Palin's Future Amongst Us?
Last week it seemed like we turned towards a new, less dark era. In the US, about 62% of the population voted on Tuesday the 4th. However fleeting, the optimism invigorated us like a fresh, ocean breeze on an improbably bright day after a Nor'easter. The New Yorker captured the feeling with its weekly cover. A long tunnel-ish hall painted dark red commanded most of the page, and at the end of the vast red hall was a very small bright blue door. (Perhaps I'm supposed to be all PC purple now, I'm just not quite there yet.)
The end to the long presidential campaign finally came. Contender John McCain gave his concession speech, drawing out his time at the podium with a global audience looking on. As he told the Financial Times "You can't imagine, you can't imagine the excitement of an individual to be this close to the most important position in the world...I'll never forget it as long as I live. From his penultimate place, he savored those last moments than drove away in his own car.
Sarah Palin, disallowed from making her own speech, departed in a long convoy of limos and security forces, promising that she'd return as a uniter. She also said she'd like to improve journalism. If the secession plan her husband had brewin' doesn't come to fruition, some people chant for Sarah in 2012. Uniter, 2012? Given the scandalous rumors about outrageous clothes budgets and miscellaneous improprieties, such forward looking statements about 2012 seem presumptuous right now -- perhaps preposterous?
Or Back To The Frontier?
Robert Lang from Virginia Tech writes about Sarah Palin's image and asks -- despite how much McCain wished it were so, was Palin ever a "typical suburban voter"? Was she was ever "quintessential Everywoman"? Or just a "cultural alien"?
The whole hunting thing for instance -- suburban mom's never related to that. Palin tried a little too hard to connect with the moose hunters in New England, considering how small the constituency was, Lang observed. Furthermore, Palin was "openly hostile to the popular furry animals, such as polar bears and wolves, that populate Alaska's wilderness". The problem with shooting wolves from helicopters, says Lang, is that wolves look too much like Huskies, which a US population of exurb voters see as "the stars of the dog park". To this GOP target group "Palin goes from a goofy, fun-loving mom to a brutalizer of man's best friend".
Palin is too "frontier" for lower forty-eight states, Lang writes, citing Frederick Jackson Turner. Turner formulated the "frontier" thesis in the 19th century, proposing that America consisted of the "civilized" heartland, and the "frontier". He applied his idea to the 1896 election which saw Democrat William Jennings Bryan run against Republican William McKinley. Lang comments on the outcome:
"Turner described Bryan, who hailed from the then-barely settled Nebraska, as representing the frontier. By contrast, McKinley came from the heartland state of Ohio. McKinley of course won the election, as did a string of fellow Ohioans in the late 19th century."
The lesson, Lang says, is "stick with the heartland", appeal to what David Brooks dubs the suburbanites -- the "Patio Man". The only thing "Patio Man's" going to be hunting is "parking spaces in the mall", Lang says. (Sarah does like to shop though.)
Speeches? Or Shoppin'? So Little Time 'til 2012
Lang puts forward an optimistic view of things vis a vis the future of Palin as it mirrors William Jennings Bryan. But Bryan's first presidential campaign was in 1896 and Jenning died in1925, giving the man over a quarter of a century to wrack havoc. We can't underestimate that influence. Even though he never made it to president, even though quite a few people thought he was nuts, his populist ideas won him audiences all over the country.
William Jennings Bryan lost not only one presidency but two more after that. He was Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. He had a not all bad legacy, supporting women's suffrage for instance -- but helping push through Prohibition. Bryan famioulsy opposed evolution in favor of Christianity. The movement that he spearheaded culminated with the Scopes trial and he died in 1925 following his defeat in the trial. But he mobilized a lot of inanity in the meantime. He spent years writing syndicated columns and toured the country giving up to 15 speeches a day, delivering perhaps tens of thousands of spoken words each day.
Granted, Palin might tie herself in knots trying to reach the kind of 15,000/day word count Bryan may have attained. But 25 years is a century of high cost makeovers in 21st century time, especially for "frontierswomen" like Palin. This election showed us that we shouldn't underestimate the American voter. But we've also learned harsh lessons about not overestimating him either.
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Acronym Required writes occasionally on science and religion, including Evolution vs. Not Evolution on the historical Scopes trial and its modern counterparts.
