Talking to the Little People
These people really are living in a fantasy world. After quitting as governor mid-term, Sarah Palin started cashing in big-time–book deals, speaking tours, and now even a reality show of her own. But filming the show, she came across an Alaskan who was none too happy with Palin leaving her post for profit. Palin approached the woman, who had put up a large sign reading “Worst Governor Ever,” and apparently attempted to talk her down. Excerpts are extremely telling:
Gustafson: You swore on your precious Bible that you would uphold the interest of this state, and then when cash was waved in front of your face, you quit.
Palin: Oh you wanted me to be your governor! I’m honored!
Wow. I know that it’s a standard political technique to dodge a hard question by answering a different question, but that’s quite a stretch there–unless Palin was trying to be snarky and condescending.
Gustafson: I wanted you to honor your responsibilities. That is what I wanted, and to be part of the political process instead of becoming a celebrity.
Palin: That’s what I’m out there fightin’ for America to be able to have a Constitution protectin’ us so we can have free speech…
Gustafson: In what way are you fighting for that? In what way?
Palin: Oh my goodness! To elect candidates who understand the Constitution to protect our military interests so that we can keep on fightin’ for our Constitution that will protect your freedoms…
Here’s where we see a strong element of what we’ve seen before–the self-anointed hero, actually believing that resigning her duties so she can get millions from a book deal, write trash from her social networking sites, and then start her own reality show is “fighting for the Constitution” and “protecting our freedoms.” Here’s someone with, to put it mildly, delusions of grandeur.
Gustafson: By using your celebrity status.
Palin: How am I a celebrity? I’m honored that you think I’m a celebrity.
Again with the snarky condescension. And, hey, I could swear that in the 2008 elections, Palin chimed in with McCain and attacked Obama for being a “celebrity.” Not that consistency is one of her strengths.
Here’s where it gets a bit sad:
Gustafson: You’re certainly not representing the state of Alaska any longer.
Bristol Palin: She’s representing the United States.
Sad that her daughter has apparently bought into the mythos, believing that her mom has somehow been elected to the presidency or some similar office. You represent people when they elect you; so far, America has not elected Palin to anything–she lost, last I heard. And unless she is taking all the millions she is earning and giving them to the people somehow, then resigning from the post she was elected to and cashing in is not in any way “representing America.”
But then it gets even better: Palin discovers what the woman’s profession is…
Gustafson: Yes, I know, you belong to America now, and that suits you just fine.
Palin: What do you do?
Gustafson: I’m a teacher…
Palin: (eye roll)
You have to watch the video: Palin actually does do an eye roll, a rather overt eye roll, with a look to her people, as if to say, “Oh, Jesus, one of those a-holes, great.” And if Palin was thinking it, one of her daughters said it, to the man who was with the protesting local woman–called him an “A-hole” for filming the talk, or perhaps for letting the woman put the sign up on his property.
A sign which the Palin team illegally tore down soon after the little talk. On a public pier where Palin’s private security people were patting down and searching local residents who came too close–as if they had any legal right to do so. As if they were Secret Service agents carrying out law enforcement, or that the public pier belonged to Palin and her entourage. Not to mention the irony of Palin making such big noises about the freedom to carry arms, but not apparently when they’re around her. It is as if Palin and her team did just about every about every little thing possible to aggrandize themselves at the expense of those around them, talking about rights and then stepping on the townsfolk like they were the little people.
And these people call liberals “elitists”? Irony of ironies. It’s a personality cult, built on a rather bizarre personality, based upon lack of desire to serve and all the desire to make as much money as possible and act all superior and self-important. I’d expect this kind of stuff from people even younger than Bristol, and even for them, it would be embarrassing. This, this is just pathetic. And those who adore her… just plain sad.
