Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Mea Culpa on Palin: She Sucks.

(cross posted at kickin it with cg)

Matt – one of the reasons I started my site is because I know so many on the so-called left who secretly admire Sarah Palin for various reasons but can’t reconcile it politically or acknowledge it publicly.

There are a LOT of us.

I think there is a way to do both – critique her whackadoodle aspects and enjoy other things about her, the diva/pretty tomboy notwithstanding.

She is something totally new down here. I’d rather deal with it than try and repress it away, because we know where repression lands us.

Plus, she’s just flat out totally sexy. Just because I say so doesn’t mean I’m ever going to vote for her lol

Well – that pretty much sums up how I felt about Sarah Palin up until about 5 minutes ago. True that I often cringed with the winking, Clinton references and the strange phrasings – but usually it was with a smile.  I despised the sexism Palin was a subject to and was saddened to see my fellow progressives go so far astray from their values when it came to ‘Bible Spice’ and ‘Caribou Barbie.’

But it would appear that I was dead wrong about this horrible person.

Wayne Anthony Ross, her choice for attorney general, has an alleged fondness for rape jokes and doesn’t like homosexuals.

Ross, who once described gay people as “immoral degenerates,” was quizzed this week about how he would view cases involving homosexuality as the state’s top legislator.

“Let me give you an analogy – I hate lima beans,” Ross told a legislative hearing into his nomination.

“I’ve never liked lima beans. But if I was hired to represent the United Vegetable Growers, would you ask me if I liked lima beans? No. If I disliked lima beans? No. Because my job is to represent the United Vegetable Growers.”

A letter from Leah Burton, a lobbyist on children’s issues and domestic violence, has caused an uproar, hogging headlines and infuriating some of Alaska’s most outspoken bloggers, who play a critical role in reporting politics in the remote and far-flung state.

Burton alleges that in 1991, she heard Ross say at public meeting that domestic violence “wouldn’t be an issue if women would learn to keep their mouth shut.”

At the hearing, Ross denied making that statement, and also denied making the suggestion in the same conversation that it was acceptable for a man to rape his wife.

For the sake of Alaskans I only hope that she is out of office soon enough. To my fellow progressives – I apologize for the folly of my ways.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 57 Comments

57 comments

  2. John Allen

    can blind one to a person’s faults just as much as being too judgmental can blind you to a person’s virtues. In both cases, the truth will usually out.

  3. rfahey22

    Which is exactly what McCain (or his handlers) wanted – someone who could both inherit the anger many people felt about Sen. Clinton’s treatment and still give that famous wink to all of the red-blooded, white Republican males who wanted to have her around as eye candy.  I honestly think that she has no problem with sexism in general so long as she, in particular, is permitted to hold power in a “man’s world.”  The only saving grace is that much of her appeal to rightwing men is based on her looks, and those same people will drop her the minute her appearance no longer lives up to their standards.  Live by the sword, die by the sword.

  5. Peter Jukes

    Oh, CG. So much makes sense now, especially those moments when – mid way through a passioned by reasoned debate – you would sieze up and be unable to discuss further. You were caught in the ravages of Palinophilia. And though I disapprove, I understand. I truly understand.

    She is quite amazing and entrancing in a way. Her winking, big eyes, big smile and simplistic homely way of speaking still grips millions. The fact this all was laughably concocted, and she had none of the normal hinterland of ‘political expertise’, made her appearances all the more enthralling and intoxicating. If this was ‘You’ve Got Talent’ or even some kind of chat show host (probably spoof) I could have watched more. And it worked, for a while. She was a game changer. For a brief moment, in those first few weeks, it seemed to change the game to McCain’s favour. It seemed to be both a populistic and smart move, for any criticism of her politics or inexpertise did chime with some of the sexism directed at Hillary.

    Early on, though finding her personality kind of amusing, I realised what a threat she was. Bush was voted in because of a mixture of dynasty, money and personality politics (‘a nice guy to have a beer with’) and Palin was the ne plus ultra of that. In terms of character, you’d get what you see. In terms of politics, and every belief she espoused, Palin was the smiling face hiding all the ugliness represented by the right.

    Just goes to show – politicians can be disliked for the wrong reasons, liked for the right reasons, and yet it’s their politics we ultimately must live with.

    Since we’re also talking about personality here, one thing I can’t forgive her for still is what she subjected her family too by running at that time. It was one of my first diaries here, and one of the few times I disagreed with the consensus among my US liberal friends. It was Palin, and by extension McCain, who submitted a young family, and particularly a pregnant teenager, to the scrutiny of the campaign press. Palin had made family issues, and her own domestic life, such a central plank of her identity politics appeal, it couldn’t help but get caught in the firing line. Bristol’s pregnancy and now her (inevitable) breaking off with the father of her baby, is of course subject to years of curiousity and intrusion. You could criticise anyone for mentioning it, but you could also criticise any politician, male or female, who thrusts their family into the limelight at a particular time.

    Hey, but big kudos and admiration to you for revising your opinions in the light of experience. I wish we all could do the same. I’m racking my brains for something I got wrong in the past (no easy feat with a self justifying ego like mine). Oh wait… who is this Obama guy anyway?  

  6. Hollede

    I can understand very well why you had some positive feelings about Sarah Palin. I have met so many women like Palin in the Northland (Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and so on). I imagine that a lot of Canadian women are like this as well. I am talking about tough, accomplished, folksy women who I can like very much. Until, that is, we talk about politics. Then all else can go by the wayside, unless we agree not to talk about politics, taxes, or social issues. Those who are able to see other points of view, are usually the ones I can maintain and even grow friendships with. Otherwise, forget about it.

    Palin reminds me of the crazier/scarier women that I have met. By that I mean her political and social views. Period.

  7. jonlester

    I thought Palin was a good choice as someone who looked good “on paper,” nothing to do with physical appearance (I need more than looks, anyway), and actually encouraged her selection as VP candidate, before I found out how redneck Alaska really is and how much of a Dominionist from hell she proved to be. I doubt if my voice had any real influence, because now, after everything that happened since then, I’d love to take credit for leading Team McCain over a cliff.

  8. psychodrew

    There was a lot of sexism from the left directed at her.  It wasn’t because she’s a bad human being (which she is).  It was because she’s a female and blatant sexism is not taboo in American culture.  Sexism (or any ~ism) cannot be excused because the target is repugnant.

  9. creamer

     I found her interviews hillarious, totally unprepared.

    Then I watched her play to the hatred of those southern rallys. Kind of a McCarthy in a skirt. I have no use or respect for that kind pol, ample bossum or no.

  10. jonlester

    whom I nicknamed First Douche, as someone who epitomizes a “man’s man,” my first thought was that American exceptionalism may well be a thing of the past.

  11. Jjc2008

    another woman with such opportunity to move us all forward, but with such an outdated belief system.  

    As a tomboy myself (when I was younger), I wanted to be enthralled by someone like Palin.  But instead was immediately turned off by her.  She seemed too much like a woman who had not yet come to accept that she was capable of thinking on her own and still needed and paternalistic authoritarian or two in her life.

    To me, Hillary was much more of a woman who understood that she indeed represented women worldwide in the pursuit of the rights to choose whenever and wherever in all aspects of life.

    Anyway, I am glad you saw what you saw, no matter when…..women, all of us, need strong representations of ourselves.  Sarah was not, is not it.

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