One of my harder, more interesting, and sometimes amusing jobs is reading, watching and listening to far-Right ideologues as they rant and rave about how their precious country has been stolen away from them, and how it is their mission in life to take it back. The seemingly endless assault of verbal diarrhea is something to behold. Theirs is a universe in which no one can be trusted, except of course those they approve of, and all the world is against them and hates what they stand for, which of course is liberty and freedom for all who are beholden to their values, naturally. By comparison psychiatric patients exhibit less paranoia in a year than this lot does in one day.
Case in point, a few months ago my blog was visited by a fellow blogger, an “admirer” as I remember sarcastically calling him, who just couldn’t resist trashing what was probably one of my more even handed op-ed pieces. My crime? While I was correct in dismissing socialism as having failed, I was wrong about unbridled laissez-faire capitalism failing since “it has never been tested.” Apparently my admirer has never heard of the 1800s. While I did my best to challenge him, he was not having any part of it. He eventually gave up and went back to what he does best: living in a vacuum.
From time to time, though, I visit his blog and, like tuning in to Hannity or Limbaugh, I swallow hard and try to soak up the toxins without choking on my phlegm. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it. Just last night, for instance, I clicked on a link he had posted to his site about our dear old friend, Sarah Palin. It was an op-ed piece from Frontpagemag.com, titled: “Why the Left Hates Sarah Palin.”
Its author, Evan Sayet, went through the usual diatribe about a “conversation” he allegedly had with a woman who couldn’t stand Sarah Palin, yet when pressed by our folk hero, she couldn’t think of one specific Palin policy that was objectionable. The moral of the story? Democrats are “filled with hate and empty of facts.”
Don’t you love nice, neat little arguments, steeped in their own convoluted logic? A random conversation with a mindless twit who says she hates Sarah Palin, yet can’t come up one, single, “good” reason why. Obviously this person was typical of everybody out there on the Left who “hates” poor sister Sarah: mindless rantings unsubstantiated by facts. Obviously, it hasn’t occurred to Sayet that he has just described the bulk of his movement, but I’ll let sleeping dogs lie for now. Ain’t irony great? You betcha!
Well, in the spirit of actually engaging in an honest discussion, I would like to offer up an informed opinion on the matter and answer the question posed: Why the Left Hates Sarah Palin. Well, first off, I can’t and won’t speak for all of the Left – I’ll leave that to them – but I can certainly speak as to why I hate her and all she stands for, and, trust me, the reasons won’t be vague or unsubstantiated, nor resemble anything close to the completely inane reasons Sayet eventually comes up with in his deranged mind.
So without further ado…
She’s a fraud and a liar. She was “for” the bridge to nowhere before she was “against” it. Most of her “successes” that she continues to tout in her relatively short political life are completely glossed over by apologists who see her as a modern-day Ruth. Her resignation as governor of Alaska had absolutely nothing to do with “protecting” her family from the scrutiny of a national spotlight. The truth is had she stayed she would most certainly have faced the ramifications of ethics probes regarding her conduct as an elected official. As a private citizen, she has been free to criticize others – both Democrat and Republican – with impunity. She has been deliberately coy about whether or not she will run for president in 2012. Of course she will run; her ego will permit nothing less. With Sarah Palin, it’s always about her.
She is a hate-filled person. From the moment John McCain picked her as his running mate in the summer of ’08, she has run her mouth, not as the Christian she purports herself to be, but as someone who has a huge chip on her shoulder, and is completely devoid of the compassion and maturity leaders are required to have. Her “terrorist sympathizer” charges against Barack Obama during the campaign and her coining of the phrase “death panels” during the helthcare debates, revealed a person so consumed with rage as to suggest a pathological disorder. Her lame defense of her crosshairs / lock and load comments was so over the top that all but the most fervent of her supporters called her out on it. And still she is unabashedly unapologetic about her conduct.
