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September 12, 2008 at 09:03:05
Promoted to Headline (H2) on 9/12/08: by John Seery (Posted by Peter J. Burns) Page 1 of 1 page(s) |
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Posted September 4, 2008 | 03:29 PM (EST)
I know, I know: Sarah Palin is receiving rosy plaudits for her speech last night. She is being heralded as the savior of the GOP, someone with enough moxie to sustain the party's unholy alliance between the oil plutocrats and the oily preachocrats.
Many pundits in reviewing her polished performance claim to see an unflappable and gung-ho winner on stage. My honest-to-goodness visceral reaction was quite otherwise. What I saw on that stage was the personification of small-minded smugness, an utter lack of humility, a kind of self-righteous entitlement based on little more than puffed-up narrowness. She struck me not as plucky but, rather, as stunningly immodest--to the point of arrogance. Some people are arrogant and maybe deserve to be. They know it, and flaunt it, while everyone else thinks they are jerks. But there's another kind of arrogance, perhaps harder to spot at first, an arrogance that apparently doesn't even recognize itself as such, a sanctified, self-satisfied presumptuousness that flows from sheer naïveté about oneself and the world and manifests itself in giddy ambition.
Hey, I'm all for hockey teams, motherhood, snowmobiling, and small-town virtues. I grew up with such charms [indulgent personal digression here along those lines: Forty some years ago, whenever my family visited my grandparents' farm in Ossian, Iowa, that "event" would always make the front page of the Ossian Bee, right next to a story about someone's canned tomatoes going bad, which was positioned right next to the Ossian Bee's front-page obituaries column. Or, one time, among many, when we visited my father's parents' farm in Coggon, Iowa, we asked, fishing poles in hand, a local young boy for directions to a Bait and Tackle shop, and he gave us elaborate directions, about turning at this corner, and then at that stump, and then winding around some bend in the road, and looping back at the half-mile marker--directions that were almost comically complicated for such a small place. And then he ended his on-the-scene peroration: "But I don't think it's open today." As for snowmobiling, my daredevil cousins used to run snowmobiles on the (hopefully) frozen Cedar River, jumping over cracks and breaks in the ice if they encountered such. Heck, as for credentials, I still have my NRA shooting awards from Cub Scout summer camp.] Such small-town charms and virtues notwithstanding, I also recognize--especially when it's beaming right at me from my Chinese-manufactured television screen--small-town thinking when I see and hear it. What the world--what this country--doesn't need more of right now is Sarah Palin's defiant brand of self-assured provincialism.
Palin and McCain want the United States to consume more and more of the planet's energy resources--in the names of God, country, and industry. Palin believes that the Iraq War was God's will, even though she admits that she hasn't been paying close attention to that war (oh my Lord!). She believes that drilling in Alaska's natural splendor is blessed with Providential Approval. She promotes policies based on her unshakable belief that she herself has a direct pipeline (no pun intended) to the Almighty's intentions. What hubris! How dare she hijack and besmirch true belief for the sake of her particular economic predilections.
She mocks community organizing in Southside Chicago--but has she ever set foot in Chicago? She has no idea what it means to organize on the south side of Chicago--nor, I imagine, does her slickly sarcastic speechwriter. How many African-Americans lived in Wasilla during her tenure as major? She hasn't traveled through this great country of ours. She doesn't know its people, doesn't know its amazing and oftentimes vexing diversity. She hasn't traveled anywhere in the world, except one place. She presents herself as an all-American gal, but does she genuinely understand--beyond her own PTA-to-Juneau story--our country's rich and varied and complex history? She recently confessed that she doesn't even understand what the Vice President of the United States does, and her admirers heartily approve of her perversely willful ignorance.
Yes, she can bring a bunch of white people to their feet chanting USA, USA, USA. Good for her. But true leadership in these difficult times will require actual knowledge, not just personality. This world of ours, the past hundred years, has too frequently witnessed the dangers--nay, the evils--of compensatory nativism. Citizens in our own country should have learned one of the major lessons of these last eight years, namely that conviction should not serve as a trump card over competence. To me, Sarah Palin's grin looks like the grin of someone who doesn't feel she needs to think twice before pulling the trigger.
