They’re back. All the hateful words, moronic jokes and vitriolic comments about Sarah Palin have returned as she re-enters public life to promote her (already) bestselling book, Going Rogue: An American Life.
Even so, the public is lining up in droves to buy her book and listen to media interviews. Oprah won the sweepstakes for the first Palin interview and was rewarded by attaining her highest ratings in two years. The media can’t get enough of her; nor, it seems, can the public.
Love her or hate her, few politicians have polarized Americans like Sarah Palin. Those who love her have a bond of loyalty to her that far outstrips anything President Barack Obama has inspired in his followers. Those who hate her do so with an irrational and obsessive hate that has now been labelled Palin Derangement Disorder (PDD).
Never has a politician been treated with such blatant and heinous disrespect by the media. Andrew Sullivan, a columnist at The Atlantic Monthly (supposedly written for cultured intellectuals), has serious PDD issues and resorts to Howard Stern gutter shock-talk by saying that Palin’s vagina is “the font of all evil in the galaxy.” Really? More evil than the Klingons?
If that’s what the ‘smart’ set is saying, then it’s little wonder that others have referred to her as a c***, a slutty flight attendant and evil. One comedian said Palin “is the worst thing to happen to America since 9/11.” Putting her on par with terrorists who murdered 3,000 people? It doesn’t even make sense.
People who resort to such tasteless, juvenile invective, obviously consider her to be a legitimate candidate who might, one day, have a significant political position. As one Canadian columnist wrote last week, “Empty vessels do not inspire such venom and fury.” Ditto.
What is it about Palin that sets their hair on fire and inspires such irrational anger? Her pro-life views and her pro-life choice. I’ve said it before — they’re utterly confused by a woman who gives birth to a child with a genetic defect and kills a moose to put meat in the freezer. They want a woman in Washington who will kill a defective child and fight to the death to save the life of a moose in the forest. Frankly, she does things that most female Democrats would never do — and it scares them.
In contrast, Palin has a rock-star celebrity status among rural Americans simply because she is one of them. She’s the commonsense, friendly, good-looking girl next door who reflects their lifestyle and needs. Comedian and political commentator Dennis Miller is quoted as saying, “Every time I hear [her] speak, she sounds just like what I’m thinking.” She doesn’t use elite catchphrases and hasn’t been tainted by deal-making in Washington.
Her media gaffes have been a major focus of, well, the media and her antagonists. But it’s not hard to find significant and laughable errors in the words of Vice-President Joe Biden (who told Katie Couric that Franklin D. Roosevelt was president at the time of the 1929 stock market crash—he wasn’t) or even President Obama (who claimed that his parents got together and he was born because of the Selma, Alabama, march for civil rights. Problem is, Obama was born in 1961 and the Selma march was in 1965.) That sounds like a downright mockable event. So why have most of us never heard of this? Where’s the angry, “gotcha” media?
In the end, Sarah Palin walks away the winner. Millions of dollars are pouring in from her book deal and she’s in hot demand as a speaker and potential talk show host. She may never be president, but I suspect she’ll continue to be a major influence on American culture. PDD-suffering Americans will hate this, but the rest will absolutely love it!
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