I don’t know why, but I recalled “Donnie Darko”…
It’s a mad world
http://www.lyrics007.com/Gary%20Jules%20Lyrics/Mad%20World%20%28Donnie%20Darko%20Soundtrack%29%20Lyrics.html
Her father is (was?) a teacher, she used to be a member of the PTA, and I don’t recall any explicit anti-teacher sentiment from her before, so I don’t know where that eye-roll came from. The far-right must have thorougly brainwashed her by now.
All politicians have moments in their careers where they lose it, and I’m sure anyone would have felt a little provoked, but this is a whole different area altogether. Does she really not know how to conduct herself? There is an art to sarcasm, but she appears not to have developed it beyond middle-school level.
I don’t get why this is called a “Homer moment”, though.
In fairness to Palin, ever since she was named as a VP candidate, the left-wing media and Democrats have made a Professional sport out of ridiculing her and treating her badly. They imagine that most Americans share their elitist disdain for her and apparently don’t realize how bad and ugly this makes *them* look.
When I see something like this, my only reaction is to feel sympathy for the amount of crap and the number of assholes that she has to put up with on a regular basis.
And we wonder why we can’t get anyone competent to run for office these days…
Steve:
They were in a city named “Homer,” and it was considered a “D’oh!” kind of situation. The kind of confluence and bad puns that reporters love to latch onto.
Geoff:
The difference lies in whether the person sets themselves up for it, whether the person is fair game or not. Al Gore was ridiculed unfairly for having claimed that he “invented the Internet” (an expression he never used), when in fact he had done exactly what he claimed–he had taken the initiative, in the 1980’s, when Darpanet was being defunded, to pass legislation that would help transform the network into what it is today. He is at least in large part directly responsible for generating trillions of dollars in revenue and sparking a huge economic boom–but right-wingers mercilessly and falsely made him a laughingstock for it. He did something brilliant and far-reaching, and because he termed it in a way that could be distorted, was cruelly ridiculed. And yet he never complained as much as Palin does about her treatment.
Palin, on the other hand, richly deserves her ridicule. Really–“I’m a foreign policy expert because if you travel to the farthest reaches of my state you can see the farthest reaches of a foreign country, and sometimes I think their leader flies overhead”? When you make claims like that–not once as a slip, but repeatedly as an intentional point–of course you’re going to get ridiculed, and justly so. Palin has done so much like that–not just the occasional flub, and not just the Quayle-like misspoken word, but full-out, no-kidding, balls-to-the-wall, out-and-out dumbness that one simply has to stand back and appreciate its depth with reverence and awe before one rightly points out that this person richly deserves ridicule, lest idiots like her actually take real positions of power and do real damage.
Besides which, she wasn’t even being ridiculed in this case by the woman with the banner–she was being criticized. Something that even Palin recognized was a civil right, at the end of the discussion. (Before her people later tore down the public expression of free speech.) We don’t even know that the woman criticizing her was a liberal–maybe she was, but the grounds for contempt were breaking a religious oath and failing to carry out her sworn duties so that she could instead become a media celebrity and cash in. These were legitimate criticisms, and this woman was upset that Palin was coming to this woman’s hometown and using her husband’s profession as one means of aggrandizing herself, when Palin should have been carrying out her duties. And Palin, instead of answering the charges head on, played coy and condescending, acting “oh, I’m your political savior you betcha!” and just acted like a buffoon in general. This woman with the banner had real and serious concerns she wanted to address.
That’s not ridicule. If you want to enter the political stage, you have to take all that comes with it. If you thrust yourself on the stage–and no one has thrusted herself into the limelight quite like Palin has–and then you say idiotic stuff, people will make fun of you. And if you can’t take people criticizing you in public, especially on reasonable grounds, especially if you try to make yourself into a martyr because of it, then you’re a piss-poor excuse for a politician.
@Luis
Wow, Luis, you go!
Luis – excellent analysis. She is a piss-poor excuse for a politician. Unfortunately, she’s making a real good case for being a demagogue. The “I can see Russia from here” statements always rankled me, as does her whole anti-health care reform stance, when she freely admitted to sneaking over the border to Canada for medical care.
God, don’t get me started.