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Friday, February 6. 2009Best Essays of the Year: The meaning of Sarah Palin, elitism, etc.Superb essay by Yuval Levin at Commentary, h/t to many including Powerline and Insty. It's a Best Essay because it goes far beyond the immediate topic and taps into deeper political undercurrents. One quote:
Read the whole insightful thing. Link above. Trackbacks
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Come on, BD, this is the money quote:
"The reaction of the intellectual elite to Sarah Palin was far more provincial than Palin herself ever has been, and those who reacted so viscerally against her evinced little or no appreciation for an essential premise of democracy: that practical wisdom matters at least as much as formal education, and that leadership can emerge from utterly unexpected places. The presumption that the only road to power passes through the Ivy League and its tributaries is neither democratic nor sensible, and is, moreover, a sharp and wrongheaded break from the American tradition of citizen governance." Well-thought-out commentary. Sharp folks over there. These two paragraphs capture my reactions to Palin; initial interest (not enthusiasm), then profound disappointment in lack of substance (as well as the specifics of how she managed her job as governor, such as petty retaliation against her former brother-in-law).
McCain matched his words of honesty and reform with his known record as a public servant in the Senate (and the military before). Palin paled in comparison and in fact was an embarrassment compared to her running mate. As the writer in Commentary said: "Her weakness was that she failed to tie her populism to anything deeper. " But didn't yall look at her legs?
The chicklett factor was the lolipop that was to assail the lustful left. McCain screwed himself and USA with a shallow tart, whom appeals to most of the MFr's boys and some of the ladies, it seems. I'm curious... whens the last time you were governor of a state.
As the 'shallow tart' appears to have accomplished a tad more than yourself... assuming your lack of an answer means you've never been governor of a state.
#3.1.1.1.1
Luther McLeod
on
2009-02-07 14:59
(Reply)
And i'll assume you like your tarts shallow.
Ms. Palin was a long nail in the coffin of McCain's presidential campaign but not the only one. Maybe, if he had been a governor he'd have been President. Thanks for the giggles, sport.
#3.1.1.1.1.1
Leag
on
2009-02-07 15:45
(Reply)
As usual for you... ignore the point.
#3.1.1.1.1.1.1
Luther McLeod
on
2009-02-07 18:53
(Reply)
Nathan ... Perhaps your "profound disappointment" with Palin could be at least partially traced to a lack of knowledge about her. With the "hit job" the effete/elite liberals did on her, as soon as they recognized her genuine appeal to those of us in "flyover country," there were a lot of major untruths bandied about in the mainstream news media. She was called "racist," an interesting accusation since she is married to a Yu'pik Eskimo and her children are part Eskimo She was accused of being uneducated [she has a baccalaureate college degree, although she attended more than one college in the vast wasteland of the Midwest to get it], thus displaying her determination to get a college education. Her approval rating as governor of Alaska is 80% and she has governed well, in a harsh climate, both weather-wise and politically speaking, according to the governors of other states who know her.
Some of the liberal disapproval of her seems to be based on the fact that when she found out halfway through her last pregnancy that her baby was afflicted with Down Syndrome, she and Todd, her husband, decided not to abort the fetus and instead welcomed it into their family. Another, more shameful reason the liberals dislike her is because she is beautiful and she attained her prominent position as the governor of the largest state [in landmass] in the United States without a political machine to back her, unlike Mr. Obama, who is a product of Chicago's Daley Machine. If the general public, and you, are not as familiar with Palin as you are with McCain, it's perhaps because you haven't researched her background and you are unfamiliar with the harsh realities of living in a frontier state where just a few weeks ago the temperatures did not get above 30 below zero for several weeks. Some ignorant folks, like actor Ashley Judd, object to the fact that Palin hunts game, as do her parents and a lot of Alaska natives. They hunt game so they can eat game, since shipping costs of meat from the lower 48 states make cattle and pork meat products so costly. And if wolves are controlled in Alaska, it's to maintain the balance of nature. Britain does it. The U.S. does it. Canada does it. It's called wildlife management. So shut up and learn something, Ashley. I wish uninformed actors would stop voicing uninformed opinions as if they actually knew something about the big world as it really is. Mankind is carnivorous, We eat meat. And fish. All this involves killing of wild animals. And when any population of animals in the wild gets too large, and reduces the population of other wild animals, wildlife experts cull the herds, whether they're caribou, as we have in Alaska, or herds of red deer, as they have in the British Isles. Or wolves. Perhaps, Nathan, if you did some real research about Palin, and about Alaska, and wrote some articles about what conditions prevail there, you could do some real good in informing the general public about a wonderful state [my husband has written many articles about Alaska and its wildlife] and its smart, tough citizens. Maybe even the effete/elite liberals would listen. Or maybe not. Marianne Actually it was about what Sarah Palin represented, who she was, what she was, and is. ..that scared the bejabbers out of the left !
Why how dare she even such consider an idea of holding National Office and a woman at that. Why, she Might judge us and expect the nation to live up to her standards ! Never-Never-Never ! Hey ! I've got an idea, let's turn her into a Haysead Hick, with the help of the MSM of course.... and so it was.. Obama Right, Ron. Isn't it funny, though not, how that all plays out.
Missy Marianne, Alaska has a thriving livestock industry.
I remember, drilling water for the biggest indoor hog farm i'd seen to date, outside Delta Junction in 1971. Carrs Safeway in Wasilla this week is selling; Pork Shoulder Country Style Ribs, 1.55 lb Rancher's Reserve® Top Sirloin Beef, 4.29 lb Just a few facts about Alaska, mam. Leag ... Now all you have to tell me is that it's immoral to hunt, kill and eat wild game, and I'll know just where you're coming from. Or going to. How often have you visited Alaska, Leag? For how long?
Marianne P.S. Actually, if anything is immoral about hunting, it's to not eat what you kill. At least that's the way we feel down here in Texas. I thought the Commentary piece to be a spot on analysis of the Palin Phenomenon. She was- and is- a breath of fresh air, a public spirited citizen who appears to be without guile and/or hidden agenda. Imagine that?!
I quite agree with Marianne, I think we have much to learn from those self-sufficient and hardy Alaskans, people who remind me of the way I used to think of hardy, self-sufficient Vermont Yankees. BF- Before Flatlanders. Sarah Palin reminds me of the true American citizen-public servant ideal which is now only a dim memory in this age of Ivy League Elites as the entrenched Governing Class. Would love to have a Sarah Palin to elect in Vermont, as opposed to, say, Howard Dean! Or, Sanders, Leahy, Welch, et al! |