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| PDS Watch: Why "elite" women hate Sarah Palin |
| 2008-10-07 |
| Ann Marlowe, Forbes.com Most women I've talked with about Palin--all certified members of either the media elite or the just plain elite--take her nomination personally. Their animus isn't explained just by her politics; none of them hate Condoleezza Rice, though they disagree with most everything she's done. Nor, for that matter, do they even dislike John McCain. Typically they "respect" McCain but find him too old or too erratic or simply It's as though Palin were an average girl from their boarding school class--or, frankly, from the public school down the road--who unexpectedly won a big prize. "Why not me?" is the subtext, and it's one I've never heard from men talking about male politicians. . . . My friends who hate Palin are all more articulate and better educated than she is, better traveled, probably smarter, definitely more fun to talk with. But can they field dress a moose? Can they? Huh? They can't? Bunch'a useless pansies! Bet they never even seen a moose--an' Rocky & Bullwinkle doesn't count! But the reasons they can't stand Palin are all wrong. It's not so much that Palin isn't one of our own--an Ivy League type, or an Eastern preppie, or a self-made intellectual like Rice. It's not for the fake feminist reasons that "she's against freedom of choice" or "she didn't tell her daughter about birth control." (Though there is an element of hatred for her fertility, and the fact that it hasn't impeded her rise.) It's not because Palin only got a passport a few years ago and doesn't speak any foreign languages. No, it's because Palin makes us look like the slackers we mainly are. We've had our bit of success, but we've also spent a lot of time smelling the roses. We've gone back to school to get another degree, volunteered in poor countries, devoted ourselves to a sport or a hobby. We've not had kids, or if we have, we've had one or two, and we've had nannies paid for by our work or our husbands or our inherited money. We not only have had passports for decades, we've put serious mileage on them. We've lived overseas or spent months wandering around Africa or India, we understand foreign people and places in ways Palin never will--and yet it's she who could become vice president, not one of us. It's not hard to see why. The boyfriend of one of my freshman roommates at Harvard is now governor of Massachusetts--a man no less and no more qualified than many of my classmates. Why him and not us? As with Palin, it comes down to wanting it badly enough and being singleminded. It means spending a lot of time in deadly dull meetings talking about school bond issues or where to put a new off-ramp. It means spending a lot of time in small towns where no one you know has a country place or ever will. And except at the higher reaches, politics doesn't offer much in the way of glamour or fame. . . . My father was in local politics, and quite successful at it. Retail politics takes a certain talent for empathy, a lack of stage fright, and a considerable self-confidence--but mostly it means you have to be willing to show up at meetings and pancake breakfasts and spaghetti dinners and "Night at the Races" nights and candidate forums night in and night out, even in off years when you're not on the ballot--and have every syllable you utter be subject to media and public scrutiny--and still manage to smile at the 465th person you meet that night. You have to really want to do it, and be willing to do it even when the polls are running against you. I have enormous respect for anyone who runs for office--even the ones I'd crawl over broken glass to vote against--because I know how much work it is. People who become writers and intellectuals and artists tend not to want power that badly or pursue it that obsessively, which is what makes us interesting and fun--and makes few of us household names. Success at the Palin level in politics or business takes a level of blinkered self-confidence that comes mainly to (a very few) men. A lot of the people with this quality are annoying to be around. Even the ones that aren't annoying can be . . . I dunno . . . a bit intimidating, maybe? Maybe they aren't very happy with themselves. Actually, the best ones enjoy campaigning. Dad certainly did. But it's not a surprise that a vice presidential nominee should be one of them. The lesson of Sarah Palin for privileged women is to try harder. And that may be the toughest one to hear. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #6 MIke - I agree with and share your highlighted comments - my dad was also a local and state-level politician, and it is a gift in many ways, particularly in ways that the "elite" schools struggle to inculcate, and largely fail in their efforts. The biggest distinction he drew was on the corruption/integrity scale. He was, like most he served with, surprisingly non-partisan, which I think is an uncovered secret even in Washington today, but he had no truck with crooks, and they were on both sides of the aisle. There seem to be more of them in office these days. |
| Posted by: Don Vito Omeling5062 2008-10-07 23:30 |
| #5 I'd just love to see one of these upper crust ladies try to teach an autistic child with tactile defensiveness to wash his hair. Or make a decent dinner herself. Never mind making a serious effort in community service. Volunteering in poor countries has some use; although Middle Daughter has observed some NGO volunteers, the "SUV People" in action in West Africa, and reports that the SUV people are often a stench in the local people's nostrils. TW, the adjective "lotus eating" for these ladies is perfect. |
| Posted by: mom 2008-10-07 22:57 |
| #4 Actually, the message is the only way to become vice president, or president, or even just a governor, is to get up to your elbows in it... which is boring to these lovely, well-educated, charming, happy, lotus-eating women. So they won't, but they'll still hate Sarah Palin because she got through hard work that which would make them miserable and which they would do exceedingly poorly even if it were handed to them the way they think they deserve. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-10-07 21:55 |
| #3 well said, KBK. This woman is so full of herself that she probably makes herself gag. |
| Posted by: Betty 2008-10-07 21:12 |
| #2 What elitist crock. The thesis is, we're so much better that we'd bury someone like Palin if we just tried a little harder. Good. Get the whole Harvard class to head off to places like Wasilla for 10 years to make their bones. The vast majority would simply disappear for life, and we'd all be better off. |
| Posted by: KBK 2008-10-07 20:56 |
| #1 Compare wid CNN > SARAH's BASE MESSAGE [THREAT] TO AMER WOMEN = Its okay to CHOOSE TO STAY HOME, TO HAVE AND TAKE CARE OF KIDS, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY [read, NOT HAVE AN ABORTION(S)], and NOT have a HIGH-POWERED WALL STREET = CORPORATE/PROFESSIONAL CAREER, THAT A WOMAN CAN STAY HOME AND STILL BECOME VPOTUS = POTUS??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-10-07 20:44 |