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Sarah - victim, martyr

fff

Well-known member
Poor, Persecuted Sarah Palin
The GOP embraces the culture

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.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124761930140242533.html
 

backhoeboogie

Well-known member
She's a comodity. Put her on the big screen and those that love her as well as those that hate her are going to be tuning in. It is not as good a revenue as the superbowl commercials but it ranks way up there.

Look at how obsessed ya'll are with her
 

burnt

Well-known member
Actually, it was just another obviously slanted piece of garbage. A feeble attempt to turn legitimate attempts of the defense of one's integrity into whinging and blubbering.
 

hopalong

Well-known member
backhoeboogie said:
She's a comodity. Put her on the big screen and those that love her as well as those that hate her are going to be tuning in. It is not as good a revenue as the superbowl commercials but it ranks way up there.

Look at how obsessed ya'll are with her

There are two or thre on PB that are sooooooo jealous of Sarah they wet their panties every time they get a chance to post something negative,
I am surprised even their fonts are not green with envy :D :D
The little green monster comes out for them :mrgreen: and makes them look like adolescent teenagers upset because one other girl is better at sports, has more friends,better looking,and has brains than they do!

Right fff,R2,kolo, nono,and last but not least oldtimer :D :D :D
 

hopalong

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
hopalong said:
one other girl is better at sports, has more friends,better looking,and has brains than they do!


That may or maynot be true....but I GOT MORE MONEY!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

So I win!!!!

If it takes money to have class you still lose out!!!!! :D :D :D :D
 

CattleArmy

Well-known member
Hard for the Sara lovers to take that she cinched her own political career when she couldn't even make it through her term as governor.
 

Mike

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
hopalong said:
one other girl is better at sports, has more friends,better looking,and has brains than they do!


That may or maynot be true....but I GOT MORE MONEY!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

So I win!!!!

I've heard more than once that Georgia CrackHos sometimes do pretty good off of the pulpwooders there.
 

nortexsook

Well-known member
>>That may or maynot be true....but I GOT MORE MONEY!!!!!<<

I find that people who talk (or post) shart like that usually have very little money.
 

Mike

Well-known member
nortexsook said:
>>That may or maynot be true....but I GOT MORE MONEY!!!!!<<

I find that people who talk (or post) shart like that usually have very little money.

Very true. Usually people who carry wads of cash have little money also.
 

hopalong

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
Palin may be an athlete and a looker but several of us beat her hands down in brains, money, and luck in love :wink: :wink:

I'll give her high marks for ambition however.

Name two of you who have brains, money, can't count kolos imaginary money. and love, you are kidding right!!!!!!!
Cant be either of you who fit that bill.
alice might have the luck in love cause Van loves her!!! but as far as the rest nahhhhhhhhhhhhh not even close!!!!
The green monster comes out again!!! this time from R2 :mrgreen:
 

hopalong

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
lol hopashort you are so mistaken (again).

But on the bright side, you have a perfect record of saying such things.

Were am I wrong? OPen up and show us all where you have such great insight as to where any of us are wrong. you make off the wall comments and then fail to show anything except you jealosy of Sarah, how many GREAT friends you have!
How many important friends you have!
On your bright side you are consistatly alligator mouth, OPPPS cant say humming bird butt. more like ostrich butt!
yep more name calling from the leader of the green monster pack! :D :D :D
 

backhoeboogie

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
Palin may be an athlete and a looker but several of us beat her hands down in brains, money, and luck in love :wink: :wink:

I'll give her high marks for ambition however.

I've never had a thing for seconds
 

backhoeboogie

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
Let's see. I was never jealous of pretty young women when I was one. Now that I'm old, what do I care about how pretty or athletic Palin is? Do you really think that those are my priorities in life?

I have had the love of two wonderful men, one my longtime soulmate and father of two wonderful kids. One now who is intelligent, good hearted, funny, and a genuinely caring and unselfish person. A lot like my husband was.

Many people have not found love once. How many of you have?

I have a good job and have been fortunate in my career and my finances.

I travel. I have friends. I work out. I am healthy. I am optimistic and strong enough to have rebuilt my life in my 50s. You may be a young person and not realize how much that is to be celebrated. When you have been married for three decades, it's a major life change to re-learn to be a single person and to be happy and fulfilled in your life.

Think of one reason that I would be jealous of Sarah Palin.

She's quit her job, is a laughingstock, is photogenic but tongue tied, and as a mother how can she not worry about her daughter who is going to have a tough time raising a child and making her way in life as a single mom at 18, while her friends are off getting a college education.

