Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 09:43 pm
Celebrity Climber Sarah Palin Doesn't Represent Middle Class
Sarah Palin’s Heartland Delusions Go Down in Flames
Yesterday our country suffered the breath-taking blow of hearing Sarah Palin announce that she thinks she can beat President Obama when she runs for President. Today, new polling data from NBC News/Wall Street Journal Survey shows that the majority of Americans do not think Sarah Palin represents the middle class. That would be those “real Americans” Palin is always dropping her “g”s to ingratiate herself with. Apparently they are not as gullible as Palin hoped. So, that would be a “No, you can’t, Ms Palin,” regarding beating President Obama.
The NBC/WSJ poll listed a series of names and asked people to tell them how well each one represents the values of the middle class–“very well, fairly well, just somewhat well, or not very well.” 44% say Sarah Palin does NOT represent the values of the middle class, whereas 16% say she does. So your country is not as insane as the midterms led you to believe.
Still, the notion that we have no laws to stop an Alvin Greene or Sarah Palin for running for the highest office in the land is rather disconcerting. Small comfort can be taken in the fact that Palin is making several errors in judgment regarding 2012, but here they are should you need any spine-stiffening courtesy of reality.
Palin is running a general election campaign against Barack Obama right now, but her largest challenges will come from the Republican establishment and their front-runners. How will she fight Romney, Huckabee et al? Will they all be smeared as pedophiles or impotents, as is her wont? I highly doubt those boys will lie down for Palin like the press has.
Palin is carefully weaving an image of herself and her family, which will be the basis of her run. She can’t run on her record, no matter what she tells you, because her record does not reflect the things she claims to stand for. And anyway, Palin has never run on ideas. She runs a contest of popularity, which is why she believes that Bristol winning “Dancing with the Stars” matters politically.
There is literally no difference in Palin’s mind between “Dancing with the Stars”, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska’s” ratings, and running for President. If you haven’t clued in yet, Palin is running for Prom Queen of America and she’s more than willing to give out free cookies (literally) to bribe the feel-good vote.
However, Palin can’t seem to control herself or her family, which is why she chose a reality TV show where she has full edit control, to sell this myth. When it comes to real reality, both her family and she suffer from a profound lack of grace and humility. They are quite simply a public relations nightmare.
For now, Palin is able to contain this with accusations of liberal bias over each and every “attack” (also known as the consequences of Palin’s choices). But the Republicans won’t let her get away with this tactic. And it’s always the Republicans coming after Palin, never the Democrats, and yet she sells this blatantly false idea that Democrats are after her; another moment when discussing her real record would be of great help.
Palin’s last mistake is her over-satuaration. I’m not sure if this will reach peak disgust level by 2012, but she stands a very real risk of destroying the good will she created via the public not knowing her well enough to hate her. The more Palin exposes herself to the public, the lower her approval ratings go.
Palin’s reality TV show could change that; I think she does an excellent job exploiting this weakness in the American press by using another method of communication with the public in which she has total control over her image. I personally am not drawn to blood, guts and over-sexualized teenagers, but I can appreciate that many people will find this charming. When I hear people excuse the Palins with the rather distressing lament that all families are like this, it offers discomforting insight into the American public’s lowering standards. I can’t imagine my parents allowing me to call another child “fat”, let alone “faggot”. To this end, the Palins’ fame represents the exaltation of mediocrity in America.
As for the tired claim that elitists look down on her, let me put that to rest by assuring her that yes, we can and yes, we do. But we do not look down upon her for the false salve of her self-inflicted Nixonian martyrdom, which is her sole appeal.
It’s insulting that Palin takes refuge in this most insidious of lies. It’s not her commonness or her “heartlandishness” that offends. No, sister Palin. I am from the heartland of this great country and I can assure you, it’s not that. It’s not the hunting or the fishing (which you do not do anyway), it’s the utter contempt you have for others and your sense of entitlement and self-aggrandizement that offends.
And since I’m from the heartland, let me take this moment to put Palin’s querulous dog whistle to death once and for all. Sarah Palin doesn’t stand for the work ethic of a heartlander, the tough constitution of a heartlander or the stiff upper lip of a heartlander. And she certainly doesn’t stand for the bedrock faith of a heartlander.
Sarah Palin doesn’t stand for the grace and civility of a southerner or the wild possibility of the west. Ironically, the only part of America Palin stands for is the worst of Los Angeles, where anyone whose ego is large enough and whose personal morals will not get in the way of foisting themselves onto an unwilling public at any cost to their soul can succeed (I love you, LA, but you know of what I speak).
Sarah Palin is the worst of Hollywood; the cheap shot of out of touch elite who run the business and cater to what they perceive to be as fly-over country. Much like Bush, they find fly-over country charming so long as it stays where it is and continues to buy (literally) their notion of how fabulous it is to be average, and so long as it isn’t them that has to be average. Palin is the largest insult to fly-over country this country has ever generated.
Palin thinks fly-over country is this stupid. They aren’t. Palin thinks that she can drop her “g”s and talk like a Nascar fan and the people will love her. Inherent in this cheap shot is the belief that all Nascar fans are stupid. They aren’t. They are also not all conservatives (I happen to be one).
The people who believe in Sarah now (not the rabid fans, but the side liners) are often good people, with generous hearts, who like the image she presents. Who wouldn’t? They feel represented finally and if only that were true, this country could be having a real debate and challenge of ideas.
There’s something fundamentally American about the notion of Mr Smith going to Washington. But Mr Smith was a good, decent man who wasn’t afraid to learn things and hadn’t left a state of abused people behind him in his climb to ultimate power. Mr Smith also did not believe he was better than the rest of America. Mr Smith did not think God had mantled him to be President.
Palin is using the fly-over middle class just like she used Alaskans. Palin is a climber, someone who looks down upon and despises the little people because she used to be one. She couldn’t wash the dirt of ordinariness off of her soon enough.
While Palin makes a big show of hating the media and Hollywood, what has she done since quitting on her oath to serve Alaska? She has joined the media and pushed herself upon Hollywood, demanding to be a part of it. Palin descended upon the life of fame and glamor like a starved beast upon an almost depleted carcass in the desert; hairdressers, make up artists, stylists, and jets, oh my! This was her destiny and she didn’t care what it cost to get there.
From Palin’s vantage point, the working class is something to look down upon. She makes this abundantly clear, as do her children, with their spiteful crowing about having achieved success, fame and money and believing everyone is jealous of them because of it. This is called projection; For them, wealth and celebrity are proof of God’s love. Labels tend to mean a lot to those who lack the personal sincerity and depth of soul to understand what really matters.
Palin can’t fathom the very essence of the real Americans she claims to represent. And it seems as if real Americans are starting to clue in to this rather significant fact.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
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