Why pundits don't understand Sarah Palin's appeal

Since most of the pundits pontificating on Sarah Palin don't understand her appeal, they should stick to what they understand -- politics. I don't make claim to being mind-melded to the heartland of America, but I have a better perspective than the political class who think of the country outside Washington D.C. as ignorant, docile subjects to the powerful state.

Between 1988 and 1991 I had to go to D.C. about six times a year to deal with a contract we had with AmTrak, and I can't think of a another place in this country more antithetical to the traditional idea of America than Washington D.C. -- it's a gross misrepresentation of our country. What D.C. represents is what's wrong with our country -- statism. All of the muscle-bound architecture is an affront to innovation, individual liberty and the creative spirit of the free market. All the arrogant waste is a sign of our past apathy and ignorance. All the dire poverty, blocks from the opulence of power, is representative of our dependence.

The restaurants/bars full of political players speaking loudly and drunkenly represent a country on a binge, spending money and creating a mess we'll pass on to our children and grandchildren to pay for and clean up, or wallow in as they spiral further downwards in collapse, taught by their parents only how to party and spend. One day, though, a future generation will look back and wonder in disgusted amazement how we could make heroes of men like Edward Kennedy while denigrating the heartland as rubes and racists, undeserving of a voice in governance.

Washington D.C., with its New York financial connection and Hollywood/media image connection, is a cancer spreading through the body of America, and now the body is beginning to fight back. The heartland of America is fighting back against an arrogant state which thinks it can control a country born in individual liberty and individual rights. Washington D.C power players look across America and see a collective to be manipulated into power bases of dependent voters -- what they miss is the diversity and the awakening. The power players have no idea how vulnerable they are against the people of this country, once the people wake up and act.

Sarah Palin understands the power of ordinary people, the diversity which makes up America, and the arrogance of paternalism. Because Sarah Palin is an individual not made in Washington D.C. and not approved by the D.C. power players, she must be destroyed. It has nothing to do with the individual -- Sarah Palin -- it has to do with the image -- Sarah Palin -- that the power players perceive as dangerous. Any one of these power players who met Sarah Palin at some social event, if Palin was not the image she is now, would have no problem with her and would no doubt like her or be indifferent to her -- but they'd have no reason to hate her.

The D.C. power players hate what Sarah Palin represents -- a diverse public outside D.C. fighting against state power. The power players will hate anyone who rises above the perceived collective -- Beck, Limbaugh, Levin, Hannity, Coulter, etc. The only reason all these people are on the right is that no liberal has risen from outside, or inside, the D.C. statist culture to become a popular voice against statism -- but make no mistake, the first liberal who rises up and becomes a popular voice of resistance, will be destroyed. Statism and power are what the Washington D.C. political class is protecting, and anyone from the "collective" across America who rises to challenge statism will be attacked.

Sarah Palin's appeal is that she empowers ordinary people against a powerful, over-reaching and impersonal state. This, the political class can't have.

Comments

[Larry]

Wow...here's a tip for you moron. There's all kinds of people here in "real" America that also think Palin is an utter and complete tool.

[Mike Farmer]

Thanks for the tip -- then, are you saying they will not recognize her as President of the Private Sector?