“The Repellent Extremist Sarah Palin”
by tristero
In my previous post, I mentioned in passing “the repellent extremist Sarah Palin.” And commenter willyjsimmons objected:
“repellent extremist Sarah Palin”
You were doing well until that…
“extremist” now?
Whatevs tristero!!!!
How quickly we forget. How easily we cut the worst characters in American political discourse some slack, if they are rightwingers and are capable of smiling for tv cameras.
All right, I’ll admit that thinking Sarah Palin repellent is a matter of taste, like thinking it’s repellent to eat a sewer rat fried in rancid peanut oil. On the other hand, it is a matter of hard fact that Palin is a political extremist and christianist far to the right of most Americans, not to mention most sane people. Or have we forgotten her plugging of Bircher literature and members (go here) or her video address to a convention for a political party that advocates the secession of Alaska from the United States (Palin’s husband was a full-fledged member)? Have we forgotten the infamous encounter between Palin and a witch doctor? And that these are just a few examples of her ultra-far-right and fanatical views and associations?
That is the problem with putting irresponsible extremists like Palin, or for that matter, Bush, on a national ticket. Or having a governor of California who once professed his admiration for Adolf Hitler.* It becomes too, too… shrill to call them extremists, or to express frankly your disgust. And it makes it that much easier to portray someone like John McCain as right-of-center moderate instead of the arch-conservative he truly is. Holy Overton window, Batman!
While willyjsimmons’ comments inspired this post, it is not about him (or her). For all I know, s/he is new to politics. Many folks who were just young kinds on 9/11 are now eligible to vote. So let’s not give willyjsimmons a hard time. Seriously, s/he’s not the problem. After all, even on the “liberal NPR,” it’s simply impossible properly to describe the political philosophies of Sarah Palin, James Inhofe, and many others for what they are: radical rightwing extremism that openly flirts with fascist tropes,.
Instead, I suggest we see willyjsimmons’ comments as one small consequence of a terribly distorted national discourse, a discourse in which the Republican political party has aligned itself with some of the most fanatical rightwing elements in American life, a discourse in which we are not permitted to discuss the “ideas” these extremists hold in a frank fashion within the mainstream media, a discourse in which these very same extremists have free rein to accuse even their most moderate oppoents of advocating socialism and “palling around with terrorists.”
* Note to those ready to excuse Schwarzenegger for his Hitler admiration. Why yes, I was young once, too. I admired Stalin, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and his way of getting to the people and so on. But I didn’t admire him for what he did with it.
And no, of course, I never admired Stalin; I simply parodied what Schwarzenegger said in order to point out just exactly how far to the right his comment was. It is simply mind-blowing that he holds such high political office in a country which sacrificed so much to defeat a man he once admired.