Sarah Palin hasn't gone away. Oh, she may be back in Alaska, but she's also all over the media, as in recent interviews with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, on the Today show with Matt Lauer, and on Larry King Live. Even Oprah has invited Sarah to her show! Rachel Maddow and others have speculated on the possibility of Ted Stevens, the Alaskan senator who has seven felony convictions (what is it, exactly with Alaska?), winning that long drawn out election, not being allowed to serve in Congress (duh! a convicted felon...), and Sarah then running for Senator and heading to Washington that way.
So, no, she's not going away, even though Fox News--certainly not the bastion of the "liberal" media that she thinks treated her so unfairly--has quite literally thrown her under the bus as the reason the Republicans lost. In their words, the "Hail Mary" pass of picking her as the VP candidate, despite stirring the passion of Joe Six-Packs, didn't work. She refused preparation help for the Katie Couric interview that the Fox announcers pinpointed as the beginning of the end of McCain's popularity in the polls.
As long as Sarah is still with us, let's learn something from her. Everything about her, including her body language, makes her the perfect role model for anti-feminist principles.
Let's start with her body language--those winks at the camera, the beauty pageant walk, the not-so-subtle seductiveness. When we see her in front of the camera, "mother of five" is not the first thought that comes to mind. Here is a woman using classic feminine wiles to woo her audience. Even the veneer of folksy "gotcha's" and those persistent dropped "g's" don't turn her into the sweet girl next door. These old tools of seduction, which served women in the past as their best means of survival, are no longer the way to winning in the long run. We've come a long way, baby, but thinking Africa is a country leaves Sarah back in the Dark Ages.
Palin focuses her energy in the throat, making for a great performance. She is attractive, commanding, and confident--a charismatic communicator who enjoys--no, lusts after--a position of power. No one who saw Sarah's right-wing crowd-pleasing speeches during the campaign would deny that she came off as full of spunk and vigor, sure of herself, smiling through her snide attacks on her opponents. That's the frontier mama, ready with the shotgun to go kill dinner and whatever nasty Injuns are lurking out there. The dangerous warrior with aggressive ambition. She'll use every bit of ammunition in her arsenal to get to a place where she can wield more power and control.
Her consistent patterns of behavior and speech demonstrate a worldview that narrowly defines life as black and white, with an internal motto of "kill or be killed." Far from the feminist ideals of coordination and cooperation, ironically embodied in the President-elect, Sarah Palin sees herself as someone who is battling for what is right and true--her "right" and her "true." If someone goes against her or questions her "truth," the barracuda attacks! Or else she calls on Reverend Muthee to protect her from "all forms of witchcraft."
Sarah has a strong conviction that she is "good" while others are "bad," "right" while others are "wrong." Since she is very willing to fight for what is "right," she is always the aggressor and blames everything on the "other"--whether that other is the Democratic ticket, the liberal press, or the nasty backstabbers on McCain's staff. Those clothes just appeared for the eight members of her family (presumably counting the teen father of her daughter's baby). Wasn't her fault.
Sadly, Sarah seems unable to experience or trust the goodness of others. Everyone's out to getcha. She picked a First Dude who lets her run the show while he cares for the kids, and leaves her in total control. It is that fear of losing control that wants to ban books. It is the fear that needs to stand behind a gun. And it is the fear that lies with impunity, and a smile and a wink.
Sarah Palin, who hasn't gone away quietly, should.