Sarah Louise Heath Palin in 1984I promise. This will be my last post about Sarah Palin. Ordinarily, I don't get involved in this stuff but also recognize that US politics do have an impact on the rest of the world. In that respect, I reserve the right to make comments. :)
This post actually began as a comment on someone else's site and I decided to follow it up here.
Last night, I listened to her speech and was taken back by several things.
One of the things I realized while listening to her is that she is completely out of touch with anything outside her small sphere. The real struggles of real people in real cities and real homes across the country are so vague to her that it would be like trying to explain physics to a water buffalo. She simply doesn't get it. Not once did she mention homeless people, the mortgage crisis, poverty (and yes, Jon-Jon, it even exists in Alaska!), or any other social issue that the rest of us deal with on a daily basis. Not once did she mention anything she has done for other people that didn't ultimately serve herself.
She was snotty, competitive, snide and snarky. Her speech had a constant undertone of sarcasm. It didn't make her look clever or smart. It just made her look mean. She didn't come across as anyone I would like to meet, even for a short period. Something tells me that no one with similar ambitions would dare to cross her. Her nickname "Sarahcuda" or "Sarah the Barracuda" is probably not far from the mark.
She reminds me of a "type" - and we all knew those types in high school. The hard-driven, ambitious types who would eat their young to get what they want. They stepped over their "collateral losses" and never looked back. They always got their way - if not by persuasion, by bullying.
I bring this up, not because I want to be snarky about Sarah Palin. I bring it up for a larger reason.
These types of people tend to influence popular culture. Certain types of behavior become acceptable in a culture, cued by its leaders. In the same way Ronald Reagan made lack of compassion and prejudice acceptable, Sarah Palin will make sarcasm, raw ambition and lack of compassion acceptable. Anyone who is not like her ~ with similar values and aspirations in the world ~ will be ignored - or even worse, "Othered". Anyone who doesn't fit into her very narrow view of the outside world will be bullied or silenced.
She's Dick Cheney with a vagina.
She is not a good role model for young women.
My opinion. Nothing more. Nothing less.
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