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Why Do They Hate Sarah Palin So?
Townhall ^ | September 9, 2008 | Andrew Tallman

Posted on 09/09/2008 2:15:32 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

I assume it is unnecessary to answer the logically prior question of whether or not they hate Sarah Palin. The level of vitriol flung at her over the past week and a half by critics in every liberal outlet ranging from The New York Times to Air America is particularly awe-inspiring given that this is all the longer they’ve even known her name. Ordinarily, such hatred takes years to cultivate. The force and acceleration of their vehemence virtually demands psychoanalysis. Since this sport is in vogue, I’ll give my diagnostic skills a shot at the trophy.

Preface: There Is a Pathology

The natural first reaction of a Palin-hater to this column is to deny the hatred. They will say it’s her politics, her religion, or possibly the whiff of scandal some have managed to ladle upon her. But if they’re honest with themselves, they’ll have to admit three simple facts.

First, the reasons they give aren’t the reasons they hate. If they didn’t have these, they’d manufacture others. There’s an old story about a man asking to borrow his neighbor’s lawn mower and being told, “No, I’m making potato soup.” “What does that have to do with me borrowing your lawn mower?” the incredulous man replies. “Nothing, but if I don’t want to loan you my lawn mower, one excuse is just as good as another.” Likewise, Governor Palin is not hated because of whatever reasons they offer. These are afterthoughts to an animosity which is embarrassed to admit it was born prior to reason. Hence, refuting them will prove futile.

Second, even those who persist in asserting such reasons as their motive will have to admit that all of them put together still can’t justify the disproportionate vigor of their attacks upon her. To use an aging phrase, this is the politics of personal destruction; a nuclear response to what their own arguments admit is a merely conventional threat.

Third, no one can hate this deeply this quickly. Conservatives generally despise certain political figures such as Bill Clinton, Teddy Kennedy and John Paul Stevens. But it’s taken us years, sometimes decades to detest these people. Similarly for liberals, contempt only begins to describe their feelings toward George W. Bush, Rick Santorum, and Antonin Scalia. But, again, at least such a sentiment has developed over time. It took Sarah Palin less than a week to receive treatment these men have taken years to earn. Such an immediate mauling of someone’s character says far more about the predators than about their prey.

So, what explains this pathology? I have two mutually compatible theories.

Theory 1: The Cult of Personality

Barack Obama is the left’s messiah. Their hopes, their dreams and even their patriotism are at this point invested in him. He cannot be criticized. He cannot be joked about. And he most certainly cannot be mocked. All such response to him (perfectly normal with any other politician) is viewed as blasphemy rather than politics. Not only is the left salvifically invested in him, they secretly fear they have been too rash to the altar call. Calm reflection proves Barack Obama isn’t ready to be president yet, but who can resist the hope beyond hope that he’s more than just a golden voice reading a teleprompter?

So when little Sarah Palin comes along and castigates him with condescending satire, they react as any devastated schoolgirl with a crush would. Her speech stated every major flaw with his candidacy. Not just honestly, but with a Reagenesque comedic flair. And since their deepest fear is that everything she said about him is right, the only option to reconsidering their betrothal was to destroy her.

It’s pretty simple. If we disagree, you correct me. If I am silly, you ignore me. But if I articulate your own fears in attacking something you cherish irrationally, you excoriate me … as cover. As Robert Pirsig explained in his lovely novel on motorcycle maintenance, no one jumps up and down screaming that the sun will rise tomorrow. Highly emotional responses indicate fear and uncertainty, not the opposite.

Sarah Palin’s on-target reductio of Barack Obama turned their messiah into a joke, earning the very predictable treatment a heretic deserves. Disabusing people of a savored fantasy always does.

Theory 2: Her Non-Feminist Feminism

I used to marvel at the rudeness so often publicly shown to parents with many children. But then I saw how the very existence of such families exposes the guilt and self-doubt others feel about their own decisions to stop having children. The surest way to avoid dealing with these stifled concerns is to assault the character or intelligence of parents who dare to expose them with their large families.

So, too with Sarah Palin and the left. Her very life rebukes them.

She has five children, two of them after the age of 40. When her infant son was diagnosed with Down syndrome, she chose life. And when her own daughter was discovered pregnant, she helped her choose life, too. Without ever saying a word about being pro-life (to say it would have been superfluous), she demolished all the common arguments used in favor of abortion and family planning, totemic doctrines of the left.

But it’s more than just doctrine. It’s that so many people on the left have condoned abortions, helped others obtain abortions, or even had abortions themselves in the very same circumstances under which Sarah Palin chose life. Honest people are an affront to liars. Law-abiders are an affront to criminals. And the woman who has made pro-life “choices” is a stinging affront to modern feminism, which has spent decades trying to convince women that an unwanted pregnancy is like a disease and the unborn child something like a parasite.

They must demonize her because her choices so clearly condemn their own. Make no mistake, when your example disproves someone else’s deeply internalized rationalizations, they will try to destroy you. After all, the only other option would be to repent.

Conclusion

In “Beyond Good and Evil,” Nietzsche said, “Anyone who has looked deeply into the world may guess how much wisdom lies in the superficiality of men … let nobody doubt that whoever stands that much in need of the cult of surfaces must at some time have reached beneath them with disastrous results.” His critique of religion so perfectly fits probamaism that one is forced to conclude the latter is but a new flavor of the former.

