Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Why They Despise Her

Since Sarah Palin is back in the news, I think it worth mentioning an incident last fall that went a long way explaining to me the puzzlingly unhinged reactions to her from the left. Shortly after Palin got the VP nod from John McCain, I happened to be visiting two well-off acquaintances who live in a well-to-do area. Both of them are far left politically and were having a grand time trashing Ms. Palin, in the vitriolic manner we saw so much of last fall (and are now seeing again). They were making fun of her accent, her clothes, her makeup and the foibles of her family; dwelling, in fact, more on those than her politics though rest assured they despised those too.

It suddenly dawned on me why these two and so many others, including David Letterman, would lay into Ms. Palin with such venom: because they can. Palin is middle class and Republican and serves as convenient catharsis for the snobby left, which is forbidden to dump on those public figures who, though they may dress, speak and act like churls, are immune to censure because their political viewpoints, no matter how inchoate, are the correct ones. They instead transfer that pent-up snobbery onto Sarah Palin, not only with impunity but to the applause, laughter and cheers of their fellow left-wing elites. Palin is NOCD, trailer trash they can beat up over and over again with no fear of incurring the wrath of PC police. What fun that must be for them.

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