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"Sweet Caroline" no match for Sarahcuda
Jonah GoldbergFor people who think theres no cultural divide in this country, consider the treatment of two women much in the news in 2008. The first is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. A woman from very humble roots and with a very blue-collar life story, she worked with her steelworker and professional-fisherman husband to provide a life for their large family. She got involved in the PTA. She became mayor of her small town, then rose, by dint of her dedication and almost naive fearlessness, to the job of governor. In a mainstream, almost romantic sense, its almost like she was designed by God for a Hallmark movie of the week. But, when John McCain picked her to be his running mate, the full fury of the liberal establishment and sizable swaths of the conservative establishment, some of whom dubbed her a cancer on the GOP came down on her with a vengeance usually reserved for Klansmen and pedophiles. . . . Then theres Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy, brother of John Jr., niece of Senators Ted and Robert Kennedy, granddaughter of Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, and the cousin of myriad other Kennedys and Shrivers whove burrowed deep into the timber of the house of liberalism. A multimillionaire from birth, Ms. Kennedy has spent most of her life on the charity-benefit and cotillion circuit. A product of the Brearley School in New York and the Concord Academy in Massachusetts before she attended Harvard and Columbia, Kennedy has made the importance of public education her signature cause. Sweet Caroline (she was the inspiration for the Neil Diamond song) recently made it known that she would like to be appointed to Hillary Clintons vacant Senate seat. One could say without fear of overstating things that the liberal reaction to the inexperienced Caroline has been somewhat more gracious than the reaction to the inexperienced Palin. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post has devoted two columns in as many weeks to this fairy tale scenario in which Kennedy, our tragic national princess, is finally rewarded for her years of quiet dignity, selflessly avoiding scandal and the paparazzi with the Senate seat that once belonged to her uncle Bobby. . . . The editors of the New York Times, in a more skeptical editorial, summarized her qualifications thusly: Ms. Kennedy has much going for her. As a public figure, she carries the glamour and poignancy of her family ... The editors then went on to describe what great liberals her dad and uncles were. Thats it. This a perfect example of the bowel-stewing self-indulgence of elite liberalism. Heres a news flash: Not everyone truckles with doe-eyed awe at Americas royal family. Some of us dont even like the idea of American royal families. JFK and RFK had their good points, but they dont deserve the beatification they receive on a daily basis. As a man, Teddy Kennedy is hardly a role model, and as a public servant hes not much better. I, for one, dont think denying poor black kids private-school scholarships (aka vouchers) is heroic. Nor do I think his support for alternative energy, except when it might obstruct his Hyannis Port estates views with windmills, is admirable. Simply, the Kennedy clan is no priestly caste, serving as the conscience of the nation, and its progeny do not deserve eternal deference. . . . . . . Palins selection triggered troughs of bile, vomited up from nearly every respectable liberal quarter. A Florida congressman, and Obama surrogate, insinuated that Palin was a Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite (shes not, but Caroline Kennedys grandfather was). Her by-the-bootstraps story was ridiculed by nearly every ex-debutante newsreader and avowed feminist in America. Meanwhile, Caroline, with a resume perfectly suited to being a Kennedy and little else, is a Cinderella who deserves a Senate seat because, well, she just does. Whatever Palins faults, Sarah Barracudas America has a lot more going for it than Sweet Carolines. Posted by: Mike 2008-12-19 |
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