off that backbone.
I met some of the finest traditionally progressive, liberal people in my life 'out' there.
Just because you are rural or from a 'frontier' state doesn't mean you are a Palin fan.
Let's just say I am a brashly unapologetic, roguish Democrat from a frontier state who still considers Rush and Beck and the like, city slicker snake oil posers.
And Palin?
Her voice, that high whiny, shallow minded political voice?
Sarah is a diva. She is living the high life .
Doesn't represent me or my views at all.
Never did. Never will.
I am very unconflicted about that.
a small town bauty queen will complete
the sunset of America superiority .
She will be elected one day .
Because the majority of Americans are the most media minipulated
voters in the western industrial world.
we no longer have the capacity to think and decide what is the right
and most sensible thing for ourselves and the good of this Nation
we are hooked in fantasy ,celebrity, and quick riches life styles
we don't read anything worth it and critical so our mind start to work again
History, facts,ideas, the truth , what is good for the country, are minipulated
every day by who has more money available to spent to lie to you
the truth no matter anymore,why should anybody cares about the truth
when the Christian right, and Palin lie to their own teeth.
,
meanwhile the elected Congressmen are in bed with the big business