Here.
WINKS
Over at Whiskey Fire, Molly Ivors takes some members of the Liberal blogosphere and the Liberal media at-large for their treatment of Sarah Palin. She writes:
While Palin failed on her lack of merits, there is no question that the braying asses of soi-disant liberalism, in their zestful attempts to unnecessarily discredit her, are leaping all over the same medieval models they found so useful this spring when dealing with Senator Clinton. [...]
If the wingnut gasbags Don't Matter Anymore, as Olbermann so forcefully noted last week, then why is fully 40% of your show given over to a woman who matters even less? Not shutting up was point 3, the clothes were point 1. Both are standard misogynist tropes, both played here for laughs.
Here's a hint: you guys think she's hot, plus she gives you a chance to smirk and sneer at women generally for their silly, profligate, Chatty-Cathy ways. (Did John McCain's family dress from campaign funds? Obama's? What kind of underwear does Jill Biden wear? When these are comic features on a nightly newscast, then we'll talk.)
The same vibe was apparent in last week's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, where the delighted giggles of Maher and Paul Begala were rightly called out by guests Joe Queenan and Farai Chideya, who noted both the gender and class sneering toward Palin, as well as her scapegoating. Let her own people call her a hillbilly: we don't need to. If we're really smarter--and I believe we are--there's no need to go down this road. [...]
She's not ready. We get that; we got it as a nation. Without the adolescent sneers of guys who think they're funny.
Try to win with some grace, boys. You've beaten back the scary vaginas, whether they were qualified or not, and your penises are safe. For now.
Some commenters took issue with Ivors's post, leading to two more posts by Ivors (here and here). I'm sympathetic, for the most part, with Ivors's position.
The problem with Palin isn't that she's a "hillbilly" or whatever. The problem is that she revels in ignorance. And if her base does too, then I have no problem calling them ignorant and dangerous. That isn't classism or anything else; that's defense of responsible epistemology. But we do have to be careful, as Ivors points out:
Look, I'm a small-town person, not a dazzling urbanite like Thers, or simels, or flory, or many of the rest of you guys. Aside from a decade or so in grad school, I've lived in the same small town all my life, watched it dying while fighting to keep it alive. I've worked crap jobs to stay here, because crap jobs were all there were. I don't mind; I love my home and my family, and in my line of work, living in your hometown is almost unheard of.
Maybe the issue here is how to heal the rural/urban divide. Right now, most Americans live in or near cities. But the food sources, the energy sources--they come from the country. As Al Gore noted in his Times op-ed the other day, one solution to both our energy and economic woes is "we should begin the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural places where it is mostly generated to the cities where it is mostly used." While part of me looks at the history of colonialism and is uncomfortable with the metropolitan areas of the country becoming the metropole for colonized rural areas, I also understand that some of that give and take is both desirable and necessary.
But.
I do think there's been a lot of sneering from both Republicans and Dems since the election about hicks and hillbillies, probably mostly from people who either have never lived in small towns or saw them as someplace to get the hell out of as quickly as possible. The Villagers have no patience with actual villages.
And like it or not, that's a problem. The Palins are symptomatic of this divide, but the obsession with their clothes and their g's and their manners is symptomatic, too. Examining our prejudices isn't much fun, but sneering at anyone, even if you think they started it or deserve it, is spectacularly unproductive and, yes, divisive. And haven't we had enough of that?
The point here that I'd like to tease out is that, while Palin is (1) representative of a dangerous and Politically Pentecostal counterknowledge movement, she is also (2) representative--or at least trying to be representative--of a small-town pride. Palin actively tried to paint herself as a representative of "real America" and she, probably purposefully, tried to entwine ideas of rural/small-town pride with Political Pentecostalism. So, then, how can we--correctly--attack Palin for her antiknowlege pandering and persona while still making it clear that we don't have a problem with people from small towns?
