Pretty Much Everything I’ve Tried to Say

The invaluable John Schwenkler mines a little quote from Radley Balko that neatly summarizes everything I think about the Palin kerfuffles:

It is possible that Sarah Palin was both unfairly mistreated and personally attacked by the media and many on the left, and that her family was rather ruthlessly and mercilessly run through the ringer . . . and that she’s a not particularly bright, not particularly curious, once libertarian-leaning governor who sadly devolved into a predictable, buzzword spouting culture warrior when she was prematurely picked for national office by John McCain.

The Nancy Kerrigan Principle (“Victimhood does not automatically confer perfection”) applies to politicians too.

I think the obvious and palpable hatred of Palin (and of her fertility and *especially* of her fertility in the case of Trig) is a matter of obvious (and ongoing) record. Despite some delusional (not to say dishonest) attempts to deny the bleedin’ obvious, the fact is the universe of leftist discourse was positively *larded* with obscene contempt for Trig Palin. And, in the case of Andrew Sullivan, this is alloyed with a downright crazy obsessive hatred of Palin at a personal level to the degree that he *still* can’t give up his weird obsession with Trig Trutherism. In no other election in American history have partisans felt so free and at home among their own to kick back and let fly with rhetoric like:

That’s right. Palin is about to embark on a career of causing babies to be born retarded. Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, crack addiction, or a good old-fashioned kick to the pregnant tummy, it doesn’t matter to Palin. She wants the world to have more Trigs.

Other than fueling a greater need for social services, think how this could benefit Palin politically. She already tests well with the Retarded demographic, and also the Retarded Sympathizer demographic.

Imagine the world Palin is trying to create, in which instead of a superior race, Palin breeds a stupider race. 20 years from now, she’ll only be in her late 60s. She’ll be able to run for President on the Retard ticket . . . no doubt with full support of Retardeds, Retarded Sympathizers, and the Politically-Correct.

Next time around, when Palin is told “Your platform is completely retarded”, she will be able to say, “You betcha! That’s just what my constituents want!”

What would have spelled instant and absolutely justifiable political death for, say, a Nixon supporter in 1960 (“Hey! Let’s tell jokes about JFK’s retarded sister!”) was not exceptional for the Palin-haters. This was common and acceptable among the nutroots. And that’s because of the broad acceptance of a tacit eugenics culture in these United States. For the population planner types, Trig was everything they loathed most.

So it’s perfectly understandable that what remains of the decent people in our culture would be repelled by such stuff and want to see a dramatic denouement in which such repugnant creeps are definitively defeated, the Death Star they live on destroyed (with a couple of those cool Saturn ring blast waves they put in the movies these days) and a family that has chosen life exalted to some high office on a wave of popular support that assures us America can be turned back from embracing the culture of death.

But this is not the movies and Sarah Palin, honest-to-goodness victim though she is, does not appear to have been anything like ready for the office to which she aspired. That’s not to say the clown who *did* get the job is competent for it. It’s just to say that, well, the Nancy Kerrigan principle applies to politicians too. I don’t think she was ready to be thrust into the spotlight the way she was (a fault for which I ultimately hold McCain responsible since he seems not to have given her much thought). I hope she does well wherever she winds up, but I think the people who are imagining she is some political genius position for 2012 are kidding themselves.