I saw a bumper sticker today that said "STOP H8N." The first thought that came to mind was of the vile hatred I had seen directed at Sarah Palin over the weekend. Make that over the past year. I have tried to imagine how those on the left see Palin, but I don't get it. I despise what Barack Obama is doing to the country I love, but I don't make horrible, crude jokes about his precious daughters. I don't ridicule people he loves who have disabilities.
I don't understand how anyone could do that and still have any self respect (or for that matter, a soul), but unfortunately there are many on the left who engage in such nasty attacks on Palin's family. I am not referring to just anonymous commenters on wacko lefty hate sites either, I am referring to people who have positions of influence and who proudly spew the bile out in the open. Since the explanation for such behavior is beyond my comprehension, I look to others who have given the matter some thought.
From the Virginia blogger Reclusive Leftist: "Of course, the first answer you’ll get if you ask feminists why they hate Sarah Palin is that 'it’s because she ____' — and then fill in the blank with the lie of choice: made rape victims pay for their own kits, is against contraception or sex ed, believes in abstinence-only, thinks the dinosaurs were here 4000 years ago, doesn’t believe in global warming, doesn’t believe in evolution, is stupid and can’t read, etc., etc., etc., etc. But none of those things are true. None of them...These people don’t hate Palin because of the lies; the lies exist to justify the hate. That’s why they keep reaching and reaching for something else..."
Reclusive Leftist doesn't have the answer ("I cannot figure it out. I look and look, and it’s like trying to see someone else’s hallucination. No matter how hard I squint, I can’t see whatever it is they’re looking at. What is so horrifying?"), but comes up with some pretty interesting theories, including the one of transference. "And that’s another thing: it has not escaped my attention that many of the things Palin is accused of, falsely, are actually true of Obama. This is a guy who, as a U.S. senator from Illinois, didn’t even know which Senate committees he was on or which states bordered his own. (And don’t even get me started on Joe 'The Talking Donkey' Biden, who thinks FDR was president during the stock market crash and that people watched TV in those days.) I’m not saying Obama’s a moron, but he’s sure as hell no genius. People say Sarah Palin rambles; excuse me, but have you actually heard Obama speak extemporaneously? As for being a diva, surely we all remember the Possomus sign and the special embroidered pillow on the Obama campaign plane. The fact is, Obama is an intellectually mediocre narcissist with a thin resume who’s lost without a teleprompter and whose entire campaign had all the substance and gravity of a Pepsi commercial. Yet people say Sarah Palin is a fluffy bunny diva."
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According to William Jacobson, it is all about Trig: "Yes, some people hate Sarah Palin because she doesn't have the traditional pedigree, she isn't one of them, she is too good looking to be taken seriously, etc. And yes, some hate her because they hate her religion, politics, blah blah blah. But that doesn't explain the Sarah Palin hatred. It is so deep as to be pathological. But it keeps coming back to Trig."
Jacobson cites a multitude of attacks on Trig Palin beginning with Sarah Palin's VP nomination and continuing to her resignation speech this weekend, then concludes: "The internet is full of Trig Palin conspiracy theories, name-calling and Photoshopping. No matter what month, event, or excuse, Palin haters find a reason to attack Trig. If Sarah Palin had aborted Trig, the left would have been okay with it. If she hid Trig offstage and out of sight, all would be good. But treat the child as you would any other child, and that cannot be tolerated. There is something about a Down syndrome child in plain view which has exposed the moral and emotional bankruptcy of the left-wing of the Democratic party. And they hate Sarah Palin because deep down, they hate themselves for being who they are."
Both reasons make as much sense as one might hope to be able to make of the vile and unrestrained hatred directed at Palin, but I think there is an additional explanation. Those on the left hurl the most ridiculous, outrageous, disgusting garbage at Palin because they don't know what else to do about her and it scares them out of their minds. Anyone who would "joke" about Palin running in 2012 on a "more retardation platform" is clearly out of their ever loving mind. Palin's opponents know that she speaks the language of the average everyday American. They know that she doesn't give a rip what they say about her (although the attacks on her family obviously have had an impact on her). They know (if they have even done the most cursory investigation) that she has a record of achievement and is a woman of action. They know that she is someone who has beaten the odds before and is in many ways an unpredictable wildcard.
What do you do about someone like that if they are your political opposition? You could try debating them on the issues, but evidently those on the left are not confident enough about their own positions to do that. I guess all they have left is to sling mud and vein-popping hatred. Since they have a willing accomplice in the American media, it appears they will continue on that course-- at least for the time being.
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