Perhaps the most damnable charge against her is that she is not only ignorant of the most basic of facts, but completely contemptuous of learning anything that can improve her horizons. Of all the major players in the conservative movement, none have exhibited less desire to improve themselves than Palin. Worse, her antagonism against what she views as “elitism” and her love of the “Joey Sixpack” crowd, reveal a woman who seems to relish her intellectual mediocrity. Her interviews with Katie Couric and Charles Gibson during the ’08 campaign not only showed her lack of preparedness for the job she was seeking, it displayed a staggering disregard for the office in general. The only thing worse than a Vice President Palin would be a President Palin.
But I think the biggest reason I hate Sarah Palin is for how she consistently and willingly drags the level of political discourse in this country through the mud. Her history lesson about how the Founding Fathers meant for us to debate passionately - the dueling pistol comment - was deeply offensive to anyone with even a modicrum of understanding of what they stood for and what real debate should be about. Yes, it's not about singing Cumbayá as we all join hands and become one. But to intimate that just because Jefferson hated Adams that somehow justifies the level of rhetoric that she and her ilk have brought to this nation is beneath contempt. Disagreeable people can still come together and be agreeable at least in part on principle. But then Palin wouldn't know what that word means; it's not in her vocabulary. For all her faults listed above, this one is her chief and most egregious of all.
There you have it. The four biggest reasons I hate Sarah Palin and all she stands for. No, there are no policy issues mentioned here, nor do there have to be. She’s pro-life and pro guns, she’s for lower taxes and less government. So what? Name me a conservative who isn’t. The mistake that progressives make is that they keep going after her policies and stances. That’s the trap that conservatives love to set for them because it permits them to dodge the greatest issue of all: namely her character and intelligence. Attack the message, but leave the messenger alone. As Elton John once sang, “Don’t shoot me I’m only the piano player.”
Sarah Palin would like us to believe that she speaks for all hard-working, God-fearing conservative people when she spews her venom at the dreaded Left. She doesn’t, and rather than get into a senseless war of words that only serve to further her insular agenda, progressives must stay focused and expose who and what she is. There are many conservative leaders who bring many ideas into the arena of political debate, and many of them have contributed to our national discourse in a positive way. Sarah Palin is not one of them. She flatters herself when she even hints that she would be up to the task of being the leader of the free world. The last thing we should be doing is humoring her enlarged ego, especially when it is the only thing in her brain that seems to be growing.
Case in point, a few months ago my blog was visited by a fellow blogger, an “admirer” as I remember sarcastically calling him, who just couldn’t resist trashing what was probably one of my more even handed op-ed pieces. My crime? While I was correct in dismissing socialism as having failed, I was wrong about unbridled laissez-faire capitalism failing since “it has never been tested.” Apparently my admirer has never heard of the 1800s. While I did my best to challenge him, he was not having any part of it. He eventually gave up and went back to what he does best: living in a vacuum.
From time to time, though, I visit his blog and, like tuning in to Hannity or Limbaugh, I swallow hard and try to soak up the toxins without choking on my phlegm. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it. Just last night, for instance, I clicked on a link he had posted to his site about our dear old friend, Sarah Palin. It was an op-ed piece from Frontpagemag.com, titled: “Why the Left Hates Sarah Palin.” Its author, Evan Sayet, went through the usual diatribe about a “conversation” he allegedly had with a woman who couldn’t stand Sarah Palin, yet when pressed by our folk hero, she couldn’t think of one specific Palin policy that was objectionable. The moral of the story? Democrats are “filled with hate and empty of facts.”
Don’t you love nice, neat little arguments, steeped in their own convoluted logic? A random conversation with a mindless twit who says she hates Sarah Palin, yet can’t come up one, single, “good” reason why. Obviously this person was typical of everybody out there on the Left who “hates” poor sister Sarah: mindless rantings unsubstantiated by facts. Obviously, it hasn’t occurred to Sayet that he has just described the bulk of his movement, but I’ll let sleeping dogs lie for now. Ain’t irony great? You betcha!
