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Title: Poor, Persecuted Sarah Palin
Source:
WSJ Online
URL Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124761930140242533.html
Published: Jul 19, 2009
Author: THOMAS FRANK
Post Date: 2009-07-19 11:41:51 by IDon'tThinkSo
Keywords: Whine, Complain, Victim
Views: 505
Comments: 52
Poor, Persecuted Sarah Palin The GOP embraces the culture of victimhood. When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced her resignation two weeks ago it was after a series of strange, petty bouts with her detractors. Many "frivolous ethics violations" had been alleged against her, she noted. David Letterman had told an ugly joke about her daughter. A blogger had posted something that was probably not true. Someone had photoshopped a radio talker's face onto a picture of her baby -- a "malicious desecration" of the image, in the words of Ms. Palin's spokeswoman. Team Palin got duly indignant at each of these. They took special, detailed offense. They issued statements magnifying their wounds. And, finally, the governor resigned her office, a good woman cruelly wronged. The culture's fantastically unfair treatment of middle Americans is the main lesson that many will no doubt take away from Ms. Palin's time in the national spotlight. In fact, it may be the only lesson. We don't really know where the former vice presidential candidate stands on most issues. We know only that she is constantly being maligned, that when we turn on the TV and see her fair face beaming, we are about to hear that some liberal someone has slurred this noble lady yet again. Indeed, if political figures stand for ideas, victimization is what Ms. Palin is all about. It is her brand, her myth. Ronald Reagan stood tall. John McCain was about service. Barack Obama has hope. Sarah Palin is a collector of grievances. She runs for high office by griping. This is no small thing, mind you. The piling-up of petty complaints is an important aspect of conservative movement culture. For those who believe that American life consists of the trampling of Middle America by the "elites" -- that our culture is one big insult to the pious and the patriotic and the traditional -- Sarah Palin's long list of unfair and disrespectful treatment is one of her most attractive features. Like Oliver North, Robert Bork, and Clarence Thomas, she is known not for her ideas but as a martyr, a symbol of the culture-war crimes of the left. To become a symbol of this stature Ms. Palin has had to do the opposite of most public figures. Where others learn to take hostility in stride, she and her fans have developed the thinnest of skins. They find offense in the most harmless remarks and diabolical calculation in the inflections of the anchorman's voice. They take insults out of context to make them seem even more insulting. They pay close attention to voices that are ordinarily ignored, relishing every blogger's sneer, every celebrity's slight, every crazy Internet rumor. This has been Ms. Palin's assigned role ever since she stepped on the national stage last summer. Indeed, she has stuck to it so unswervingly that one suspects it was settled on even before she was picked for the VP slot, that it was imposed on her by a roomful of GOP image consultants: Ms. Palin was to be the candidate on a cross. Resentment was, for example, the most-noticed theme in her famous speech at the Republican convention in September, when she introduced herself to America by taking umbrage at those Democrats who "seem to look down on" small-town ways. Before long she had become a full-time victim of the media, deploring "the bitter shots" they took at her. She imagined that reporters were threatening her First Amendment rights by criticizing her. She found a fellow underdog in Joe the Plumber, and after reviewing his mistreatment by the media she made him part of her stump routine. But the template was apparently set even before her big roll-out. In an essay in The Weekly Standard that was written before Ms. Palin's celebrated debut in St. Paul, William Kristol somehow already knew that liberals "will ridicule her and patronize her. They will distort her words and caricature her biography. They will appeal, sometimes explicitly, to anti-small town and anti-religious prejudice." And all this contempt will serve an important propaganda purpose, he continued, with Ms. Palin becoming a "powerful symbol" for "lots of Americans who are told every day that to be even a bit conservative or Christian or old-fashioned is bad form." Mr. Kristol's magazine has beat the persecution drum ever since. Its current issue features a cover story about Ms. Palin's suffering by Matthew Continetti, who is actually said to be writing a book titled, "The Persecution of Sarah Palin." In the course of Mr. Continetti's essay he admits to collecting insults of Ms. Palin, which he stores in a computer file that he says is seven pages long. My advice to Mr. Continetti: Put your insult collection aside for a moment and ask instead why people like Ms. Palin savor insults in the first place. The answer may not endear you to Weekly Standard readers, but it will take you a lot further toward understanding the world we live in.
