Sarah Palin and the Two Americas

[GaryC 7]

Sarah Palin and the Two Americas

By Thomas Lifson

Liberals have long lamented the existence of two nations in America. They are right to do so today, but in a way they never meant. It is not the divide between rich and poor which soon will be causing serious pain on the left. Sarah Palin's pending nomination for Vice President is exposing the depth of the cultural divide between Middle America and the leftists who have taken over the education, media, and cultural establishment of our country.

The announcement of Palin's selection by Senator McCain last Saturday reportedly triggered outright laughter in newsrooms across the land, a nearly unanimous opinion that she would be a disaster for McCain. To the sort of people who believe themselves sophisticated citizens of the world and feel a sense of pride at saving the planet by purchasing carbon offsets, a woman who has borne five children is incomprehensible. Add in moose-hunting, a champion snowmobiler husband and a pregnant 17 year old daughter, and the phrases "white trash" and "trailer trash" are deployed.

A desperate race is underway, with the liberal media scampering to define Sarah Palin to the public as a dangerous religious fanatic and naïve hick, some kind of back woods primitive incapable of effectively discharging the awesome job of president, soon to be thrust upon her as John McCain expires right after his inauguration. Tonight, Governor Palin will have her opportunity to speak directly to the American people, and thanks to the blizzard of critical coverage, she will be no doubt attract an enormous audience.

She has the rarest of qualities: authenticity. Media and Beltway types can't fathom what that is. It goes right over their heads. Not even on the radar screen. Her multiple facets -- beauty queen, moose hunter, mother, member of an Assembly of God Church, and ferocious reformer of corrupt politics may baffle sophisticates, but ordinary Americans see all the pieces fitting together, and they recognize a type of person they know and love.

Think of Marge Gunderson, the fictional chief of police of Brainerd, Minnesota in the Oscar®-winning movie Fargo, taken as a comic send-up by the swells in New York and Hollywood, with her Midwestern twang (shared by Sarah Palin), funny hat, and kitsch-artist husband. The kind of woman who probably rides snowmobiles with her husband, for crying out loud. Yet in the end, Marge Gunderson solved the murder despite the sneers of her betters in the Big City (Minneapolis), and won the hearts of movie audiences. Americans like their heroines full of common sense and #######.

Sarah Palin is the ultimate All-American Girl, beautiful but not glamorous, powerful but unpretentious, high-powered but down-to-earth, a reformer who speaks up while others cower in fear of rocking the boat. Like Ronald Reagan, she can reach right through the television camera into people's minds and hearts. We recognize one of us.

The left, so wrapped in artifice and fakery, are driven crazy by this. Her behavior appears bizarre, inexplicable. In their minds, she is a disaster and they pretend to be gleeful, asking when McCain will dump her. All while panicking, because they can see the energized GOP base and the failure of Barack Obama to garner the ten-to-fifteen point post-convention bounce to be expected after his speech before the multimillion-dollar Greek temple set and fireworks at Invesco Field only 5 days ago. Those who planned the classical Greek theatrical stage never for second contemplated the possibility of a deus ex machina named Sarah.

So now they hurl ridiculous, self-discrediting accusations (the fantasy that Palin was not the mother of her baby Trig and was covering for her daughter was published by The Atlantic) and cannot understand that they won't work on a mom who's about to become a grandma while caring for a Down syndrome baby. They regard the public as fools to be manipulated, and know that with the MSM megaphone, they can sell practically anything. They turned Ken Starr from a vigorous prosecutor into a sex-obsessed fanatic, didn't they? The Chicago Annenberg Challenge remains unknown to the vast majority of voters.

Sarah Palin, a woman who took down the corrupt politicians dominating her state, may be a tougher nut to crack. She simply doesn't know her place, at least as others have constructed it. She does what's right and tells people what's on her mind. When you believe in the founding principles of the land and see yourself answerable to God, it reinforces an already steely will. If you happen to be gifted with brains, beauty, energy, health, and the charisma of a star, you might just pull off genuine reform.

Republicans are thrilled by what they see in Sarah Palin. Reform Republicanism with a younger generation in charge could knock the left out of power for a generation. The genius Bobby Jindal, out to reform Louisiana as Palin reformed Alaska, awaits the 2012 VP nomination with Sarah at the top of the ticket, if McCain wins this election. Suddenly the Republicans have a claim on being the vote for change.