Well, in the spirit of actually engaging in an honest discussion, I would like to offer up an informed opinion on the matter and answer the question posed: Why the Left Hates Sarah Palin. Well, first off, I can’t and won’t speak for all of the Left – I’ll leave that to them – but I can certainly speak as to why I hate her and all she stands for, and, trust me, the reasons won’t be vague or unsubstantiated, nor resemble anything close to the completely inane reasons Sayet eventually comes up with in his deranged mind.
So without further ado…
She’s a fraud and a liar. She was “for” the bridge to nowhere before she was “against” it. Most of her “successes” that she continues to tout in her relatively short political life are completely glossed over by apologists who see her as a modern-day Ruth. Her resignation as governor of Alaska had absolutely nothing to do with “protecting” her family from the scrutiny of a national spotlight. The truth is had she stayed she would most certainly have faced the ramifications of ethics probes regarding her conduct as an elected official. As a private citizen, she has been free to criticize others – both Democrat and Republican – with impunity. She has been deliberately coy about whether or not she will run for president in 2012. Of course she will run; her ego will permit nothing less. With Sarah Palin, it’s always about her.
She is a hate-filled person. From the moment John McCain picked her as his running mate in the summer of ’08, she has run her mouth, not as the Christian she purports herself to be, but as someone who has a huge chip on her shoulder, and is completely devoid of the compassion and maturity leaders are required to have. Her “terrorist sympathizer” charges against Barack Obama during the campaign and her coining of the phrase “death panels” during the helthcare debates, revealed a person so consumed with rage as to suggest a pathological disorder. Her lame defense of her crosshairs / lock and load comments was so over the top that all but the most fervent of her supporters called her out on it. And still she is unabashedly unapologetic about her conduct.
Perhaps the most damnable charge against her is that she is not only ignorant of the most basic of facts, but completely contemptuous of learning anything that can improve her horizons. Of all the major players in the conservative movement, none have exhibited less desire to improve themselves than Palin. Worse, her antagonism against what she views as “elitism” and her love of the “Joey Sixpack” crowd, reveal a woman who seems to relish her intellectual mediocrity. Her interviews with Katie Couric and Charles Gibson during the ’08 campaign not only showed her lack of preparedness for the job she was seeking, it displayed a staggering disregard for the office in general. The only thing worse than a Vice President Palin would be a President Palin.
But I think the biggest reason I hate Sarah Palin is for how she consistently and willingly drags the level of political discourse in this country through the mud. Her history lesson about how the Founding Fathers meant for us to debate passionately - the dueling pistol comment - was deeply offensive to anyone with even a modicrum of understanding of what they stood for and what real debate should be about. Yes, it's not about singing Cumbayá as we all join hands and become one. But to intimate that just because Jefferson hated Adams that somehow justifies the level of rhetoric that she and her ilk have brought to this nation is beneath contempt. Disagreeable people can still come together and be agreeable at least in part on principle. But then Palin wouldn't know what that word means; it's not in her vocabulary. For all her faults listed above, this one is her chief and most egregious of all.
There you have it. The four biggest reasons I hate Sarah Palin and all she stands for. No, there are no policy issues mentioned here, nor do there have to be. She’s pro-life and pro guns, she’s for lower taxes and less government. So what? Name me a conservative who isn’t. The mistake that progressives make is that they keep going after her policies and stances. That’s the trap that conservatives love to set for them because it permits them to dodge the greatest issue of all: namely her character and intelligence. Attack the message, but leave the messenger alone. As Elton John once sang, “Don’t shoot me I’m only the piano player.”
Sarah Palin would like us to believe that she speaks for all hard-working, God-fearing conservative people when she spews her venom at the dreaded Left. She doesn’t, and rather than get into a senseless war of words that only serve to further her insular agenda, progressives must stay focused and expose who and what she is. There are many conservative leaders who bring many ideas into the arena of political debate, and many of them have contributed to our national discourse in a positive way. Sarah Palin is not one of them. She flatters herself when she even hints that she would be up to the task of being the leader of the free world. The last thing we should be doing is humoring her enlarged ego, especially when it is the only thing in her brain that seems to be growing.
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