Palin and the Elites
Is it just me, or does anyone else get the sense that Andrew Sullivan didn’t even bother to read Ross’s latest column before he came out spluttering at it? I mean, how is it possible for someone to write a “rehash of the Nixonian class resentments and Rovian cynicism” when he criticizes the “Mrs. Spiro Agnew” role that Palin played in the McCain campaign, or simply blame “her elitist enemies” for her downfall when he admits that the American democratic ideal was “tarnished by Palin herself, obviously”? Like the game lately played by Governor Palin herself, it appears that this is a contest that the Palin-sympathizing commentator simply can’t win.
Similarly, here is the inimitable Freddie deBoer, taking issue with Ross’s take on Palin’s by-her-bootstraps rise to prominence:
Ross– Sarah Palin’s family makes better than five times the national median household income. Five times! The Palins own a huge mansion, four other properties, two boats and a plane! I will never be as rich as the Palins, in all likelihood. Hell, the odds are pretty good that any three readers of this blog combined made less than half what the Palins made last year. There is no earthly sense in which “lower class” can retain any meaning and include Sarah Palin.
Uhh, Freddie? What Ross said was that Palin grew up to be a great success story, which is not at all incompatible with her having, and retaining the very evident marks of, her small-town, middle- (note that Ross did not say “lower-”) class, humbly-educated background. Criticizing Palin’s startling lack of policy knowledge and almost total inability to communicate positions effectively is one thing, but calling her “slutty” and mocking her “white trash concupiscence” is quite another, and naturally opens the way for columns like this one: for no unbiased observer can seriously deny that Palin’s class and gender were consistently seized on in the attempts to discredit her, and no one who takes the democratic ideal seriously should look back at that saga without some real concern for the role that class plays in American politics.
In any case, when it all shakes out I pretty much agree 100% with Radley Balko:
It is possible that Sarah Palin was both unfairly mistreated and personally attacked by the media and many on the left, and that her family was rather ruthlessly and mercilessly run through the ringer . . . and that she’s a not particularly bright, not particularly curious, once libertarian-leaning governor who sadly devolved into a predictable, buzzword spouting culture warrior when she was prematurely picked for national office by John McCain.
This is, I think, pretty much the same thing that Ross was saying, albeit with more emphasis on the first conjunct than the second. That someone who devoted thousands of words to speculating about whether Sarah Palin faked a pregnancy can read Ross’s column and come away complaining about Rovian cynicism is a pretty hilarious example of false consciousness.
(Cross-posted at Upturned Earth.)
Agreed, John. I thought Ross’s column was a pretty fair look at Palin, and I’m no fan of Palin myself. Still, I think she was treated unfairly at times by the media, and in many ways deserved much of the criticism nonetheless.
— E.D. Kain · Jul 6, 04:28 PM · #
I have a pretty good guess as to how Andrew Sullivan distinguishes between “white trash concupiscence” and the other kinds.
— Matt Frost · Jul 6, 04:34 PM · #
No!
Douthat’s column just attempts to perpetuate the failmyth that Joe Sixpack with boobs could successfully be president of the USA.
So, Schwenkler, what do you think about her leaving the praying out of her official transcript?
Smooth, eh?
Does she think we can’t watch the video and compare?
What a….ummmm…..ermmmm…. retard?
hahahaha!
— matoko_chan · Jul 6, 04:39 PM · #
“What a….ummmm…..ermmmm…. retard?
hahahaha!”
That’s just so brilliant on so many levels, because, see, first of all, Matoko Chan is famously — thanks to the “crass casualty” of the genetic lottery — not a “retard”, and then because it gets to mock Sarah Palin and slyly mock her “retard” baby at the same time. I’m just so blown away by the cleverness of it. This is why I read TAS; it simply cannot be beaten for intelligent and civil discourse.
— Kate Marie · Jul 6, 07:37 PM · #
KM, why don’t you defend Palin by some other subterfuge than by attacking meh?
For examply, why would Palin “pray” on her decision in the video, but ommit that Jesus-Take-the-Wheel moment in the official transcript?
Does she, perhaps, think her audience is stupid enough to miss that obvious gaffe?
Or did she regret saying that and attempt to bull on ahead anyways.
— matoko_chan · Jul 6, 08:22 PM · #
You know, the whole, pretend it didn’t happen thing she is so great at.
After all, your friends will love you anyways and your enemies don’t deserve explanations.
;)
— matoko_chan · Jul 6, 08:25 PM · #
I don’t like Sarah Palin, I think she’s a dolt. Nevertheless I can’t understand Sullivan’s obsessive hatred of her. It’s one thing not to like her, it’s quite another to play amateur gynecologist and become irrationally angry at any writer who attempts to provide her a weak defense.
— Clyfford · Jul 6, 08:30 PM · #
At some point, the fact that I have experienced actual poverty— how will I eat next week poverty— makes it too difficult for me to engage on these issues and keep a handle on my emotions.
— Freddie · Jul 6, 09:57 PM · #
You’re right, Matoko. My vicious attack on you for mocking “retards” was completely beyond the pale. Henceforth I’ll be more sensitive to your tender sensibilities.
— Kate Marie · Jul 6, 11:03 PM · #
quit the fakery KM.
Why did Palin disappear the “prayed on it” reference from the official transcript of her resignation speech?
— matoko_chan · Jul 7, 01:17 AM · #
Matoko, I think the elision of the reference was an evil plot hatched by a cabal of Joe-Six-Packs and their Rovian adult daycare minders to get the elites to call Palin . . . “a ummmm……ermmmm…… retard,” in which case they could shift the topic to Trig and those who mock “retard” babies. Cynical Palinites — always exploiting that “retard” Trig for their own political gain!
— Kate Marie · Jul 7, 01:39 AM · #
Just answer teh question……if you can.
;)
— matoko_chan · Jul 7, 01:47 AM · #
Perhaps, matoko_“chan”, you are getting attacked because you’re a loudmouth idiot with just about zero credibility. I can’t recall reading a single useful, interesting or intelligent comment from you. See such attacks not as much personal as public service announcements.
— Tom · Jul 7, 06:32 AM · #
Could you answer the question then, Tom?
Why would Palin put out a transcript that is different from the content of her speech?
— matoko_chan · Jul 7, 07:17 AM · #
It’s extremely annoying that every criticism or defense of Palin must immediately begin with the caveat “While I think she was at times treated unfairly by the media, my opinion is X” or “while she was treated to sexist and unfairly…blah blah blah”.
She was running for VP of our country. Next in line for commander in chief. Leader of the free world and such. I feel like we forget this. Grill her up and serve her on a platter, that’s the job of the media in regards to candidates for high office. She paraded her family around. She handed story after story over to the news cycle. I have not one iota of sympathy for anyone who seeks POTUS. She clearly couldn’t take the heat, and still can’t from the looks of her recent move. Good riddance.
— Geoff · Jul 7, 06:40 PM · #
Plus, the moron quotient…..
“But as for whether another pursuit of national office, as she did less than a year ago when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the “department of law” would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.“I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out,” she said.
There is no “Department of Law” at the White House.”
hahahaha!
— matoko_chan · Jul 7, 08:06 PM · #
Totally dig the royal “we”.
hahaha!
what a maroon!
;)
— matoko_chan · Jul 7, 08:08 PM · #