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Ditto what she said.
Added: the Hillary Clinton fans HillBuzz say:
[The media is] going to do everything they can think of for the next three years to tell you “Palin is too polarizing”, “Palin’s looks are an issue”, “Palin is crazy”, “Palin is unqualified”, etc.
You realize the same nonsense has been done to Hillary Clinton for the last twenty years, especially that polarizing part. For Clinton, being older than Palin, she never endured the “too pretty to be taken seriously” attacks Palin gets (instead, Hillary has always been insulted over her weight, her body type, and her facial expressions).
The MSM will continue to tear up female candidates for office because unlike attacks on black people because of their skin color, attacks on politicians because of their gender are not only accepted, but encouraged. ”Heh, heh, heh, that cover’s a good one. Way to hit that Palin, we just hate her so much,” somewhere the collective MSM Sausagefest seems to be saying.
Kudos.
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Oh, wow, was that cover for
Oh, wow, was that cover for real? I had assumed it was from The Onion or some other parody venue, and wasn't the actual cover of an actual Newsweek magazine. That is terribly inappropriate.
the best part of identity politics
The best part of identity politics is that you can defend your candidate from attacks by saying that the reason for the attack is unfair hostility towards your group. This frees you from the onerous burden of explaining away legitimate criticisms.
Hillary Clinton isn't a polarizing figure because she's a woman. It's because the right demonized her for 8 years as first lady. Sorta like what happened to your hero Newt Gingrich, Simon. I'll be the first to agree with anyone that says politics is unfair, and that Sarah Palin has been treated quite harshly. I spent a lot of time defending her from unfair treatment prior to her debate with Joe Biden.
After that, I stopped. Because it's obvious she's a political lightweight who lacks serious candlepower or broad appeal. The best I can think of regarding Palin is that the GOP is letting her play punching bag/lightning rod for delighted and mean-spirited progressives, while the GOP schemes.
For the GOP's sake, I hope they have a better plan for 2010, 2012, and beyond than to plump Sara Palin. Palin is serving the GOP quite well by drawing lots of fire and riling up the base. But there's no way she's a legit candidate for important national office. NO effing way. Just don't believe it. Not for a second.
That's the worst part of it, actually, Brian...
Some people defend the candidate because of the unfair hostility to the group. But others have a legitimate difference of opinion, and then are accused of defending the individual simply because of the shared group membership. Then everybody is screaming that everybody else is biased, some moderates are adopting the "high road" of assuming that all the people involved are idiots, and no real debate occurs at all.
I try to do my best to ignore all the b.s. identity politics crap and not get distracted by such accusations. But that's not practiced by very many people, and so once identity politics are injected into the debate, it poisons the well and makes it almost impossible to dig out of.
too true
Too true, Pat. I was being sarcastic.
Palin and Clinton make an interesting contrast, don't they? Hillary was demonized by the right for being in thrall to the feminazis, so she's forever after a "polarizing figure" in some folks minds.
Palin was demonized by the left for being (in emotional-feel) the opposite of a feminazi, a representative in large part of traditional role models. Now she's forever a polarizing figure. Really?
Between the two stories, I see a tale told of how each wing plays gender politics. When you play identity politics, you reap what you sow.
The best either of us can do personally is not to attack women politicians for being women, and not to defend them just because they are. But the fact seems to be that if a woman politician is criticized, she will receive a gender-based defense from someone.
I don't doubt that at least some of the progressive hostility towards Palin is because she's the wrong kind of woman. Undeniably, there exists among some on the left a patronizing attitude that "she's a woman for god's sake, she should get it." Which is idiocy of course.
And that does draw the mindless identity defense. IMO, this will all get washed away by the perception of folks in the middle that Palin is not an especially capable, gifted, or insightful politician or political thinker.