The Assault on Sarah Palin

The Assault on Sarah Palin
The liberal assault on Sarah Palin went to Defcon Five Squared within seconds of John McCain’s announcement that she would be his Vice Presidential running mate.

That assault was aided, abetted, fostered and furthered by “journalists,” pundits and commentators who have rarely so thoroughly embarrassed and discredited themselves in such numbers in such a short period of time before so many.

In fact, the journalistic wing of the assault had been announced, openly on at least one cable network, hours before it was even known that the choice was Palin.

That was because the McCain campaign had done the unthinkable and unacceptable: kept the secret and not leaked it to the precious little darlings who must have their daily bread (fine, flaky croissant, please), have never sought forgiveness for their trespasses and would forgive those who trespass against their crumbling kingdom not even at the gates of hell, to which they are rapidly taking their profession.

As Yuval Levin so sharply put it at National Review Online: “The ignorant assault on Palin’s accomplishments and experience, the breathless careless airing of deranged rumors about her private life, the staggeringly indecent mistreatment of her teenage daughter in a difficult time, the ill-informed piling on about the vetting process, the self-intensifying circle of tisking nodding heads utterly detached from a straightforward political event, have been amazing and eye-opening.

“The reigning emotion of it all has been anger – anger at being surprised, anger at being denied the spectacle of a Republican circular firing squad, anger that a conservative pro-life Republican could also be a woman and might represent the aspirations of other women, anger at being handed a person they did not know and who did not know them, anger that this upstart thinks she can ruin their coronation party. And the anger was fed by, and was indicative of, a profound elitism – a sense that we were dealing with some redneck moron from a state with no decent restaurants. The Republican candidate for president chose as his running mate a young, charismatic, female Republican governor – probably the most popular governor in the country – whose attitude and resume ring precisely of McCain’s kind of politics, and who has been on most people’s short-list since he won the nomination, and the press treats it as a symptom of some terrible and reckless madness.”

For five days, the Wonder Woman of Wasilla held her tongue. But when she unleashed it, it was no common tongue at all, but the Hammer of Thor’s daughter, wrenched from the annals of mythology to be put in service against the giants who think they own, define and control today’s American reality.

“I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion – I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country.” Thus spake Sarah.

Were we the gray hairs who run the media establishments, we’d be firing and replacing people in droves this week, trying to find the objectivity and balance necessary for survival.

Thor’s hammer magically returned to his hand after finding its target. “Small-town” Sarah will speak again and again and again. She may or may not become Vice President this time. But hers is a voice that resonates and it has found its targets. In another context, Hillary Clinton used to say, “it takes a village.” What happens when there is a political figurehead who can give united voice to thousands of villages together?

That would be a political revolution.