Furthermore, how do we reign in those among us who use her gender as yet another way of attacking her? Just as I had a problem with the Edwards $400 haircut bullshit, I have a problem with the Palin has expensive clothes bullshit. There is something to be said about the idea that one shouldn't use campaign money for clothes and haircuts. Fine. But we all know that the reason for the attacks was actually (1) Edwards is fag and (2) Palin has a vagina.
I don't know the answer to these questions, but I do know that Ivors's take--while not necessarily entirely correct, is interesting and provocative.
For a tip on how to attack Palin fairly, take a look at The Atlantic's token conservative Andrew Sullivan, who writes in "Why Palin Still Matters":
Let's be real in a way the national media seems incapable of: this person should never have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy. She was incapable of running a town in Alaska competently. The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade of normalcy for two months - and not to declare the whole thing a farce from start to finish - is a sign of their total loss of nerve. That the Palin absurdity should follow the two-term presidency of another individual utterly out of his depth in national government is particularly troubling. 46 percent of Americans voted for the possibility of this blank slate as president because she somehow echoed their own sense of religious or cultural "identity". Until we figure out how this happened, we will not be able to prevent it from happening again. And we have to find a way to prevent this from recurring. [...]
Her candidacy, in short, was indefensible. It remains indefensible. Until the mainstream media, the GOP establishment, and the conservative intelligentsia acknowledge the depth of their error, this blog will keep demanding basic accountability.
My point is not to persecute or hound some random person. I wish I had never heard of Sarah Palin. I wish this nightmare had never happened. I wish totally innocent by-standers, like Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston and Heather Bruce and Trig Palin, had not had their lives disrupted by this circus. It's distressing to everyone, which is why most journalists left many aspects of this charade alone. But Palin is claiming vindication, is on every cable show, is at the National Governors Association Conference, and is touted as a future leader of the GOP. There comes a point at which you have to simply call a time out and insist that this farce cease and some basic accountability and transparency be restored to the process. Since no one else seems willing to do so, the Dish will stay on the case. So where are those medical records anyway?
Knock, knock. And go, read.
WINCES
This one comes from The International Herald Tribune (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars). Today's headline:
Saudi Arabia to lead UN talks on religious tolerance
Nice.
GIGGLES
As per usual, I'm with Ezra Klein. It did have to happen. From Rahm Facts:
RAHM EMANUEL SENT A ROTTING FISH TO A POLLSTER HE DIDN'T LIKE.
RAHM EMANUEL DECLARED HIS ENEMIES "DEAD" WHILE REPEATEDLY STABBING A STEAK KNIFE INTO THE TABLE.
RAHM EMANUEL TELLS PEOPLE TO FUCK OFF BY SHOWING THEM THE SPACE WHERE HIS RIGHT MIDDLE FINGER USED TO BE.
WE WOULD ALL HAVE HEALTHCARE IF BILL CLINTON HAD LISTENED TO RAHM EMANUEL'S ADVICE.
RAHM EMANUEL DID NOT FIGHT IN THE ISRAELI ARMY AS RUMORED BUT HE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME AT IT IF HE HAD.
AFTER THE 2006 MIDTERM ELECTIONS, RAHM EMANUEL JUMPED ON A TABLE AND SAID THE REPUBLICAN PARTY "CAN GO FUCK THEMSELVES."
RAHM EMANUEL'S RABBI LETS HIM WORK ON ROSH HASHANAH.
JOSH LYMAN WOULD NOT EXIST IF NOT FOR RAHM EMANUEL.
RAHM EMANUEL TOLD BILL CLINTON: "YOU SHOULD HAVE MESSED AROUND WITH A GOYISH GIRL."
RAHM EMANUEL ASSUMES YOU KNOW IT'S HIM CALLING.
BEFORE SEEKING MEDICAL ATTENTION FOR HIS SEVERED FINGER, RAHM EMANUEL WENT SWIMMING.
"MAUL HER! AMEN!" IS AN ANAGRAM FOR RAHM EMANUEL.
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