A few days ago I wrote that the ’08 election may come down to authenticity. I was specifically talking about authentic service and volunteerism exemplified by John McCain and Sarah Palin in their lives versus the troubling and compulsory “volunteerism” being put forth by the Obama campaign, but the piece touched on the authenticity of the candidates as well.
We tend to think of authenticity as having a positive value. But yesterday Kate at Small Dead Animals flew an email my direction with the comment: “This is unreal.”
Actually, what she sent was not “unreal” but utterly authentic – but the sort of authenticity meant to be kept hidden. The piece, by Heather Mallick, is so relentlessly, needlessly vicious, and so self-revealing that I was embarrassed for the writer. I know what it’s like to write in haste and anger, and then regret putting the thoughts to paper. I can only imagine that someday Mallick will look back at what she released and wish she’d held it for 24 hours and then toned it down.
But the piece is out there, and it is an authentic revelation, a peek behind the carefully hung curtains of the elite media/elite feminist classes who have spent 40 years talking about “authentic” sisterhood, only to demolish all of their pretty constructs with a ten-day (and not yet spent) wilding of hate and spitefulness (and a snippy, small-minded lack of generosity) that seems to be born of insecurity.
If your construction has a firm foundation, it is not threatened by seasonal changes. If, however, you’ve built something on a shallow, insubstantial base of sand, you’re going to feel threatened and insecure with every gust. The introduction of Gov. Sarah Palin onto the national GOP ticket is rocking the Dem/Media joint, and its timbers are creaking.
That overused word, “tolerance” has seen its meaning twisted beyond “putting up with” into “unquestioning acceptance,” of an idea, custom, or person – of anything but a differing point of view.
Yet Gov. Palin is a person of diverse ideas and customs who will be afforded no “acceptance.” Her diversity will not be “celebrated.” As we see in one sneering or mocking or condescending, or downright insulting essay after another, Palin is a creature up with which the left will not put, and any auld smear will do, no matter how vile.
So “sisterhood” is baloney, and dramatic accusations of chauvinism are fake projections. And all the outcry about the sexist attitudes of terrible, aggressive men who we have heard for decades “just don’t get it?” No matter how genuine the problem may have been, these women have now displayed such merciless sexism toward another woman – for the unforgivable crime of thinking differently than they do – that they have severely undercut their own credibility. Now, it’s perfectly alright for the male writers to indulge in their sexism, since the women of the left are joining right in!
Honestly, some of these women are reminding me of the snarling bitch chihuahua that lived across the street from me, growing up, and bared her teeth at anyone but her mistress. Miserable creatures. Bookworm calls them embittered women.
Of course, the media are destroying themselves in a like manner, through their authentic revelation of their formerly camouflaged agenda. Take a look at this rundown of headlines about the withdrawal of 8,000 troops from Iraq; nothing is false, mind you – but the framing, which in another era (or under a president with the right letter after his name) would be positive, is resolutely negative.
We’ve known for a long time that no good news would be permitted on President Bush’s watch, so this is not a surprise. However, the people who have only lately been awakened to the extreme bias of the press may suddenly begin to wonder if everything they have heard from the media these last 4 years has been so carefully and arduously framed. They may begin to question the whole Bush narrative much sooner than previously thought. They may wonder why “Global Warming” aka “Climate Change” – the crisis of the age – is suddenly not much discussed, and neither are the carbon footprints of candidates and campaigns, press junkets, media energy uses, campaign “rock” concerts, etc. They might wonder if an authentic “crisis” wouldn’t warrant a sharper focus in the campaign, and perhaps a change in the way things are done. They may begin to doubt. Or to doubt more than usual.
What we are seeing from the social and media elites is a complete unwillingness to reconsider the phony stereotypes and prejudices they embrace, and authentic bigotry, disdain for and unreasonable fear of anyone outside of their cliques. They are also too small and ungenerous to give a smart, successful reformer her props, and that is not going un-noticed in the electorate. Women are noticing. So are the husbands of hard-working wives, and the fathers of ambitious daughters.
All of this is adolescent in nature, and neither comfortable nor reassuring. This authenticity will impact election ’08.
