Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire the meaning of Sarah Palin

best article I've seen on the whole phenomenon, from Commentary:

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-meaning-of-sarah-palin-14674?page=all

Good read, it's the first time I've read Yuval Levin, I hope it's not the last.

A spot on description of the true differences between the major parties, and what drives 'em. I was relieved to see the author points out the union between the left and the media. Like it or not, an intellectually honest person can not deny it.

I hope the republicans embrace the governor and her ideals, and tell their elites to sit down and shut up. If not, many, including myself will turn a deaf ear to their cause. I'm close to saying to-hell-with-'em.

The GOP is lost,IMO, without Gov. Palin. The media is more our enemy than the U.S. government.

fantastic analysis. non-judgmental and IMHO correct.

constructive critique such as this, that would not or should not offend the critiqued, is seldom so well achieved.

thanks for the lead.

Most excellent article--Levin percptively hit the nail on the head in several areas of the current political establishment.

Sarah Palin was just too...you know, middle class, for the cultural/political elite to tolerate.


Casey

Great read! I've passed it along to some of the elitist Palin-bashers I know, as well as supporters who wondered what went wrong. A piece like this offers food for thought for everyone.

The article recognizes a (the?) major weaknesses of the two parties. The "some are more equal than others" attitude of the dems, and the failure of the Right to accept that the government's primary economic role is to ensure fair play / transparancy in the various markets.

Palin has a future, but I would suspect it's not as President. She does not have the gravitas for the job. Then again, that's what people said about Reagan. JMO, Dutch.

Ronald Reagan lost his first bid for the nod in 1976, and well he came back in 1979 and well we all know what happened. Sarah Palin, was the only thing about 2008 that kept the GOP from a total route. BO and company won,but they sure didn't have the grass roots coattails to go along with it. They went after her because of fear nothing else. She will learn from it, and charge on. At some point, and I could not tell you when, she will be President of the United States. I will bet coin on it. The left since his first day, tried to write off Reagan as well a dim wit and what have you, history tells it different.

If nothing else, Palin freshness and candor represented a clarion call to the GOP, that it MUST return to Conservative principals if it wants to remain a viable alternative to the dhimmicrat party.

the level of hysterical hate she generated from lefties....particularly leftie women....was shocking


and it takes a lot of hate from those people to shock me, after watching them foam at the mouth over Bush for eight years

The meaning of Sarah Palin is that nobody else wanted to run with McCain,...

I wonder how much less comment (pro and con) Governor Palin would inspire if she weren't beautiful.

I don't believe that has anything to do with it, any more than her being left handed, or right handed would.
What comes out of her mouth is what has polarized folks. If you want to see Conservatism on the come back trail, you like her. If your feelings are that Reaganesque Conservatism is not appropriate for this age, then you probably dont like her.

What came out of her mouth was but one of many things that polarized folks. I suspect that if her beauty had not been part of that complex, the rest wouldn't have been so polarizing.

Many results in life come from a complex of causes � not from any single cause alone, though any single cause in the complex can significantly contribute to the result.

A sudden gust of stiff wind, say, breaks a tree where it's weakened by a pocket of rot. Those whose "thinking" is so primitive that they must isolate and concentrate on "the" single cause disagree �
(a) one concludes that the cause was the vigor of the wind �
(b) one concludes that the cause was the sudden shift in the speed of the wind �
(c) one concludes that the cause was the pocket of rot having weakened the tree.

Who'd be right? Who'd be wrong?

Its an excellent question.

The fact that she was --pardon the phrase-- SMOKIN' HOT infuriated leftist women, who have an alarming tendency toward a drab appearance.

What the election really highlighted for me is tribalism.

The "Feminist Tribe" will support members of their tribe NO MATTER WHAT (Bill Clinton) and will attack non-members NO MATTER WHAT (Sarah Palin).

Sad, really.

BMT

I have to agree with you Steve, that was an excellent article. The breakdown of the differences between the GOP and Dems, Cultural populist / Economic elitist vs. Cultural elitist / economic populist is dead on. Where the GOP needs to go to become a winner again is Cultural populist / economic populist. Unfortunately, the route they appear to be taking is Cultural elitism / Economic elitism. The elitism of the neo-conservatives is a cancer that is eating the GOP from within right now.

The problem the GOP has is they haven't delivered on their message since Ronald Reagan. Until that changes, it'll be SOS, different RINO.

Palin in office isn't even close to the traditional personna she portrays so well.

God help us all if we Republicans nominate this ignorant, ill-informed, unqualified woman for the presidency. Yes, her ideology is just what we need, but she is otherwise utterly unqualified. She is an embarassment. She should concentrate on being a better parent (a little sex education or moral instruction on the pitfalls of premarital sex would be a good place to start). If she ever wants to play on the national scene again, she needs to educate herself on such fundamental concepts as American exceptionalism (which most of us learned in high school) to say nothing of such things as the Bush Doctrine.
In many respects, Palin reminds me of trailer trash. Of course she is not, but her lack of sophistication, of fundamental knowledge, her general ignorance about how the world works, her poor vocabulary and delivery all make her fundamentally unelectable. She may be the candidate of choice of the illiterate, but she cannot capture the votes of those conservative democrats and educated young voters whose support we will need in order to try to return this country to conservative governance.

Smug arrogance turns off more conservatives than a sheepskin.
You already won.



The claim is as baseless now as it was prior to the election. Your response is very well pointed out in the article though.

Where is the smug arrogance? In calling it like it is (or at least as one sees it). Or in assuming (arrogantly, thinks I) that those who take issue with Palin's qualifications (or lack thereof) are smug and arrogant??