Never Bring a Lap Dog to a Grizzly Fight

BigJournalism
The ruling classes in both the US Democrat and US Republican parties want Sarah Palin to just go away -- disappear! The threadworn media and ruling punditry are pulling out all the stops to make Palin seem like a "has-been," yesterday's news. At least one thing is wrong with that approach -- It won't work.

The appeal of Palin is illuminated by many of the images/perceptions of both her and President Obama. Palin the badass hunts, fishes, climbs mountains, shoots caribou, rides in small planes often; the Democrats are represented by Obama, a man who flinches while watching a judo exhibition and wears a safety helmet for a leisurely bike ride. Fair or not, this perception exists. Palin is Theodore Roosevelt in a size 6 suit, American flag pin, and some kick ass black leather boots, Obama is an academic who looks uncomfortable in jeans, throws like a girl, and can’t name his alleged baseball heroes from childhood. _BigJournalism

She is...a highly accomplished woman, what in an earlier age would have been called a feminist pioneer: the first female governor of the malest state in the country, the first woman on the presidential ticket of the party on the male side of the "gender gap." Having left politics, whether temporarily or permanently, she has established herself as one of the most consequential voices in the political media.

They say she is uneducated. What they mean is that her education is not elite--not Harvard or Yale, or even Michigan or UCLA. They resent her because, in their view, she has risen above her station. _WallStreetJournal

But because she has risen above her station to confront far more powerful ruling interessts, she is becoming a hero to the common person. You know the common person -- the one who is never polled about his presidential preferences?

The popular hatred of a self-described elite culture toward Sarah Palin is almost inexplicable — whether expressed in Andrew Sullivan’s unhinged efforts to suggest Palin faked her fifth pregnancy, or David Letterman’s slur that she seemed a “slutty flight attendant” and her 14-year-old daughter “was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez,” or CNN guest host Kathy Griffin’s crudity that her next target was the teenaged Palin daughter: “But I think it’s Willow’s year to go down.” _VDH

The common people who live in flyover country observe how the ruling classes treat Sarah, whom they consider one of their own. They watch and they remember.

Said Palin: "It isn't about me personally, but it is about the message. I know that a lot on the left hate my message, and they will do all that they can to stop me because they don't like the message. They'll do what they can to destroy the message and the messenger."

[Palin] added: "I am not ready to make an announcement about what my political future is going to be. But I will tell you ... I am not going to sit down. I am not going to shut up." _PoliticalWire

I tend to believe her when she says things like that.

The ruling classes in the US have generated a convincing mirage of invincibility. It requires every hack journalist, quasi-writer, media producer, and pseudo-intellectual that your tax dollars can buy, under the direction of the puppetmasters of public opinion. But just how well can that mirage stand up against a true popular revolt? We may find out.

Re-published from abu al-fin

More 22Jan11: In a new development, the united federation of lap dogs is attempting to organise a news and commentary blackout on all things related to Palin. Shades of 1984-style revisionism. This might actually start getting interesting, as the lap dogs attempt to assert control over the public information sphere in the age of the new media.