The Coming Trials of Sarah Palin

American Thinker ^ | September 01, 2008 | J. Robert Smith

[vietvet67]

Democrats and the left generally can no more accept a Sarah Palin vice presidency than they could Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice.  They can no more accept a conservative woman a heartbeat away from the presidency than they can a conservative African-American interpreting the nation's laws.  Expect the long knives to be out, and stay out.  

Since the Clarence Thomas nomination fight in 1991, conservatives and fair-minded Americans have learned a bitter lesson: for liberals, it isn't about promoting the advancement of all African-Americans, but only those in step with their ideology and aims.  The same can be said of women.  Liberals believe they own the franchise, and it doesn't allow for baby-making, gun-friendly, God-fearing women, who, not incidentally, fight for lower taxes, smaller government and a strong national defense.  They certainly can't be Republicans.   

Aside from her xx chromosomes, Governor Palin flunks the liberal litmus test.  She presents a powerful and alluring role model for women, especially younger women, who are regularly bombarded with not just conflicting messages about their roles in modern society -- careerist versus mother -- but are regularly lectured by the left, politically and culturally, that if choices are to be made, then career, not family, is preeminent. 

Sarah Palin, an obviously remarkable woman, demonstrates that family and career mustn't be mutually exclusive.  Yet it's a safe bet that if need be, this wife or twenty years and mother of five would put family first. 

Moreover, Palin represents a threat to the left's narrative that, due primarily to the wearing out of conservatism and generational change, voters are moving inexorably their way.  Conservatives have argued for awhile that they have no shortage of ideas, but a shortage of candidates and politicians who possess the desire and will to articulate and advance those ideas.

The forty-four year old Palin is in the vanguard of the new generation of conservative politicians.  Louisiana's Bobby Jindal isn't far behind.  The Palin nomination puts the lie to the argument that conservatism is headed for the dustbin.  The Governor's nomination will serve as a clarion call to younger women and men who find her dynamic, upbeat personality, rootedness and strong advocacy of conservative ideas appealing.      

Part of Palin's attraction is that she's a solid conservative reformer, who's unflinchingly tackled government corruption -- corruption largely on the part of oil interests and the old bulls in her own party.  Ask Frank Murkowski, Alaska's former governor, who lost to challenger Palin in 2006.  Or embattled Congressman Don Young, who's heading for a recount against Alaska Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, a Palin ally who the Governor is publicly backing. 

She's also told indicted Alaska powerhouse Senator Ted Stevens to take his Bridge to Nowhere back to Washington.  Her reformist efforts have won her high approval ratings from voters. 

Enter the Long Knives

But the trials of Job lie ahead for Governor Palin. Expect Democrats, the left and their allies in the establishment media to go well beyond the initial attacks on the Governor's inexperience and whatever they can pick out of her record.  In the coming weeks, the left's whole political and media machine will seek not only to trip up the Governor to prove their contentions that she's dangerously inexperienced, but will attack her character.  They'll especially go after her motherhood, her womanhood and her honesty.

They'll argue that Palin's demanding political career undermines her strong pro-family stances.  It's tough enough to be governor and a mother, they'll say, much less vice president and a mother.  Certainly, Palin will need to construct a powerful counter to that argument; no doubt, she already has. 

Of course, the question is never asked of a man.  Case in point, Barack Obama, who has two young daughters of his own.  Don't young daughters need a father as much as they need their mother?  If the demands of the vice presidency are great, aren't the presidency's demands greater? 

This may come as a surprise to politics-obsessed, government-centered liberals, but the perception that the presidency and vice presidency are all-consuming is overblown.  That perception owes as much to the drama and stagecraft of those offices as to the facts.

President Reagan didn't live his presidency.  Why should he have? George W. Bush isn't living his.  Why should he?  President Reagan had a life outside the office.  President Bush does too.  Indeed, there are times when the demands of both offices are great, when the holders are required to go into overdrive and burn the midnight oil.  But not typically, and Vice President Palin could well serve as a conspicuous example of an executive who makes an important job and family life work.             

And doesn't an attack on Palin's motherhood conflicting with her work life contradict longstanding feminist claims about women pursuing both?  The answer is yes, but what does that matter?  You expect logic and fairness?  The left plays mercilessly for advantage.  Contradictions are nuisances.  The messaging will aim to bury the contradictions under a blizzard of criticism and negative news stories. 

Palin's womanhood will also be questioned, because it is the left which is licensed to define womanhood, just as the left is permitted to define blackness.  And make no mistake, feminism is a subsidiary of the left. 

By the left's definition, a pro-life woman cannot be a woman.  A woman who seeks a family-centered society, not a government-centered society, cannot be a woman.  A woman who celebrates traditional American values, and not the secular values of Europeanized liberalism, cannot be a woman. 

Sarah Palin is a threat to the left's feminist agenda.  She is an eloquent and persuasive testament to the fact that the modern woman can embrace traditional values while seeking her place in the professional world.  She can produce better than 2.2 children, love them, engage them and still make a difference in her community, state and nation. 

And the left will attack Palin the Reformer.  It will seek to undermine her honesty.  The left can't help but concede that Palin has fought corruption in Alaska, but they'll assert that her firing of the state's public safety commissioner was a misuse of office; that when it comes to her or her family, she's all too ready to abuse her powers. 

Here, again, we must expect that Palin has anticipated the argument.  That, as they might say in Alaska, she's loaded for bear.  From available news sources, it appears that the Governor was well in her purview to replace the commissioner.  

Do note that when it comes to the subject of honesty, nary a word has been expended by the establishment media re-introducing Americans to Joe Biden's law school plagiarism and his lifting of lines from a speech by British Labour Party Chief Neil Kinnock, the latter forcing Biden to exit the 1988 presidential contest.  And don't hold your breath.    

