Obama By Proxy
posted at 5:48 pm on March 12, 2010 by Doctor Zero
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What’s your favorite example of mindless, slavering Palin hatred? The following excerpt comes from a review of Big Love, HBO’s lurid soap opera about a polygamist family:
What’s taking the Sissy Spacek and Perry King characters so long to discover Bill’s a polygamist? Hundreds of people in Greater Salt Lake City – polygamist and non-polygamist, Juniper Creek residents, law enforcement officials, drive-in attendants, neighbors – must know by now, no? At the end of season one, Barb admitted to an assistant to the governor’s wife that she was “involved in a polygamist lifestyle.” (But then again, nobody seemed to catch on to what a petty little idiot Sarah Palin was before John McCain snatched her from obscurity. Maybe a Utah state senate race simply doesn’t invite a ton of scrutiny.)
It may not be as flashy as Kathy Griffin grunting about her primitive urge to push the former governor of Alaska down a flight of stairs, but I like the sheer drive-by stupidity of it. There are plenty of other lefties out there, shivering with an anger so intense they can’t help vomiting it into movie reviews, fashion articles, sports stories, and other inappropriate venues, to the discomfort of readers who weren’t looking for crazy sandwich-board rants about Sarah Palin.
What drives Palin Derangement Syndrome to such intensity? Did anyone except John Edwards feel this passionately about John Edwards after he concluded a losing campaign as a vice-presidential candidate? Certainly Palin has remained more prominent than most such candidates, writing a blockbuster autobiography and launching a daring raid against the Death Panel Star from her Facebook page on Yavin-4… but has she really done anything to inspire this level of personal venom?
Few of the people issuing these lowbrow fatwas against her are residents of Alaska, so they’ve never lived under her authority, and know little about her actions as governor. They’re not having policy arguments with her, or rebelling against something she did in office. She was pretty tough on Obama during the latter days of the campaign, but that’s a role traditionally filled by all veep candidates, and it didn’t work – he still got elected. She’s not a feisty provocateur like Ann Coulter, striking a kung fu stance after every trenchant column and beckoning liberals to take their best shot at her. Palin’s speeches and writing are forceful and confident, but liberals respond as if she were screaming insults at them, or maybe hunting them for sport with her rifle.
Many of these vitriolic attacks are threads in the Shroud of Contempt, which the Left uses to smother opponents through its media and cultural influence, by constructing a common perception of them as too stupid or crazy to take seriously. Some of the animosity is born from fear that Palin might successfully re-enter politics. Listening to the criticism mixed in with the insults, I wonder if there might be another, more subtle reason behind the level of rage directed at John McCain’s affable running mate:
Sarah Palin is Obama by proxy.
Palin’s admirers often marvel at how the charges leveled against her are far more applicable to the current President. People who voted for an undistinguished junior senator from Illinois with few accomplishments are quick to assault Palin’s “lack of experience.” The same folks who instruct us that Barack Obama is a physical paragon, and Michelle Obama is the most beautiful woman in the world – a goddess who causes fashion models to slink from her path in shame – belittle Palin for her good looks. Defenders of the most fabulously corrupt administration in modern history mumble about the murky details of obscure “scandals” manufactured by Alaskan bloggers. They turn away from the sad spectacle of a manifestly incompetent President to sneer that a woman who alters the course of legislative battles with blog posts is some kind of an idiot.
They dismiss Going Rogue as “ghost written” while ignoring the specter of Bill Ayers plodding through Obama’s books, a sputtering bomb clutched in its skeletal fingers. A few lines scribbled on Palin’s palm glow more brightly in their imaginations than terabytes of data flowing across the screen of Obama’s teleprompter. They accuse Palin of being a “divisive” and “polarizing” figure, while Obama launches Taxi Driver rants against evil insurance companies, cops acting stupidly, tonsil-stealing doctors, and everyone else who crosses his path.
I used to dismiss these contradictions as simply hypocrisy, but perhaps these people are angry at Palin because of her perceived similarities to Barack Obama, not in spite of them. They need someplace to ground the lightning of their frustration and disappointment, and they’re not allowed to be angry at Obama. They wear a set of rusty intellectual chains that require them to believe all criticism of Obama is racist, or paid for by his fat-cat arch-enemies. Accepting the notion that government power is morally superior to free enterprise, and a virtuous nation therefore has a very large government, requires belief in the masters of the State as titans of mind and spirit. How could a gigantic State be morally defensible, if its leaders aren’t supermen? If you find yourself suspecting the architect of the largest, most expensive government America has ever known might not be as smart or wise as you were led to believe last November, your entire world-view is threatened.
It’s very important for liberals to deflect those suspicions onto a designated, culturally approved target. Sarah Palin is a convenient hate fetish for increasingly nervous and confused Left, because she embodies the qualities of the red-state America they loathe… and serves as a voodoo doll for uncomfortable criticisms of Obama, which they project onto her. As events continue to demonstrate those criticisms were far more important than any of the superficial or imaginary reasons they voted for him, they’ll jab pins into that voodoo doll with increasing fury, even though the object of their anger now spends her days working for a news network none of them would be caught dead watching.
The pitfall of an insular, heavily biased media culture is that it doesn’t process negative feedback well. Those of us who never joined the Obama cult can only frown at the chunks of bile strewn through discourse that should have nothing to do with politics, and laugh when people who voted Joe Biden into office sputter about what a lousy vice-president Sarah Palin would have made.
Cross-posted at www.doczero.org.
Comments
Well…. I dunno.
Sarah Palin certainly presses progg buttons something awful, but I’d say it has more to do with her embodiment of Everything Proggs Hate (as Dubya did) than with her embodiment of Obama’s Dark Side. Even if Obama didn’t exist, they’d hate Sarah with the same white-hot loathing as ever.
