Forgive me from the outset as I am going to lump all of you reading this into the “you” that doesn’t love Sarah, and tell you why I think “they” do. What is interesting about the topic is you are both focusing on the same things, but like the blind men describing an elephant, you see very different creatures.You see a person you consider to be undistinguished. She doesn’t talk like you. She didn’t go to the right schools. She runs a bumpkin state and before that a mini-bumpkin town. She’s got a pregnant teenage daughter, and a husband who seems more interested in racing snowmobiles and hunting, than having an actual job.
You say, “This is a big country,” and then ask, “Can’t we do better? What’s wrong with electing the elite?”
“They” see someone like them. Someone who understands their lives, and say, “Elect the elite? Those are the people who got us into this mess in the first place. Maybe it’s time for one of our own.”
They think that way because the major financial institutions are run by the best and brightest with advanced degrees from the best business schools. They hired the top mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists money could buy to create ultra-sophisticated algorithms “guaranteed” to keep credit swaps in balance. We all know where that led.
All of this was overseen by the political elite. Again, there’s no real need to replay how well that worked out.
Our pharmaceutical and health insurance industries are run by the same business elites, with the help of certain doctors (still the ultimate elite title to many Americans) who sell their opinions and support for drugs and procedures of questionable value and safety.
Lawyers are the fight promoters of the America economic system. They pit one group against another and make the rules so complicated they are often the only winners.
Middle class Americans want their children to have better lives, and understand that education is the key. But the education system is run by another group of elites, and in their system the cost of higher education has risen by more than double the cost of living for more than 20 years, until the cost of a year at an elite college exceeds the annual income of the average American household.
So they ask, “Could someone who is one of us possibly make things worse?”
I can almost hear your shouts of “ABSOLUTELY!” And I agree, they could, so allow me to suggest you refrain from the strategy of belittling and demeaning the Governor. Aside from being uncharitable and unattractive, it is hugely counter-productive; because when you belittle her, you belittle those who are supporting her – and more importantly, those who are on the fence. When you say she isn’t good enough or smart enough you are saying the same about her supporters, and not surprisingly, it angers them and reinforces their sense of having been disenfranchised and marginalized by the country’s elites.
Sarah Palin has given you all the ammunition you need in the form of the policies she supports and the political goals she proposes. Argue against them with vigor and passion if you want to win. Make fun of her accent and her family if you want to spend another eight years on the sidelines.
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