I don't know much about her husband but he sure is not my cup of tea. He leaves the impression that she's got a lot more going for her than he does. Other than bluster and put on a suit and smile at rallies, he's not that noteworthy.

It sounds to me like you're looking back on your own life and not forward.

My niece and her husband own a fishing guide service themselves in Alaska. One nephew works for them as a captain of another boat. They book celebrities a year in advance. Work is an 18 hour day most of the summer there. It is part of the culture. My niece runs the packing crew and lodge.

Another one of my sisters is there too booking people in and out for another guide service and lodge in another little city.

The population quadruples in the summer and it is go go go.

Sarah's husband is in the fishing business. This winter he'll have much more time at home than what he has at the moment. It does not appear that he truly wants to be noteworthy. He's not looking to be someone he is not. You may not understand that concept.

Personally I only spent 5 and a half years in Alaska back in the 60's. The natives there worked all summer for very long hours either fishing or at the cannery. They kicked back all winter and did not work hourly jobs. There weren't any unless you are a stocker at a grocery store or something similar. Not many roads get built etc. Snow plows do run however. Airports do fly in passengers. But Alaska is not a busy place in the winter.

From the sounds of things, the culture has not changed much since I lived there. My last visit was in '99 when my eldest brother passed on. It was winter time and everything was pretty slow. Family there talk to me at length in the winter and I don't bother them in the summer.

Sarah's stepping down was timely from her husbands perspective, based on his profession. They've been through some extremes and it appears their marriage must be pretty solid. That tells me something else about him.

The only things that any of us really know is what the media has spit out and then I get bits and pieces from my family there. They don't get half as excited about her as you do and only say that she is a good lady who achieved a lot for Alaskans. She was able to reach across party lines.

We'll never know if her methodologies would work at a national level. She could however offer some assistance at a position in someone's administration in the future I am sure.

Right now she could sell some commercial time for many television networks. My guess is it will be fox and they will capitalize on her. Fox had best strike while the iron is hot such as a time right now when some of us would listen in for amusement and folks like you would listen in for a chance to criticize.
 

nonothing

Well-known member
I think we should allow people hindsight and to decide their own paths......How many after this would vote for her as president?I doubt many would...If she is to try to be the Conservative voice for president she added more things to be hassled about.As now she has a quitter tag on her as well...I just do not see her getting a chance now..and thats bad news for the dems ..
 

hopalong

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
Let's see. I was never jealous of pretty young women when I was one. Now that I'm old, what do I care about how pretty or athletic Palin is? Do you really think that those are my priorities in life?

I have had the love of two wonderful men, one my longtime soulmate and father of two wonderful kids. One now who is intelligent, good hearted, funny, and a genuinely caring and unselfish person. A lot like my husband was.

Many people have not found love once. How many of you have?

I have a good job and have been fortunate in my career and my finances.

I travel. I have friends. I work out. I am healthy. I am optimistic and strong enough to have rebuilt my life in my 50s. You may be a young person and not realize how much that is to be celebrated. When you have been married for three decades, it's a major life change to re-learn to be a single person and to be happy and fulfilled in your life.

Think of one reason that I would be jealous of Sarah Palin.

She's quit her job, is a laughingstock, is photogenic but tongue tied, and as a mother how can she not worry about her daughter who is going to have a tough time raising a child and making her way in life as a single mom at 18, while her friends are off getting a college education.

I don't know much about her husband but he sure is not my cup of tea. He leaves the impression that she's got a lot more going for her than he does. Other than bluster and put on a suit and smile at rallies, he's not that noteworthy.

Since you found it necessary to expound upon the reasons for your arrogance, I in turn will give you a little bit about me!

I am pushing 70 and have spent a good deal of those 70 yrs looking FORWARD. So don't toss your age in as a reference!!!

Yes i too have found love twice having lost my first wife when she was young!
My second wife of over 40 yrs is the mother of 5 beautiful intelligent children, 14 grand children and soon a great grand child. so you having yours does not justify arrogance.
You have traveled, BFD so has lots of people, no need for arrogance there. I also have traveled probably more extensively than you!
You have a good job, So did I, thus allowing me comfort in retirement.
You say you are not jealous BULL it shows with every post you make about Sarah.
You constantly remind us of your friends in high places, Many of us have friends in high places, just do not feel the need to brag on them, for ours are real, not imagined.

Need i go on???
 
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