She didn’t abort her Down’s child, you see, and she threatened to occupy the White House before a Democrat did (the way God intended), and that alone was enough to set them off.
On the other hand, the ability of the average Progg to engage in projection and transference never ceases to amaze.
Pick your pathology: they’ve prolly got it.
dicentra63 on March 12, 2010 at 6:01 PM
It’s an interesting theory, but I’m not sure about it. Those liberals who think ahead may be promoting these attacks on Palin because they think it neutralizes attacks on Obama. Somebody (Machiavelli? Alinsky?) once said, whatever your biggest flaw is, accuse your opponent of the same thing. If the public is convinced that Palin is inexperienced and doesn’t know anything about foreign affairs, then she’ll seem ridiculous if she (rightly) criticizes Barry’s inexperience and incompetence at foreign affairs during her 2012 campaign. I don’t think most liberals have that kind of foresight, though — mainly they just hate and fear Sarah Palin and it makes them feel good to insult her.
It really will create a problem for her in 2012, though. The way to break through will probably be to focus on positive campaigning, because nobody’s going to be convinced by a Palin ad that accuses Barry of not understanding foreign affairs or something. She’ll have to show her own foreign policy and let people draw their own conclusions from the comparison.
joe_doufu on March 12, 2010 at 6:21 PM
It seems to me like a primitive, visceral reaction (the left’s to Palin). I’m not convinced there’s anything either analytical or calculated about it. The Deep Left was demented about Dubya too, and it came across as much more of an instinctive reaction, a sort of animal level of behavior, than anything they could really control or calibrate.
There are going to be parallels between Obama and Palin because they’re both politicians — and they both elicit strong reactions from people. Any sort of reverse syllogizing going on in the collective brain of the left, between Obama and Palin, is unconscious, I suspect.
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idesign on March 12, 2010 at 11:24 PM
The Progressive’s trademark is projectionism.
Spot on Doc.
katy on March 13, 2010 at 9:21 AM
WOW! GREAT analysis. I always wonder about this issue. The woman had an 80% approval rating in Alaska before they tried to destroy her. She states her case most of the time in a non-threatening, “tell it like it is” manner. Despite the fact that they call her a Right WingNUT, her positions aren’t radical. What other reason could there be for these attacks? Doc has it absolutely right. My wonderful senator Menendez recently said “YOU HAVE TO DEFINE YOUR ENEMY BEFORE THEY HAVE A CHANCE TO DEFINE THEMSELVES”. It wasn’t about Sarah but that really made me think about her. That is what they tried to do and are still trying to do. As the DREAM of driving her from politics and the public discourse slips farther and farther away, the more and more DESPERATE they and their feeble attempts become.
Dan Pet on March 13, 2010 at 9:24 AM
Accepting the notion that government power is morally superior to free enterprise, and a virtuous nation therefore has a very large government, requires belief in the masters of the State as titans of mind and spirit. How could a gigantic State be morally defensible, if its leaders aren’t supermen?
Scratch a reactionary leftist, find the fascist gibbering underneath.
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Seth Halpern on March 13, 2010 at 9:48 AM
Interesting theory, Doc. The Left often ‘projects’ wildly and the Left is often angry and disappointed but cannot freely express anger at their own elites, especially their exalted One. So targeting a proxy might explain the Left’s unhinged deranged obsession with Palin. The Left could use some extra therapy, it appears.
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rocketman on March 13, 2010 at 11:20 AM
But then again, nobody seemed to catch on to what a petty little idiot Sarah Palin was before John McCain snatched her from obscurity.
But then again, nobody seemed to catch on to what a petty little reprobate John Edwards was until after the National Enquirer did the MSM’s job for them .
But then again, nobody seemed to catch on to what a petty little fraud Al Gore was until after the blogoshere and talk radio exposed him.
But then again, nobody seemed to catch on to what a criminal organization ACORN was until after two twenty somethings with a video camera showed everyone what they really were.
But then again, nobody seemed to catch on to what a petty little incompetent ideologue Obama was until after the MSM got him elected
RadClown on March 13, 2010 at 11:36 AM
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Allahpundit on March 13, 2010 at 12:02 PM
She was pretty tough on Obama during the latter days of the campaign, but that’s a role traditionally filled by all veep candidates, and it didn’t work – he still got elected.
Palin elevated a candidate hated by many conservatives. McCain tried to ram through amnesty against public outrage multiple times, and then got himself nominated by a string of primary dogs who couldn’t run fast enough to hand over their delegates to block Romney.
It is only surprising McCain did as well as he did, with a dejected base. Pro amnesty people had a better lib in Obama, and anti amnesty people knew McCain was totally untrustworthy on the subject
She’s not a feisty provocateur like Ann Coulter, striking a kung fu stance after every trenchant column and beckoning liberals to take their best shot at her.
True, but so was Reagan. Reagan was affable, smiley, and full of love for conservatism. He was charismatic, like Palin, and spoke in sound bites, not dissertations.
Reagan got the same hate avalanche as Palin. He was labeled an underqualified B-actor just a Palin is a non ivy league beauty contestant/ tv reporter.
Everytime Reagan chuckled, the enemies went ballistic.
By coincidence, both were governors, but the left could never accept their elections were anything but some kind of slip up in an otherwise orderly system
Notice the lack of fear for Coulter vs Palin.
The old Reagan fear is surfacing. Something related to the little people getting control at the top. They understand Coulter. She went to the same schools.
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Koa on March 13, 2010 at 12:30 PM
Yep. Projection. It’s not just for the little booth in the movie theater anymore.
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