.the problem with palin. April 17, 2009

.authored by something.of.substance.

.the wink heard 'round the world.

Now that the election dust has settled and the campaign smoke has cleared, I feel I can finally fully-address my level of sheer repugnance for Sarah Palin. I’m only doing this because she refuses to pack it in and give it up. I had figured that if she won, I was stuck listening to her whenever she came out of Cheney’s old undisclosed bunker location and that if she lost, she would head back up to Alaska and return her focus to her state’s senatorial blunders and her family’s looming expectation. Instead, I have been treated to more Sarah Palin stories, interviews, news shows, and quotes than the guy I voted for. Less than two weeks after the most historic show of American solidarity since 9/11, we have abandoned our desire for hope and change and other positive symbols long since lost to our constant elitist money-hunger and back-stabbing bitchiness as a nation. Rather than give President-elect Barack Obama* the respect the position of popular vote winner or President used to command, we keep encouraging Sarah Palin and her 15-minutes of famous blunders.

During the entire election, no question bothered me more than: “I don’t understand why you don’t like Sarah Palin! As a woman, isn’t she everything you aspire to be?” The short answer to that question is NO (typically with some expletive or another in front of it and a look of revulsion so immediate it would make small children cry). The long answer, I believe, takes some explanation. When I would critique and criticize Sarah Palin in the past, I attempted to do so by looking only at her politics or of the way her politics and, therefore, image was being marketed. Some of the media did the same by

There are things, surprisingly enough, that I admire about Governor Palin. She is remarkably fierce. No, I don’t mean “fierce” in the Tyra-Banks-finger-snapping –“Work it, girl!” sort-of way. But, she is unrelentingly ferocious in a business that has long ago lost any sense of civility. To be admired and praised as female and not have any aspect of her gendered person hood demarcated by the sheer aggressiveness of her political (and personal) attacks is something Hillary Clinton could, sadly, not achieve.

Another thing Hillary couldn’t achieve that Palin had no problem conveying was her sex appeal.  Why anyone aspiring to the highest and most distinguished job in the nation also needs to be the object of  masturbatory fantasies is beyond me, but there you have it.  And, while the majority of Americans said they agreed with me in polls, the merchandising of Sarah Palin told a different story.   From poorly tarted-up dolls to porn videos done by Palin look-a-likes to companies using her name and likeness to sell the goods that looked similar to the ones she sported.  Of course, all this marketing doesn’t mean that Sarah Palin or her camp authorized nor enabled it.  Yet, it was out there and we bought it (and bought into it).  Looking like Sarah (or looking at her lasciviously) became our new national obsession and her persona, unchanging, played into it.  Knowing our nation collectively thought she was “cute”, she threw us that patented wink and a smile  to keep us wanting more.

Old burlesque tricks aside, my largest dislike for Sarah Palin is, actually, a non-gendered issue: I believe that she is marketing herself as the new “Maverick” President Bush (breakfast cereal action figure coming soon).   She really doesn’t seem to embody anything having to do with “integrity”, not even on the surface (as so many politicians do).  I wanted so badly to like her, as a woman, and to be able to view her as a sort of role model. However, as time is progressing, her zeal to keep herself in the public eye is proving more catty than confident. After attacking any media outlet which dared discuss daughter Bristol’s pregnancy (with or without the “teenage mother” angle) for intruding into the lives of children of candidates, Palin’s camp engaged in a media blitz to belittle Johnston, the father of Bristol’s son Trip, into silence for speaking out about his feelings. This type of attack is hypocritical on her part. While I don’t deny her the opportunity to get ahead, I question why she feels she must utilize tabloid tactics to do so.

This lack of integrity on her part is bleeding into her future political aspirations, namely her (supposed) plans to run for President of the United States in 2012.  Max Blumenthal of The Daily Beast reported that Palin nominated Wayne Anthony Ross for attorney general.  Ross, an attorney so far to the right he’s veered into totalitarianism,  who

“called homosexuals “degenerates,” leveled invective against an African-American student offended by a statue of a Klansman, vowed to undermine the sovereignty of Native American tribes, and allegedly defended men who rape their wives”,

is a long-time Palin ally.   Knowing that Ross’ attitudes towards women were Neanderthal at best, Palin hoped for a swift confirmation hearing.   Those hopes were dashed, however, when several lobbyists groups lodged complaints.  Now, her camp is reporting that she might un-endorse him because the publicity is bad- for her.

It’s bad enough that this woman who lacks respect for women (which is putting it nicely), continuously allows herself to be represented as a fantasy object and resorts to the basest behavior when dealing with personal attacks, but she doesn’t even stand by her crass convictions.

Sarah Palin, have you no shame?

*If you’re following my articles in any sort of chronological fashion, you know that I was one of the Ohioans randomly disenfranchised. I brought this to my local Board of Elections on Election Night and was able to re-register once they had located my former record and voted, provisionally, for Barack Obama.