Countering the Long Knives

With her confidence and poise, Governor Palin will be her own best advocate.  But with the onslaught of criticism headed her way, with the game of "gotcha" that the Democrats and the media will play with cunning and relentlessly, she can't be expected to fight the good fight alone.  And it isn't enough for the GOP and the McCain campaign to cover her back. 

Conservatives from all quarters will need to answer the bell.  To defeat attempts by the left and their handmaidens in the media to destroy the Governor's character, the conservative response will need to be swift, sure and unflagging.  Conservatives will need to be smart and creative in the ways of getting their arguments and messages to average voters.

The battle of the narratives will begin, with the legacy media and the Democrats on one side and the new conservative media, especially talks radio and the internet, that engine of creativity, research, analysis and energy, on the other.

Sarah Palin's candidacy represents not only a new and important chapter for the conservative movement and the Republican Party, but for the nation as well.  And how will you know this?  By the volume and ferocity of attacks to come against Governor Palin leading up to the November elections. 

[LS]

This is what Rush always says about people like Clarence Thomas, that the Left MUST defeat them or risk the alternative model being put up to “affirmative action advancement.” Palin is the exact opposite of affirmative action, and she therefore threatens the entire establishment.

[the invisib1e hand]

they should give credit to FReepers when they lift their ideas.

***

Anyway, trust me, a woman who's made the hard decisions can take anything the malicious idiots dish out because, frankly, she'll have lots of Help.

And the malicious idiots will be shown to be exactly what they are, for the whole world to see.

[milford421]

“This is what Rush always says about people like Clarence Thomas, that the Left MUST defeat them or risk the alternative model being put up to “affirmative action advancement.” Palin is the exact opposite of affirmative action, and she therefore threatens the entire establishment.”

Exactly.

Excellent article...thanks for posting it.

[yldstrk]

the Democrats really don't care for anyone who can think critically and put the pieces together right

[xcamel]

“malicious idiots” is a nearly perfect phrase for 90% of “the left” - especially with the remaining 10% being ‘useful idiots”

[Thebaddog]

Last night I hit the send button to donate some dough to McPalin that wouldn't have happened two weeks ago. I'm doing all that I can to help with this one to overcome the MSM. What did Tony Blankley call them, Dopey Media something.

[Brilliant]

A principled politician is a breath of fresh air. The fact that she happens to be a woman is icing on the cake.

[goldstategop]

The Left has a monopoly on what it means to be black and female. They will not allow conservatives to take issue with the Left's definition on who is an authentic black and who is an authentic woman. Any black who is outside their definition will be targeted for extinction. Ditto for a woman. Conservatives have their work cut out for them this fall.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[mware]

Conservatives from all quarters will need to answer the bell

I ought to get a medal for going over and confronting Joyce and John McKee at Alan Colmes web site last night

Here is one of McKee's posts.

I just don’t know Martha - I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. I wouldn’t rule it out though, nor the possibility that rushing that flight without medical care was a last desperate attempt to lose the baby in an accidental and blame-free way (ie a ‘fundie abortion). I’d even accept the possibility that she’s just an airhead who didn’t give any thought to the consequences of her actions.

Whatever, I’d be willing to bet there are some anxious people at McCain HQ waiting for these rumours to be quashed.

I have my money on the mormon if and when the position becomes vacant again :)

[Non-Sequitur]

The Democrats will do everything that they can to destroy Palin. For what she and her family are about to go through, I truly feel sorry for her.

[FreedomProtector]

McCain & Palin is up against Saul Alinsky style thuggery.

L. DAVID ALINSKY sees father's handiwork in convention

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2008/08/31/son_sees_fathers_handiwork_in_convention/

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/hillary-clintons-idol-saul-alinsky-and-satan

[thecabal]

Boy is this true. They will try to smear Gov. Palin unlike any other veep candidate. The thing they hate the most is when one of their chosen "victim" types strays off the plantation.

[FreedomProtector]

Opps my bad: is->are

McCain & Palin are up against Saul Alinsky style thuggery.

[Sacajaweau]

This is like watching the coming of a witch trial.

[Grampa Dave]

Yesterday, I attended a funeral and talked to two conservative friends at the reception about Saran and the mediots’s attacks on Sarah.

They have a few liberals, they discuss politics with.

Both of them without comparing notes or thoughts said that their liberal contacts are predicting that Sarah will drop out in 10 to 15 days due to the attacks that will come from the media and liberal web sites.

One of these friends welcomed the attacks and said that the attacks will toughen Sarah and her supporters or she and they will drop out. He said the liberal hatred for Sarah was worse than their hatred for GW/Cheney. He welcomes long and tough campaigns to weed out losers and those without the tempered steel to stand the heat if elected.

The other friend, a Naval Acad grad, was outraged along with his wife and 3 adult daughters. They are maxing out their donations to the campaign and are letting Sarah and John know that they are in their corner.

Sarah, her family and John need our support and advocacy at this time to rip apart and shred the lies and liars of the left.

[forYourChildrenVote4Bush]

The Attacks are coming from the “good old boy” network.

She went after them now they are trying to get back into power, that includes Biden and his “good looking comment” this is the “good old boy” network

[Daffynition]

One voice we haven't heard from is Coulter; wondering what her take on the Palin nomination is, I found this radio/cast with Dennis Miller; Friday, 29 August 2008.

[goldstategop]

The Left calculates if they can drive Sarah out, it will be a long time before a conservative woman contemplates a career in national politics. And they will go to all lengths to make that happen.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[forYourChildrenVote4Bush]

good point....this is a way to get rid of a women period. I truly believe, there still is sexism in the work place, this is trickling through in the MSM....

This is pure sexism plain and simple. All these males in the MSM, they must all condescend towards women...