Posted on 07/10/2009 9:21:40 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Wingers these days, despite their shrill bravado, are a dispirited group, reeling from recent political developments that signify the utter repudiation of their worldview. In succession, they've latched on to a number of gimmicks to keep hope from being entirely extinguished. Palin is one of those gimmicks and conceivably the most important. And, although she is a gimmick, she is also the current and past respository of hope for deliverance from a poltical reality that crushes their spirit. Clearly, Palin is aware of this phenomenon and appears anxious to exploit it for either political or economic gain or both. Maybe this helps explain her gimmicky resignation of the governorship.
Since Obama's rise to prominence and Democratic ascension, the trajectory of winger hope has run something like this--Palin, birthers, tea parties and Palin again, all of the aforementioned accompanied by the steady drumbeat of hate radio--with its constant vilification of all opposing positions and insistence that the winger vision is correct and will ultimately be vindicated.
When McCain won the Republican nomination, wingers were despondent, considering him a traitorous RINO POS as well as a lousy candidate. The disturbingly cynical and reckless selection of Palin was the gimmicky gift given the base to ensure their galvinization and continued fealty. And to an extent it worked--the wingers were ecstatic that Palin had been introduced on the national stage and were particularly enthralled by the pit bull persona she displayed. This gave rise to the cult of Palin, which, in fact, is now so thoroughly entrenched (on Free Republic, at least) that it has become an unquestioned piety, incanted ritualistically and incessantly, that almost all the votes McCain got were actually votes for Palin. Our Sarah, as they are prone to refer to her, sets winger hearts athrum.
When the election was lost and Sarah receded back to Alaska, some of the most hardcore wingers looked to the birthers (even though these certificate freaks were themselves certifiable) for salvation. Any day Obama would be unmasked as an illegitimate usurper and ousted from office--the Roberts' Court would kick his ass all the way back to Kenya. Once birther fatigue set in (which it did as it became clear that the courts viewed all their cases as toxic rubbish unfit to sully the docket), tea party mania in all its vainglorious imbecility emerged to fill the void and to give the wingers the feeling that they were engaged in a meaningful form of resistance to the newly installed order. But like the birther phenomenon, enthusiasm for tea parties waned, as media coverage dwindled and the recognition dawned that it provided no direct path to seizing political power. Of course, contemporaneous with all the birther and tea party crap, the winger media freaks were spewing their message of hate, violence and utter intransigence--but when in memory was this not so? Sure, the rhetoric was more bloodthirsty and paranoid than in the past, but in a lot of ways the talkers are just the easy listening background music of winger life--something they take for granted, except when they get panicky that it will be silenced or restricted.
So with birther hope deflated and tea party enthusiasm lagging, the wingers faced the insupportable recognition that they had been routed and had no quick and easy roadmap for altering the political landscape. A recipe for despondency, especially given their overwhelming sense of entitlement and self-righteousness. What an excellent time for Sarah Palin to reemerge on the national scene and fill the void of hope. And, since what we are talking about is hope, it is of little consequence to the wingers that Palin is nothing more than a lightweight celebrity and damaged goods to boot. They are desparate for a leader and they want her to be it. Unless and until it is made indisputably clear to them that Palin is totally disqualified from higher office, and maybe even past that point, she will remain their repository of hope.
Sarah Palin, I think, is best understood as a gimmick, just like the birther and tea party crap--something fundamentally unserious which captures attention but ultimately functions only as a distraction. But, her presence on the political landscape, no matter how quixotic, implausible and car-wrecky, provides solace to the wingers in what they perceive to be a dark time. As such, expect their embrace and defense of her to be fierce and unqualified. She stands between them and the abyss, between them and the recognition that they and what they stand for has been dismissed as ugly and idiotic. It seems like Palin is maximally opportunistic and anxious to play the role of savior--the nutter who is champion of the nutters. But neither she nor the consituency that yearns for her to represent them are eligible to have any real input in the national debate. She and they are freakishly marginal grotesques, and no amount of histrionics will change that fact-- they are perfect for one another and absolutely useless to anyone else.
Good heavens, that is one writer in both panic and denial simultaneously! We’ve gotten to him. Well done. :-)
“Winger” is their term for conservatives? Terribly imprecise. You’d have to have some way to discriminate between them and the other wing. Unless there is no other wing. But those things usually come in pairs.
And Jim, it’s vintage whine! Thank you for FR.
Can’t stomach THAT!
Yikes, Kos using High School students to write for their site?
If Sarah is such a gimmick, then why does the Mouth-Foaming Left care? Since they want us all dead, shouldn’t they be cheering her on?
I am a proud winger nut. A good rule of thumb is that you should always support traditionalist conservative candidates who are consistent and constant targets of Left wing MSM vitriol.
THANKS, JIM,
It IS comforting to see how
utterly out of touch with reality and sanity that the left is.
A haughty flavor to that article. So typcial.
If they want to talk lightweight, look at the last six months of the delegater and coronator-in-chief. Has he put in a full week yet? Surrounded himself with cronies and lightweights. Their omnipotent one is flailing...
Note the author imperturb. The left and even some on the right (Noonam, Parker, etc) are perturb over the fact that Palin continues to be popular, and from what I can see, is getting more popular with the passage of time. Everyone thought that she would be pounded into submission during the campaign, she wasn’t so they continued the attacks. Now, here it is, 8 months after the election, and the attacks continue, but her popularity holds.
I’m looking forward to July 27th, the day the Palin Revolution begins.
His big mistake is calling all of us “wingers”. Here is the truth: There are more conservatives than Republicans. There are more Democrats than liberals. The lunatic fringe on both sides are the minority. The real story that is unfolding in America, is that there are more conservative Independents now. They are growing, and no matter what the Kos Kiddies say, the movement is heading back to conservatism. Face up to the reality kiddies, you are in panic and denial of what will happen in 2010 and 2012. They only way you can stay in power, is if the elections are rigged like the last ones have been.
Dismissing and defining one’s ideological opponents is practically an art form for the left.
Wow.
Nothing bunches a liberal’s panties like Sarah.
Wait until she gives them all a big wedgie!
>> I’m looking forward to July 27th, the day the Palin Revolution begins.
I think her first public speaking engagement will be Aug. 8th at the Reagan Library.
I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say. It ought to be good.
Uh OK. So why are you writing about her then?
Is it my imagination, or does every picture of Kos show him with his eyes going in circles in opposite directions? But at least, now we know who writes the WORST drivel on the left.
Do they routinely have ten year olds posting on Kos now?
Leftists fear Palin like we fear taxes and socialism.
The author of that is in some kind of denial I’ve never seen before.
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