- Let’s be honest. There’s a clear link with Islam (£) by David Aaronovitch, The Times
- Intellectual property is an innovation killer by Joshua Lachkovic , KernalMag
- Dumb Idea Hall of Fame by Aaron David Miller, Foreign Policy
- Nadine Dorries threatens Cameron's Party Leadership by Nadine Dorries, Daily Mail
- Boris set for party leadership? by Traci Watson, USAToday
- Anti-Israel students deface Star of David at student conference by Jonny Paul, Jerusalem Post
- Jihadist Videos on University Facebook by Rupert Sutton, Huffington Post UK
- Skintland: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose by Alex Massie, Spectator UK
- Green tax on conservatories by James Slack and Tamara Cohen, Daily Mail
- Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country by Staff writers, BBC
Why is the Left so full of hate towards Sarah Palin?
In the Sarah Palin email publications, the Guardian was desperate to find a deranged and bigoted political-psychological make-up. They did; their own.
Sarah Palin eats babies. Sarah Palin slow-roasts poor people. Sarah Palin pretended that her daughter’s child was hers.
OK, only one of the above is common currency but the fact that it is no weirder than the two which aren’t true but are still believed by many on the left shows just what a pitch of hysteria Sarah Palin incites in her opponents: Palin Derangement Syndrome (PDS) as Charles Krauthammer might have diagnosed it.
There was a fresh outbreak of PDS recently after a two year campaign finally brought the release of 24,000 pages of emails sent by Palin while Governor of Alaska. Journalists from all over the world descended on Juneau (the state capital) eager to find the proof they were sure existed that Palin was… well, they didn’t seem too sure of that. But they were sure they would find something.
And... they didn’t. The Guardian spent money it could ill afford sending two correspondents to Alsaka and was reduced to asking its readers to trawl through the emails and let them know if they found anything interesting. It also felt compelled to run a pitiful piece by Patricia Williams of Columbia University who claimed the emails revealed Palin’s “banality, hypocrisy, provincialism and smugness”.
Yes, you read that right, an op-ed writer for the Guardian accusing somebody else of smugness.
The evidence for Williams’ charges was slender to say the least. “Palin’s emails show a politician who didn’t have time to follow the news,” Williams thundered pathetically, ignoring the obvious retort that that’s because Palin was busy running the state of Alaska, exactly the job Alaskans elected her to do.
Williams charged that Palin “relied on others to write her speeches”. Well, so does every other politician on the planet with the exception of Hugo Chavez, and anyone who’s sat through upwards of five hours of ‘Aló Presidente’ can tell you what a mistake that is.
Williams takes Palin to task for asking “God for advice about affairs of state”. Palin can’t be getting worse advice from the man upstairs than Barack Obama is from David Plouffe who recently went on Fox News to say “the American people want compromise. There’s a slim majority that does not.”
And it seems that Williams is more opposed to some kinds of pie in the sky than others being, as she is, a proponent of something called “Critical race theory”.
Williams also claimed Palin was “often dead wrong about the facts”. She claimed that “Only two weeks ago (Palin) placed Concord and Lexington in the state of New Hampshire rather than Massachusetts”. Silly old Sarah. Except she didn’t say that; fellow female Republican Michele Bachmann did. Patricia Williams is “dead wrong about the facts”.
For all the utter certainty on the left that the emails would provide proof of some evildoing, none was forthcoming. Indeed, the emails were actually rather poignant, coming from a time when Sarah Palin was a young state governor who was praised in Newsweek in October 2007 for “challenging the dominant, sometimes corrupting, role of oil companies in the state’s political culture” and for the “pragmatic, post-partisan approach to solving problems” which had earned “high marks from lawmakers on the other side of the aisle”.
These emails with all their provincial dullness are from a Sarah Palin who was an effective governor of her state well before the glare of international publicity and the full fury of the enraged, deranged left was turned on her.
Where did the fury directed at this “pragmatic, post-partisan” politician come from?
To the left, it is such an article of faith that they are on the side of women and ethnic minorities that when a member of one of these groups pops up on the right smoke starts to pour from their ears, their eyes begin swiveling, and like some computer asked to define "love" in an old episode of “Star Trek”, they are left sputtering that it “does not compute”.
The left’s much vaunted (by them at any rate) moral compass goes haywire. That is why left wingers got so obsessed about the birth of Palin’s son, Trig. If it had been any other woman in America her reproductive privacy would have been loudly defended but, because it was Palin, that went out the window and left wingers demanded the right to go crawling through her gynaecological past.
It was that kind of hate driven hypocrisy which led the same people who had pushed for Clarence Thomas to be removed from the Supreme Court over allegations of sexual harassment to staunchly defend the right of Bill Clinton to remain President in the face of far more serious allegations.