There may be other pathologies at play here, but these explain both the left’s tsunamic response and why it struck last Thursday morning. It was the speech, stupid.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: 2008; abortion; election; electionpresident; elections; hatinpalin; lifehate; mccain; mccainpalin; palin; palinhaters; pds; sarahpalin
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Comments?
1 posted on 09/09/2008 2:15:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They hate her simply for the fact that she is not one of them.


2 posted on 09/09/2008 2:18:13 PM PDT by MamaB (Heb.13:2)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
They hate her because they know she represents the very epitomy of what they clamor for for women's rights, but she has accomplished it without using any of their liberal methodologies whatsoever, and in fact her accomplishments refute all of their mantra.

They hate her for the same reasons they hate Clarence Thomas.

What Sarah Palin Represents in Presidential Politics

3 posted on 09/09/2008 2:20:29 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It makes sense to me. They are over the top, they have barely heard of her; it is totally pathological.

Also, Satan hates the cross. She speaks the truth, follows Jesus. It makes those who do not froth.


4 posted on 09/09/2008 2:20:39 PM PDT by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
It's called transfer: They moved from BDS to PDS

The moonbat left needs to hate. It's in their mental makeup.

5 posted on 09/09/2008 2:21:01 PM PDT by Popman (McCain as POTUS is odious, Obama as POTUS is unthinkable.)
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To: MamaB
Because she is what "real Americans" have been waiting for.

The left doesn't know either Sarah or real Americans.

6 posted on 09/09/2008 2:21:41 PM PDT by scooby321
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
She has five children, two of them after the age of 40.

One after age 40...Trig. Piper is seven and Sarah is 44, do the math.

7 posted on 09/09/2008 2:21:52 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Democrats spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why Do They Hate Sarah Palin So?
***Antichristian Bigotry


8 posted on 09/09/2008 2:22:02 PM PDT by Kevmo (Obama Birth Certificate is a Forgery. http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/certifigate/index?tab=articles)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bottom line? They hate her because of Jesus Christ- her Saviour. She’s a Christian, and the “world” hates Christians. Gonna get worse. You asked, that’s my opinion.


9 posted on 09/09/2008 2:22:07 PM PDT by MrLee (Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalyim!! God bless Eretz Israel.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Palin represents death to the advancement of their ideology. This is supposed to be their year.

Prepare for another round of “the election was stolen”.


10 posted on 09/09/2008 2:22:07 PM PDT by hsrazorback1 (To get what you had, do what you did.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
As I posted elsewhere---

Women and minorities are oppressed in our society, according to the libs. They don’t stand a chance without special laws, regulations, and special breaks through affirmative action in order to force the evil sexists/racists to make things more “fair”. It is the Democrats who provide these special breaks, and the natural home of such “victims” is the Democrat Party. The “victims” vote for the dims, who happily stay in power and dole out more and more favors in a spiraling cycle toward omnipresent government power and eventual bankruptcy.

When a member of a Victimhood Group jumps ship, it threatens to expose the fallicy of the basic foundation of Democrat power which would lead to the destruction of their party. Naturally, the Left is going to attack like cornered ‘Rats and they will do everything possible to completely destroy their target.

Sarah Palin is the current day Clarence Thomas.

11 posted on 09/09/2008 2:23:37 PM PDT by San Jacinto
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

That’s an easy one. Insane jealousy.


12 posted on 09/09/2008 2:23:40 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: MamaB

They hate her because she is normal and not some flawed freak of a liberal.


13 posted on 09/09/2008 2:24:00 PM PDT by Kirkwood
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet

They hate her because she has derailed Obama.


15 posted on 09/09/2008 2:24:25 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Democrats are Intimidated by Strong Women.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think the left and the right recognize the cultural significance of this election. This presidential election is a metaphor for the soul of this country. Obama and Palin are symbols in this metaphorical struggle and symbols can be despised quickly, illogically and intensely. Except that I don’t hate Obama, I just think he is an articulate opportunist...a good spoksperson in behalf of an America I never want to see in my lifetime or that of my grandchildren’s.


16 posted on 09/09/2008 2:25:10 PM PDT by yetidog
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I agree with the author. It’s like the left are all high school girls attacking another girl for some pretend offense—they can be nasty until they ruin the other’s reputation. So childish, but I never really did think that the liberals grew up (or why else would they be screaming over chopped trees, like in the video on another thread?).


17 posted on 09/09/2008 2:25:55 PM PDT by republicanequestrian
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
... two of them after the age of 40....

A very minor correction of fact: Governor Palin is 44, Piper, seven, was born in 2001; Mrs. Palin was 37.

18 posted on 09/09/2008 2:26:17 PM PDT by Fatuncle (Of course I'm ignorant. I'm here to learn.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Why Do They Hate Sarah Palin So”?

1- she’s smart
2- well spoken
3- has 5 kids and didn’t abort
4- she walks the walk of what dems claimed was the way a woman should be.
5- she’s not a dike that looks like she hit every stick while falling down the ugly tree...like their females.


19 posted on 09/09/2008 2:26:30 PM PDT by albie
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

John 3:20


20 posted on 09/09/2008 2:26:32 PM PDT by FlaFreedom
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