The whole article is over at Salon, and well worth a few minutes of your time.I had heard vaguely about Palin but had never heard her speak. I nearly fell out of my chair. It was like watching a boxing match or a quarter of hard-hitting football -- or one of the great light-saber duels in "Star Wars." (Here are the two Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn, going at it with Darth Maul in "The Phantom Menace.") This woman turned out to be a tough, scrappy fighter with a mischievous sense of humor.
Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment.
Palin is shaking things up more than I'd ever have expected...
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis. On the surface, Palin outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes much much deeper.
ReplyDeleteShe is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.
Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code word for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
Deepak Chopra
September 4, 2008
I would have to seriously disagree that Palin is "shaking things up". I think McSame is so boring that Palin is being "created" as an exciting person by her handlers so as to inject some "theater" and excitement in an otherwise morose path McCain is taking everyone down.
ReplyDeleteAs of today, Palin still has not been allowed to speak on her own, or do even a single one-on-one interview. She is clearly being "managed", and with that management thusly being created and shaped in everyone's eyes, before most who never heard of her get a chance to see the "real" Palin. If anyone does want a chance to see the REAL Palin, there are videos out there to watch if one seeks them out. And, I must say, they are quite a different Palin than the one the Republican's are trying so hard to create. The Neo-Palin, if you will, reminds me of the old "Chatty Kathy" doll of the 60's. You'd pull her string and she'd say one of a dozen or so prerecorded comments, like; "So I put it on EBay!" "So I put it on EBay!" "So I put it on EBay!" Or..."Thanks but no thanks. If we wanted a bridge we'd build it ourselves!" "Thanks but no thanks. If we wanted a bridge we'd build it ourselves!" "Thanks but no thanks. If we wanted a bridge we'd build it ourselves!"
How long will she go on reading that same canned speech?
Why the Republican Party is afraid to have her do a Town Hall Meeting, or an unscripted interview, can only mean one thing. Ask yourself what that one thing could be...
You guys are funny. You'll say anything to make Palin look unqualified. But look at your guy. When he gets in an unscripted discussion (take his interview with Rick Warren), he comes across as a bumbling fool. ah, umm, ummm, ummm, ummm, ahh, ummm,ummm. To answer a question with "it's above my pay grade" was pathetic. How is it he was not prepared for that question???? Of course he was!!!!!! Yet, he still answered it like an amateur without any ethical bone in his body.
ReplyDeleteJust like his buddy Biden. Oh he claims he is a Catholic, and accepts the Catholic position that life begins at conception, but is not strong enough in his beliefs that he cannot stand up for his belief. What was that? Another, liberal pandering cop-out.
You need to take the color shades off and review your candidates objectively. They are not perfect as you profess, just as the Republicans aren't. At least Paglia is objective in her assessments.
As you say; >> To answer a question with "it's above my pay grade" was pathetic. How is it he was not prepared for that question???? <<
ReplyDeleteI agree. He had a very "off" day for sure. But eloquence is NOT one of his shortcomings. Neither is his intelligence NOR his preparedness.
No doubt 18 hour days take their toll on both sides. Even disagreeing with his politics, I think you'd have to give me that much. Oh sure, he could have taken the easy way out and used the Christian Right's typical answer; "That's for the Lord to decide"... and most would have been OK with that---but he didn't.
And as far as Biden not standing up for "his" beliefs. I think you are missing the Liberal point---which I understand. We would like YOU to be able to stand up for YOUR beliefs in YOUR OWN way. Is that OK, or does the lack of rigid dogma bother you? It doesn't me. I find freedom of beliefs, sans "dogma", to be very American...It's just not necessarily Neo-American, and I must admit I do not like where the "right" is trying to take America these days. It's funny. Conservatives profess not liking change, but if I was to try and say to them; I want my old America back---you know the one where I could have my privacy, take my chances on my OWN safety, shop, eat, go, buy, and do what I want without being "tracked", have private phone converstaions, well... I'm accused of being unpatriotic. Funny isn't it?
And thanks for thinking I'm funny. I'd love to have that Palin doll with the pull string!
By the way, for the last two days I have been in email dialog with Sarah Palin's Pastor at the Assembly of God in Wasilla. The preliminary "screeners" couldn't give me an answer to my questions about what they teach their members so I finally got shoved up to the top rung on the ladder. It's been interesting to say the least. They (read, Palin) are a pretty scary group, but admittedly, that is my "liberal" and secular humanist take on them. If Pastor Stafford does have a breakthrough and can actually give me some answers without using scripture to support scripture, I'll be happy to post the complete discussion here. I think it will open some eyes, but so far he's taking the easy way out. Gee, is he finding it hard to stand up for his beliefs?