The total failure of the Sarah Palin emails to include anything that offends even people desperate to be offended should wake her opponents up to the fact that she isn’t the anti Christ, she is simply an opponent to be opposed rather than reviled.
But the hatred of Palin isn’t political, it’s personal. It is her identity as woman who refuses to act in the way the left’s worldview dictates she should act that drives it. And as long as the left continues to cling to crude and debasing identity politics, and as long as Sarah Palin continues to be a woman, we will continue to see flare-ups of PDS.
John Phelan blogs at The Boy Phelan and has also written for ConservativeHome and The Cobden Centre
Print
Sarah Palin is an inspiration to politically minded women everywhere. A real person with real opinions & beliefs, and not in hock to party or ideological dogma - yes, I can see why the left hate Sarah as they do most women.
The sad fact is that most of the hatred of Sarah Palin is based on nothing more than pure, unreformed sexism (with an element of snobbery thrown in).
Some perfectly reasonable and fair-minded friends of mine turn red with rage at the very mention of Sarah Palin. They believe she is "pure toxic" and refer to her as "that woman". I know of one shortlist for something that included Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and one (conservative) judge threatened to resign if Palin was on the shortlist but had no objection to Beck saying "I cannot have my or this organisation's name associated with that woman under any circumstances".
Would that our politically lightweight UK parliament had such a woman of upright, moral substance and genuine political conviction emerging within its whimsical, 'chickified' midst.
If Sarah Palin is the best that the honourable and noble cause of economic libertarianism can drum up, then we're in trouble.
She's a buffoon.
Good article trouncing some of the regular Palin myths and lies written about her. If she's inspiring that much loathing, she's probably doing something right.
BTW you guys need a twitter account.
Thanks, John, for a fair write-up. Sarah IS a strong and honest woman, our version of a Margaret Thatcher perhaps. I can't think of anyone else who can restore the constitutional values of America against a crooked and power-hungry political class. She would have to battle them every day, but she can do it if anyone can. That's what they are afraid of. It's THEIR own crooked game that's at risk from her. She did it in Alaska, but that was just a warm-up, I suspect.
I flippin' love Sarah! She makes the haters look more desperate by the day!
I love the failures who call her a buffoon. Truly intelligent people don't feel the need to impugn others' intelligence. They are smart enough to be humble.
Hey Matt- 'fess up - you're Patricia Williams, aren't you? And for your info she actually ran an economy in Alaska and did rather well...but I doubt you are particularly interested in facts.
The loony left runs an entire plantation system, one for women, one for blacks, one for hispanics, and soforth.
Palin is seen as a woman who has run off the plantation, and they are afraid that other women might be inspired to escape as well. So, naturally, the oversee has sent the hounds after her to hunt her down, make an example out of her so to frighten the other women into submission, and never think of leaving the leftist plantation.
Actually what the emails said and John didn't say was this buffoon believed the rights of the people come first, and that the governor's focus was on the Constitution and what would be best for the people & the state of Alaska. I guess that's why Matt says she's a buffoon with actually believing the people should come first. Yes, honesty such a stupid trait & if you don't believe me, just ask Matt--he knows what's best!
The woman is not a buffoon, the main stream media is the one that has advanced that premise. She governed her state well when she was allowed (her 80+% approval rate can attest to that).
In any event, this quote sums it up quite nicely:
"Palin was 'often dead wrong about the facts'. She claimed that 'Only two weeks ago (Palin) placed Concord and Lexington in the state of New Hampshire rather than Massachusetts'. Silly old Sarah. Except she didn’t say that; fellow female Republican Michele Bachmann did. Patricia Williams is 'dead wrong about the facts'".
The only quote that Williams could come up with was one that Sarah Palin did not actually utter.
Matt,
I got 24,000 emails telling me you are wrong. I got 2 books, many many policy papers posted on facebook telling me you are wrong.
When you make a statement like you made that is so out of whack with the facts it is you who appears to be the "buffoon"
There will always be buffoons throwing stones at the ones who are a threat. Have a nice day Matt-choke on your insults-Palin is no match for your juvenile name calling.
The left pushed too far and woke up the sleeping giant - American Patriots. The outrageous attacks on Sarah Palin are an attack on millions of Americans who quietly go to work and take care of their families and really desire just be left alone by the Federal government - known as freedom in better times.
America has always been a Conservative country. But every so often, we have to endure a little socialist lunacy by our leaders to wake up.
BTW - I noticed that even on this site the negative comments about Sarah Palin are never substantive, simply juvenile insults that are so typical of the left.
Just goes to prove left-wing insanity & delusional behavior is a global problem. You have 'em, we have 'em. - An American
Just goes to prove left-wing insanity & delusional behavior is a global problem. You have 'em, we have 'em. - An American
Thank you for your objective reporting on Sarah Palin and her e-mails. Her emails showed her to be a hard working Gov who acted in the best interest of Alaska, as well as a person with values, intelligence and concern.