Despite having been written off as a hopeless cause by political insiders and media know-it-alls, the Grand Old Party is about to renew itself amidst catcalls from the opposition. The same sort of swells who laugh at Sarah Palin as trailer trash categorized Ronald Reagan as an amiable dunce when in a charitable mood, spelled his name Ray-Gun, and felt ashamed to have a graduate of Eureka College, not some Ivy League campus, representing America on the world stage.

Ronald Reagan never let the contempt of the cultural, literary and journalistic elites bother him. He simply spoke over their heads directly to the American people. And changed the world. In Sarah Palin, we may well have a figure able to do the same. All eyes will be on her tonight.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/...two_americ.html

[Mononoke28 135]

But isn't this race more about McCain running for president? Ronald Reagan was the president of the US and nobody really cared about what George Bush had to say because he was just the VP. This article in my opinion is comparing apples with oranges. She's only going running for VP and that's only if McCain wins.

Diana

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

But isn't this race more about McCain running for president? Ronald Reagan was the president of the US and nobody really cared about what George Bush had to say because he was just the VP. This article in my opinion is comparing apples with oranges. She's only going running for VP and that's only if McCain wins.

Diana

i can think of a few vj members that didn't get that memo, given their posts about palin.

[GaryC 7]

The massive amount of posts with the vitriol and hatred aimed at Palin tells me that they are in a panic. If she were so ho-hum and so inconsequential then why are there so many topics with so many posts? Why all the personal attacks? This is all so telling. The left is running scared.

[Cassie 8]

The massive amount of posts with the vitriol and hatred aimed at Palin tells me that they are in a panic. If she were so ho-hum and so inconsequential then why are there so many topics with so many posts? Why all the personal attacks? This is all so telling. The left is running scared.

This post is hysterical, considering the plethora of anti-Obama threads I have seen on VJ. Seriously Gary.

[almaty 19]

i agree..gary posted numerous obama threads and now is upset with the palin ones.

[GiGii 4]

Palin is the "Britney Spears" that McCain needs to help him in this election. She's pretty, she's sneaky, she's full of trouble.

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

Palin is the "Britney Spears" that McCain needs to help him in this election. She's pretty, she's sneaky, she's full of trouble.

but is she gonna sing "hit me baby one more time" for him?

[symbiosis 0]

How about this from the "liberal" George Will. LOL!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8090202441.html

The man who would be the oldest to embark on a first presidential term has chosen as his possible successor a person of negligible experience.

[morocco4ever 63]

Running scared....I loved that! Gary you really are....uh....unique.

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

How about this from the "liberal" George Will. LOL!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8090202441.html

The man who would be the oldest to embark on a first presidential term has chosen as his possible successor a person of negligible experience.

what was said about george washington.

i'll take porn movies that bosco has starred in for $500, alex.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

This article is... how shall I put... rather myopic and a bit paranoid.

Palin is getting exactly the same sort of media attention that everyone else in high-level politics has. She's getting her turn simply because she's been brought into the public eye - its not some sinister "liberal" conspiracy.

Are people's memories really that short that we should swallow the idea that this is all (as the author of this piece suggests) something new and sinister - or even that this is a tactic "owned" by the left. Just isn't the case.

It does go to show though that a good proportion of the political op-ed articles posted on here are simply preaching to the choir - and there's little of any substance behind them. Apparently all it takes is a big diatribe mixed in with the right buzz-words and you apparently have "legitimate" criticism.

Only it isn't really legitimate. Its the same stale old cheese recycled for the consumption of people who subsist on a diet of processed foods.

[symbiosis 0]

How about this from the "liberal" George Will. LOL!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8090202441.html

The man who would be the oldest to embark on a first presidential term has chosen as his possible successor a person of negligible experience.

what was said about george washington.

i'll take porn movies that bosco has starred in for $500, alex.

The point is that even conservatives like George Will recognize she's a lightweight.

[morocco4ever 63]

I think if Britney Spears was his running mate you would still defend her wouldn't you? Face it, you hate Obama, and it wouldn't matter who he was running against you would defend them against Obama.

It really is sad that there is so much emphasis on Palin against Obama. It's almost as if McCain is not in the race at all. I look forward to hearing more from both parties now that running mates have been decided.

[GiGii 4]

Palin is the "Britney Spears" that McCain needs to help him in this election. She's pretty, she's sneaky, she's full of trouble.

but is she gonna sing "hit me baby one more time" for him?

Oh she'll be smacking that puppy alright. He'll have a heart attack in the oval office, and boom, she's president. Boy will Hillary be jealous!