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#12. To: Cynicom (#11)
I pray you keep your personal shovel out of all this discussion.
buck...
buck... This just in hot off the Fox wires. "Is Sarah Palin on a farewell tour around Alaska or is trip the start of a possible presidential campaign for 2012?" The day Sarah announces, I will sell the farm, take everything in cash and move to Anchorage.
If your shovel becomes a piece of licorice seemingly overnight, you can get pills on the internets to fix it all up. Just saying.
Palin is not a potential leader of our nation anymore than anyone that is presented by the MSM. Look beyond the horizon, grasshopper ... when the MSM shuns Ron Paul, you know you have a leader.
There you go again. No one said anything about Sweet Sarah being a leader of a ny kind. Your reading comprehension is suffering. I said I like gurls, Sarah is a gurl and if she runs for president or dog catcher, I will be there to push the band wagon.
I will will need a prescription form filled out by Dr. Tull. Can you perform this duty for your patient under great distress and discomfort?
My GOD! Next you will be voting for the 70/80's boy george. What happened to you in time and character? Don't you have any remorse about your personal decisions?
Dr. Tull Your patient, one Mr. Buckeroo, seems to be suffering from a feeling of inadequacy. Might I as consulting physician, suggest he view Sarah Palin beauty pageant video/photos for at least an hour a day?????? If his condition does not improve, his case is hopeless. M. Cynicom DO...
Does Palin ever discuss individual freedoms and liberties and rights unfettered by BIG_GOVERNMENT? If she does, I want a dose of that stuff.
Check Sarah walking across the stage in a skimpy bathing suit and hi heels. That says everything I want to hear, and see. Alaska here I come, to hell with the gold.
High heels are individual rights? Hmmm .. I guess you have point there. I shall reconsider my personal perspectives here on end.
Buck... Try this. It will get your sluggish blood to moving. If not, well, best of luck, can I have your car? http://www.celebslap.com/sarah-palins-bathing-suit-pageant-pictures/ I just viewed again and was so inspired I joined Sarahs fund raising project, $100 bucks a month. You might want to give also after you view the photos. Dont you get tired of looking at Obumski photos????
Got called away. Lady next door wanted me to change a light bulb. hehehehe
Yeah. You expect me to believe that? You were screwing around again.
Just like "ugly" is a good description of Obama's pet chimp, Michelle.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. James...Good heavens.
You don't say very much do you, Mr Deffenbach. Your rant wasn't required but you probably knew that before you pushed the "send" button on your computer screen.
Here is Sarahs PAC site for joining and donations. I aready signed up for 100 bucks a month. http://www.sarahpac.com/landing/?cdtrack_creative=9df74b6d-be24-4a77-8294-b45618d96e40&cdtrack_source=6766ecf9-5d7e-4988-ba24-e120e6fe0873
I just want free HOT pictures. What do you get for 100 bucks a month?
Something tells me that buckeroo and lucysmom probably wouldn't donate to that cause. I suspect (but don't know for a fact) that lucysmom is too busy throwing money at that Kenyan fraud who is currently occupying the Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. The script is in the mail. I take cash or PMs as payment. Should you get an erection that lasts more than 4 hours, drop to your knees and thank god.
Olde men such as me get an oversize bib to control excess drooling.
I spect buck and lucys hocked the farms to help Obumski.
And I will f**k you, punk. 18 Posted 2007-10-06 19:50:01 by buckeroo
"I'm sending your hate crime remarks directly to the whitehouse. Just so you know dufus!" LACUMO posted on 2009-07-14 18:02:17 ET http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=103185&Disp=12#C12 When they pass the hate crimes bill, that hopefully will shut your sorry ass up once and for all. I'll personally report you to the gestapo. LACUMO posted on 2009-07-14 17:27:50 ET Reply Trace Private Reply http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=103187&Disp=8#C8
This is 2009, several years later. Now, don't you feel better knowing I was truthful and sincere about about you? Gosh, golly and dang'nabit is probably your new expression.
Hey, James ... please offer up your description of Rahm Emanuel. I'll bet its better than "pet chimp"!!! MUHAHAHAHA
That could well be true I suppose. Personally, I like Ron Paul but then I knew before the (s)election that an actual American couldn't be elected, at least not for president. The PTB have to have someone who will "go along to get along" in that spot and they knew they had that with McCain or Obama. And of course they probably have all the evidence they need if their boy ever thought about stepping out of line to prove that he isn't even an American.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. They mock us collectively everyday, every year, 24/7. I have taken it fairly well so far. I haven't killed one of them yet. ;)
God is always good!
