Palin and The Power of Resentment
Resentment of the oppressed — minority, gay, refugee — is expected. Those with less visible cause for resentment need a bearer of angst, a purveyor of pay-back, a person who can encode and manifest the resentment vibe. Words matter less than the body lingo.
If Palin has any future power it is as the bearer of resentment. An urge for comeuppance empowers fundamentalism which is why resentment looks similar regardless of where it crops up. It wills dominance over a world become strange and alien. It condenses things into manageable binary yeses and noes. It is banal. It has aspects of evil.
People who are for Palin are harbingers of resentment. Palin coalesces a constellation of hurts, whether marginalization, moral horror, or fear of the unknown, or anger at one’s fate.
At one end of this spectrum are those who voiced kill sentiments at her rallies. At the other those who take umbrage at barbs from the left that they deem unfair.
Palin broadcast her intent quite clearly yesterday. She intends to play the resentment card across the length and breadth of the United States. And every snicker from the left will be fuel to the fire she attempts to ignite. Truth has no necessary advantage in any attempt to oppose her.
And our MSM can be trusted to give credibility to her run.
This is as potentially serious as Richard Nixon entering a New York law firm without any seeming grasp of power and emerging with the nomination in a few years and the Presidency in a few months. The second time around of anything obviates the need for gravitas. Nixon had it. Palin does not. It does not matter.
This will play out and she will probably go down. But not if she is not taken seriously and measured by the force that gives her the power to make her move in the first place.
Vero said,
July 4, 2009 at 8:23 am
I agree with your analysis. I’m going to share your thoughts on the the Obama blog.
stephencrose said,
July 4, 2009 at 8:29 am
Thanks. I wish more Obama folk would read here. Cheers, S
Vero said,
July 4, 2009 at 9:32 am
I read your blog, from time-to-time, but I don’t comment. Maybe that’s the same for many others!
Doug Fahremdorff said,
July 4, 2009 at 11:45 am
I agree with your analysis of Palin’s motives.There will always be 15-20 5 of voters who will flock to someone with this type of message.The hope is conditions don’t become so bad that this percentage increases.History has proven this can be dangerous.
Martha Ramirez said,
July 4, 2009 at 9:48 pm
There was evil present at those Palin rallies during the campaign and while it did seem to bother McCain a little, it did not seem to bother her. I have had a very negative, gut reaction to her from the beginning. I always pay attention to that kind of visceral reaction to someone — especially when it doesn’t make any sense on the surface. I don’t know what she is up to, but I know she is up to something and a lot of us are watching. Nothing is ever as it seems with her and my skin is still creeping.
stephencrose said,
July 5, 2009 at 5:56 am
Part of the evil I think is a disconnect between what one is doing and any consequences and the capacity to keep blaming the consequences on whoever the enemy is.