-John Seery
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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| 11 comments |
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Deal with the Devil
Doesn't everyone see that these people have made a deal with the devil. How can one not understand that these people are evil. They deal in sex and thievery, they steal from the American people, oil for sex. How can anyone be fooled by the obvious connection between the prince of darkness and the Republicans, this unholy alliance. Anyone who continuously says, God is on their side and never acknowledges that they should be on God's side except when pressed by the media, then they say oh yeah, yeah we are being lead by God. by P H (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 7 comments) on Friday, Sep 12, 2008 at 2:45:35 PM  (0+)
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Here's a Palin Question" to Ask Your Republican Friends
If John McCain were to drop out of the race before the November election (health reasons, etc.): Would you vote for Sarah Palin for President? Would the Republican Party even run Sarah Palin for President? After all, isn't the VP supposed to fill in for the President? What's difference, before November 4th or after January 20th? by Richard Oakley (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Friday, Sep 12, 2008 at 4:34:43 PM (0+)
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Bush in a dress
Palin is a Creationist. Creationsists do not believe in science and they always feel that the rapture is looming. Palin is Bush in a dress. by Kyle Murphy (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 25 comments) on Friday, Sep 12, 2008 at 5:08:32 PM (0+)
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Devil In A Blue Dress
The devil wears Prada (stillettos) and a lurid smirk. by Raffie Azariel (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 61 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 12, 2008 at 7:53:19 PM (0+)
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No, these people are not evil
During her interview with Charles Gibson, she reminded everyone that she was referencing Abraham Lincoln: Is God on our side? That's backwards. We need to be on God's side. And she has never claimed to have an automatic connection to the Almighty regarding her policy decisions, or anything else. by Scott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 745 comments [30 recommended, 3 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 12, 2008 at 9:24:13 PM (0+)
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Sarah Bush
When McCain introduced Sarah to us, I, like millions, was hit in the face and asked Sarah Who? After her speech at the convention, I asked my wife "What do you think of this Sarah women?", and she said "When one look like a gimmick, talk like a gimmick and smell like one, ...." So for a week I said to myself "Ah yes, McCain pulled a fast one, Sarah the Gimmick." Yes, she will win at the American Idol Show!! Another week went by, and more facts and truths got squeesed out. That she has no substance is no surprise, she's alter all a gimmick. But now, after her interview by Gibson, I finally believe I know who is Sarah. Yes, she is: Sarah Bush!!! A GW Bush mind in a female body. Even Hollywood can't come up with a better horror movie story. by TomK (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 331 comments [24 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Sep 12, 2008 at 10:51:29 PM (0+)
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Sarah Palin: Ugly American
by Bryan Emmel (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 425 comments [32 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 2:54:39 AM (0+)
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McCain Palin
Can't lose. While the sham press attempts to hypnotize the masses with untruths, lies and propaganda, which is working by the way, the elitist leaders are plundering earths resources. While we argue non-issue political ideology the elitist corporations and bankers control the strings on the puppets of government. While the deceitful Democratic and Republican parties attempt to fool the masses into believing they are different the government moves towards a police state without addressing the issues of poverty, economics, energy and monetary policy. by jeff prager (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 198 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 11:57:39 AM (0+)
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As Putin
Ahmadinajad, Chavez and the rest watch this whole bizarre, surreal presentation of the possible VP presented to the American electorate as their next possible leader. They laugh, toss back one,and give each other whatever version of a fist bump that they use in celebration of the ease they will have in dispensing with the final solution to that pesky, stupid, bunch of arrogant, ugly Americans that they loathe. That is no exaggeration either. Palin does not even have her dad's incompetent old friends to help her out, so she will be even worse than Bush, Shudder!! Putin: I can see you too Sarah there goes the neighborhod teheheheee by Rockingthebase (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 6:02:49 PM (0+)
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Accomplishments
Name 5 things that Senator Obama has accomplished. Do not include things like got elected, voted for, 'led', fought for, co-sponsored, helped, attended meetings, etc. Name 5 things he has worked at in an executive capacity where he was responsible for hiring and firing, budgeting, planning, directing, etc. that are not political campaigns. Then look down the list and see if you still think the man is qualified to be President. In my opinion he is not even qualifed to be an assistant manager of the shoe department at Wal-Mart. Obama, the Inexperienced Community Organizer, is the Democrat's candidate for PRESIDENT. GOVERNOR Palin is the candidate for VICE PRESIDENT. There is a small difference there. The Democrats do not want to admit that their candidate for PRESIDENT is an extreme lightweight when it comes to experience and that's why they and their media friends are beating up on a nice lady with 5 kids from Alaska. Why do you think Obama selected an old Washington DC white guy with 28 years of experience in the Senate as his running mate? by Mad Jayhawk (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 653 comments [56 recommended, 3 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 14, 2008 at 1:43:35 AM (0+)
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The Beehive
This is an interesting article. The crack New York Times Opposition Research team apparently went to the Beehive looking for dirt on Sarah Palin and this is all they could find. I wonder what they would find if they thoroughly researched Senator Obama's student days at Columbia, besides his admitted heavy illegal drug use of course. by Mad Jayhawk (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 653 comments [56 recommended, 3 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 14, 2008 at 11:55:15 AM (0+)
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