In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".
Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.
Most of those who sneer at Sarah Palin have no desire to live her life. But why not try to - what's the word? - "empathize"? If you like Wasilla and hunting and snowmachining and moose stew and politics, is the last worth giving up everything else in the hopes that one day David Letterman and Maureen Dowd might decide Trig and Bristol and the rest are sufficiently non-risible to enable you to prosper in their world? And, putting aside the odds, would you really like to be the person you'd have to turn into under that scenario?
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Steyn On Palin
Makes sense to me (H/T: Cold Fury):
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5 comments:
I think that this is a perfectly reasonable take, assuming that Sarah Palin does in fact intend to step down from the national spotlight. Hers is certainly an intensely grueling position to be in, as all national political figures with her kind of following are subject to constant dehumanizing scrutiny and ridicule, so if she has decided that she can't handle all of this and just wants a less hectic life where she can focus on her family, I think that's great. However, if she soon declares that she is running for President or in anyway continues to put herself in the national spotlight (as she has so frequently recently done) then Steyn's argument simply does not make sense. We'll see.
...as all national political figures with her kind of following are subject to constant dehumanizing scrutiny and ridicule...
It is neither reasonable nor true to say that other officeholders, of either party, have suffered what Sarah Palin has suffered, particularly in terms of jeering and criticism of her husband, children and extended family.
Assuming that is true, why would she quit her job as Governor of a "state far from the national spotlight" in order to come further into that spotlight? Once again, if she really is retiring from said spotlight altogether for the sake of her family, then that makes sense. But if she does continue to raise her national profile now that she's out, it's ridiculous. I mean- this is pretty unprecedented. The only reasons I am aware of that any Governor has ever quit mid-term are some sort of scandal or a serious health crisis. I can't recall an instance where "media bullying" has ever been cited as the motive (perhaps I am wrong about this- if you know of one please share). But it seems disingenuous for her to court national attention at every turn and then resign because of all the attention (which has been both negative and positive) that has been lavished on you. Still- if all she wants is a quieter life away from the cameras and she acts accordingly, then she has my respect.
There's nothing wrong with her "courting national attention," as you would have it.
But the attacks and attention to her family are unconscionable, and by getting out of office, she can take the heat off of them, and also end the bogus ethics complaints that are costing both her and the state far too much money.
Too, it's worth noting that Palin has done this before. She resigned from the state board that regulates oil & gas in Alaska, and the next year mounted a successful primary challenge to her Republican predecessor.
I suspect she may have a plan to do something like that again.
Well, if she runs for president then the heat on her and her family will be increased a thousand fold, so if their privacy is her reason for resigning I trust she won't be doing that. Again, we'll see.
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