Poor, Persecuted Sarah Palin -- The GOP embraces the culture of victimhood

Wall Street Journal ^ | 7/15/09 | Thomas Frank

[steve-b]

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced her resignation two weeks ago it was after a series of strange, petty bouts with her detractors. Many "frivolous ethics violations" had been alleged against her, she noted. David Letterman had told an ugly joke about her daughter. A blogger had posted something that was probably not true. Someone had photoshopped a radio talker's face onto a picture of her baby -- a "malicious desecration" of the image, in the words of Ms. Palin's spokeswoman.

Team Palin got duly indignant at each of these. They took special, detailed offense. They issued statements magnifying their wounds. And, finally, the governor resigned her office, a good woman cruelly wronged...

Indeed, if political figures stand for ideas, victimization is what Ms. Palin is all about. It is her brand, her myth. Ronald Reagan stood tall. John McCain was about service. Barack Obama has hope. Sarah Palin is a collector of grievances. She runs for high office by griping....

To become a symbol of this stature Ms. Palin has had to do the opposite of most public figures. Where others learn to take hostility in stride, she and her fans have developed the thinnest of skins. They find offense in the most harmless remarks and diabolical calculation in the inflections of the anchorman's voice. They take insults out of context to make them seem even more insulting. They pay close attention to voices that are ordinarily ignored, relishing every blogger's sneer, every celebrity's slight, every crazy Internet rumor...

[Just A Nobody]

I'd like to disseminate this info - do you have a linkable source?

Picked it off a thread last night.

Obama Science Czar’s Plan To Sterilize Population Through Water Supply Already Happening

[thecabal]

You mean like hit-n-run steve?

[F.J. Mitchell]

Thomas Frank? Any relation to Blarney Frank?

[thecabal]

Lemme take a guess...he has a number at the end of his handle?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Indeed, if political figures stand for ideas, victimization is what Ms. Palin is all about.

I disagree. Palin is trying to talk about the issues - her recent article in the Washington Post discussing energy policy does just that. It's her detractors who want to bog her down with endless distractions about her character and family.

Palin needs to keep doing what she's started - get her views and advocacy out there for the issues most important in America right now: the economy, energy policy, and defense/foreign policy. She needs to hammer away at these in speeches, in interviews, and in written articles. She needs to be identified by her stand on real issues. What she can't do is play her enemies' game by letting them make her, her personality and her family become the issue.

[redk]

Right now her enemies are the only ones I see dwelling on her victim status, last I heard she is a little busy fighting things like Cap and Tax. They can join her in talking about issues or they can obsess over nonsense it’s up to them.

[calex59]

The Obama Children were proved to be attacked by Daily Kos posters posing as FR members. Get your stories straight. The comments were pulled by the moderators and,yes, many FReepers bitched about the comments. The whole things was a setup and just another hit job on Mr. Thompson, who owns FR(you might think someone else owns it, but I have it on good word from the Daily Kos Kiddies and Huffington Post that Fred Thompson owns it).

[MrB]

Not who I was thinking of,
but -

just look at the patterns, and look at 2 cor 2:14-17.

[raptor29]

“Since this is a stealth Mitt Romney thread.....”

That’s outstanding!

[RichInOC]

Okay, Thomas, I’m curious as to exactly what context would make some of the stuff aimed at Governor Palin and her family over the last year even minimally acceptable as honest, normal adult political discourse. I’m failing to see it. Yeah, yeah, I know, “politics ain’t beanbag”. Even by that standard...no. Never mind propriety or common courtesy. When it comes to the gov and her family, entirely too many of her opponents (on both sides of the political aisle, I’m sorry to say) seem to be undeterred by anything as tedious as tangible, checkable physical and historical fact. If pointing that out is now considered whining...too damned bad. I mean, I have no doubt that the gov will be discussing serious political issues over the next few years. But if you expect her, her family and friends, and even more so her supporters, to pretend the last year didn’t happen, forgive, forget and let bygones be bygones...Rupert needs to send you in for a drug test, because you, sir, are high.

[Buckeye McFrog]

a better analogy would be the time that music critic gave a snotty review of Harry Truman’s daughter and he threatened to punch the guy in the nose. Beltway types gasped, but everyone out there who had a daughter understood and agreed with Harry. It is the same here, any of us who have famiilies (especially daughters) and see the media going after them like a pack of jackals will side with Sarah and Todd.

[astyanax]

71 comments and not a single one of these?

Steve-bARF Alert!!!

[easttennesseejohn]

so some shithead friend of Ayers and Dohrn is going to contend Sarah Palin is playing the “victim” card. A far left lib is going to call someone out for that? Is he serious, delusional, lacks any historical perspctive? This asshole would have wrote that Jesus Christ was a cry baby for “complaining” about his treatment. Of course, not wanting to play in the game where she couldn’t respond(as govenor doing so may have raised more frivolus charges)is just what these assholes like. Never a fair fight, just use the system pervert it(something they are always good at) and say see, you can’t take it. Round 1 is over morons. Hope you trained for 15 rounds. Her attions show she’s willing to go the distance. Punk.

[easttennesseejohn]

so some shithead friend of Ayers and Dohrn is going to contend Sarah Palin is playing the “victim” card. A far left lib is going to call someone out for that? Is he serious, delusional, lacks any historical perspctive? This asshole would have wrote that Jesus Christ was a cry baby for “complaining” about his treatment. Of course, not wanting to play in the game where she couldn’t respond(as govenor doing so may have raised more frivolus charges)is just what these assholes like. Never a fair fight, just use the system pervert it(something they are always good at) and say see, you can’t take it. Round 1 is over morons. Hope you trained for 15 rounds. Her attions show she’s willing to go the distance. Punk.

[McGruff]

71 comments and not a single one of these?

Thanks for the ping. He must have snuck this thread in there while I wasn't looking.

[carton253]

You really don’t like Sarah Palin. LOL!

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Heads up. Check posting history.

[steve-b]

What’s wrong with SolidWood’s posting history?

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

What’s wrong with SolidWood’s posting history?

Who said there was?

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Since this is a stealth Mitt Romney thread

“What profit it a man to shill tirelessly on behalf of a slick, vacuous Massachusetts expatriate with plastic hair and a sick fetish for state-regulated health care... and lose his conservative soul in the bargain?”

;)