Rahm Emanuel--to use something from the animal kingdom to compare him to, I would choose a snake. Or maybe a chupacabra.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Hmmmmmmmm ... excuse my asking, but who in the administration is el cabron (who is receiving the favors of la chupacabra)?
Welcome to national-level politics, Ms. Palin. Hopefully, you present issues other than "social conservtism" as parts of your next platform.
Eric Holder?
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. MUHAHAHAHA
Sarah has yet to kill one either!
Sarah Palin's first effort as an out-of-office pundit has already come, even while she's still in office. She wrote up an op-ed piece for the Washington Post in which she came out against the cap & trade scheme to reduce air pollution. .... Except that only about 8 months ago she was telling interviewers that she supported cap & trade and wasn't it wonderful that John McCain was supporting it in his platform. Not an auspicious way to try to be taken seriously as a conservative thinker.
Check the historical records of one Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1932 he ran on a platform of...ANTI BIG GOVERNMENT... That person went on to become the "greatest president" this country has ever known. You know the rest and the truth.
Not that I'm a Palin fan, but what would she do in the White House that the idiots that preceded her haven't?
I think Saint Sarah has a better chance of being indicted for illegal use of her SarahPac than she has of ever being elected president.
She won't be president of anything, what she might do is lay the groundwork for a third party that puts America first. If she did that, we'd owe her a debt of gratitude.
#13. To: buckeroo, Jethro tull (#10)
#14. To: buckeroo, Jethro tull (#10)
#15. To: buckeroo (#12)
#16. To: Cynicom (#14)
#17. To: buckeroo (#16)
Palin is not a potential leader
#18. To: Jethro Tull (#15)
#19. To: Cynicom (#17)
#20. To: Jethro Tull, buckeroo (#15)
#21. To: Cynicom (#20)
#22. To: buckeroo (#21)
#23. To: Cynicom (#22)
#24. To: buckeroo (#23)
#25. To: Cynicom (#24)
No question she is Hot. But I won't vote for her unless I hear about methods of government control and a belief about individual rights.
#26. To: buckeroo (#25)
#27. To: Cynicom (#26)
#28. To: lucysmom (#2)
Flimsy is a good description of Sarah Palin.
Lord Acton
#29. To: James Deffenbach (#28)
Just like "ugly" is a good description of Obama's pet chimp, Michelle.
#30. To: James Deffenbach (#28)
#31. To: James Deffenbach, buckeroo, jethro tull, lucysmom, All (#28)
#32. To: Cynicom (#31)
#33. To: Cynicom, buckeroo, lucysmom (#31)
Whore White House. And buck is probably spending most of his money on hooch.
Lord Acton
#34. To: buckeroo, Cynicom (#18)
I will will need a prescription form filled out by Dr. Tull. Can you perform this duty for your patient under great distress and discomfort?
#35. To: buckeroo (#32)
What do you get for 100 bucks a month?
#36. To: James Deffenbach (#33)
#37. To: Cynicom (#7)
never had any liking for guys (gays) and that includes you buck.
#38. To: Old Friend (#37)
#39. To: James Deffenbach (#28)
Just like "ugly" is a good description of Obama's pet chimp, Michelle.
#40. To: Cynicom (#36)
I spect buck and lucys hocked the farms to help Obumski.
Lord Acton
#41. To: mirage (#3)
Here's an idea. Let's get the entire media to mock you 24 hours a day for a year and see how well you take it.
#42. To: Phant2000 (#39)
please offer up your description of Rahm Emanuel.
Lord Acton
#43. To: James Deffenbach (#42)
Or maybe a chupacabra.
#44. To: IDon'tThinkSo (#0)
#45. To: Phant2000 (#43)
Hmmmmmmmm ... excuse my asking, but who in the administration is el cabron (who is receiving the favors of la chupacabra)?
Lord Acton
#46. To: James Deffenbach (#45)
Eric Holder?
#47. To: RickyJ (#41)
They mock us collectively everyday, every year, 24/7. I have taken it fairly well so far. I haven't killed one of them yet. ;)
#48. To: buckeroo (#21)
#49. To: Shoonra (#48)
Not an auspicious way to try to be taken seriously as a conservative thinker.
#50. To: Shoonra (#48)
#51. To: High Hopes (#44)
Welcome to national-level politics, Ms. Palin.
#52. To: IDon'tThinkSo (#51)
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