Sarah Palin is the voice of conservatism. Of course she must be stopped. If she is not, then she will be occupying the oval office in two years time. But she will not be stopped, because this is a woman of intestinal fortitude of which we have never seen in our lifetime. She's going to make a great President.
God BLESS you folks for being honest - and treating a good person who has worked to HELP the human race - Sarah Palin - fairly!
Info in the media prior to the 2008 election was fair to her. As soon as she arrived on the national scene, she was perceived as a threat to Obama and was to be stopped at all costs. Women make up the democrats' largest voting block and they are starting to see a more accurate picture of Gov. Palin.
The media and the democrats were right. She is a threat and will beat Obama in 2012.
God bless you, Mr. Phelan, for your insightful tract. Sarah Palin WILL be the next U.S. President bc she is genuine, and understands that it is the individual, not the leviathan socialist state, which creates economic vibrancy. She is respected by millions of Americans for refusing to pander to corrupt interests, even those which might benefit her career. Finly, for the sake of brevity, Sarah Palin possesses a mighty, intangible leadership quality. America, and the world, desperately need her talents NOW. Bob in Pa.
spot-on!! i love this article.
the palin haters are CRAZY. and they have no idea what the words "logic" or "hypocrisy" mean... they have NO LOGIC AT ALL, the claims they make contain no logical sense whatsoever. and their hypocrisy goes on and on and on. i could write an essay. this email thing is just the latest example of the craziness.
and yeah, the Guardian is a big joke. no journalism. just sloppy biased crap being spewed out.
how is she a buffoon matt.do you have any specifics or are you just spouting your left wing drivel.
Why does the 'left hate Sara Palin so much? Simple, the Left hates everybody that isn't left.
Matt - any substance to your "buffoon" insult?
Is this just another example of a timid left wing male sitting at his keyboard feeling intimidated and inadequate because of a powerful political female?
Like Lady Thatcher?
Remind us again of how many women have led your male dominated Labour Party?
Obama must be so proud to have so many lickspittle attack dogs & useful idiots like you to insult his opponents for him.
And now Guardian is delighted with Lady Thatcher (who would have thought!) because, according to their sources, she has refused to meet Plain citing their sources saying “that would be belittling for Lady Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts”. Nile Gardiner, who runs Margret Thatcher Foundation in US has claimed that this story is false, but Guardian is still persisting with the story in order to discredit Palin.
THANK YOU MR. PHELAN. WHAT I DO AS A SUPPORTER OF PALIN IS TO WRITE TO CHALLENGE THOSE WHO SPREAD WRONG INFORMATION TO CAST PALIN UNDER BAD LIGHT LIKE THAT SHAMELESS WOMAN WILLIAMS. I ESCAPED A COMMUNIST COUNTRY TO COME TO AMERICA. AND NOW I SEE THE MEDIA IN THE USA ACTING THE SAME OR WORSE THAN GOVT PROPAGANDA! IT"S SAD. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ANALYSIS.
Sarah Palin will be POTUS45; the left's attacks notwithstanding. She is the only patriot in the field with the balls to match her actions to her words.
I'm with Matt. Palin has ambition aplenty, but is woefully light on intellect. The US badly needs a politician more in the mold of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but then so do most western countries and I say this as someone who has only voted for one other Canadian Tory politician -- David Crombie, when he was mayor of Toronto.
Its true that there actually seems to be a 'Palin Derangement Syndrome' but the fact is that even considering Sarah Palin for VP of the United States of America give me great doubts about the democratic process. I was supposed to be about the 'most worthy ideas' getting the top job.
I don't think that Sarah Palin really knows what an 'idea' actually is.
It is not so much that they hate Sarah Palin, though many women and less men do. The main issue is that she frightens them. The Gruniard and the BBC are in a cleft stick with her being a woman, but when the Huff Post attacked Palin, then they joined in, as did the usual left wing USA and UK media. As I stated to the Huff Post 2 months ago, Palin must be doing a lot right to engender such fear and hatred from them.
Sign up to receive updates from
The Commentator website!
-
Obama’s warm reception in Britain can’t hide the fact he’s the weakest US president in living memory
-
Who is Newt Gingrich? The man who would be president
-
A little to the left: Mehdi Hasan wants leftist democrats to challenge Obama. Why so delusional?
-
There never was a "progressive majority". Polly Toynbee is queen of an empty realm
The left despise women who are independent in thought & reject collectivism. Strong willed, independent powerful women are seen as a threat to socialism.
The British Labour Party, for all its witterings about equality, are now decades behind the British Conservative Party in entrusting the leadership to a woman.