Don’t miss Ed Morrissey’s spot on analysis of Heather Mallick’s outrageous piece, which he rightly classifies as “hate speech”.
When I read the Malick piece I felt sad.
The woman’s obviously a skilled wordsmith, but the vitriol in this piece suggests to me that she has some serious issues.
For her sake, I hope someone reports her to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. She needs to be told that this is what hate speech looks like, and she needs to be told this by someone she perceives has power and credibility.
I think she also needs a retreat – maybe 30 days of silence.
Pa-leeze. McCain’s people won’t even let Sarah answer her own questions for fear of tripping over her own face.
Another favorite of Sarah’s is that story about how she got rid of luxuries in the state Capitol, like a personal driver, chef and luxury jet.
“I put it on eBay,” she says.
Audiences love this part, but what Palin never adds is that the jet didn’t sell on eBay despite numerous attempts. The state eventually hired an aircraft broker to unload it.
I say let the Pit Bull loose so we can see her for what she truly is. A dog!
[I think you're all going to rue the day Palin "starts talking" to the press. And the plane: it DID get put on ebay, did it not? It DID eventually get sold, one way or the other, did it not? -admin]
I would just like to say as a Canadian, that this woman Heather Malick does not represent most Canadians. The response on the CBC site is going 8-1 against her. Reporting her to the HRC (Human Rights Commission) would be both a waste of time due to their leftist bias and wrong IMHO. It certainly qualifies as ‘Hate Speech’ but I believe in free speech, so…
I am somewhat shocked at how brazen the left has been in a 180 pivot from what they were claiming last month. Women should stay out of politics and worry their pretty little heads about domestic chores? Surely they must be suffering from whiplash.
Sarah Palin seems to have revealed something very, very, ugly about leftists. That in and of itself is valuable. Many Democrats from what I have read are uncomfortable with the way Hillary Clinton, and in her turn Sarah Palin, are being treated by the leftists. Hopefully this will act as a wake up call to some of them.
Anchoress, I’m not sure what you mean by “authenticity” in a candidate. People are who they are, and I frankly do not see where any of the candidates are pretending to be someone they are not. But this what Barack Obama has had to say about John McCain:
“Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we’ll also hear about those occasions when he’s broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need. But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Sen. McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than 90 percent of the time?
I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change. The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives — on health care and education and the economy — Sen. McCain has been anything but independent. Now, I don’t believe that Sen. McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn’t know. Why else would he define middle class as someone making under 5 million dollars a year?
I don’t know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.
Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last 30 years, and John McCain has been there for 26 of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Sen. McCain took office.
When John McCain said we could just “muddle through” in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11 and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell — but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain. But what I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and patriotism. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a red America or a blue America – they have served the United States of America.
So I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.”
Now do you see anywhere that Barack Obama has treated John McCain with anything less than respect for his seniority, his service, and his sacrifice. Do you see anything in these words that is not simple, if strong, disagreement with what his opponent thinks and says?
Now this is the sum total of the remarks of Joe Lieberman, Fred Thompson, Rudi Guliani, Sarah Palin, and John McCain about Barack Obama:
“Sen. Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead. But eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times. In the Senate he has not reached across party lines to get anything significant done, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party.
To deal with these challenges the Democrats present a history making nominee for president. History making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for President. And we need a President who doesn’t think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade
Think about it this way. You’re hiring someone to do a job, an important job, a job that relates to the safety of yourself and your family. Imagine that you have two job applications in your hand with the name and the party affiliations blocked out.
They’re both good and patriotic men with very different life experiences that have led them to this moment of shared history. On the other hand, you have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer. What? He worked — I said — I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first problem on the resume. He worked as a community organizer. He immersed himself in Chicago machine politics.
Then he ran for — then he ran for the state legislature and he got elected. And nearly 130 times, he couldn’t make a decision. He couldn’t figure out whether to vote “yes” or “no.” It was too tough. He voted — he voted “present.”
A few years later — a few years later, he ran for the U.S. Senate. He spent most of his time as a celebrity senator: no leadership, no legislation to really speak of. His rise is remarkable in its own right. It’s the kind of thing that can happen only in America. He is the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years…. They would have acted in their self-interest, and they would have changed their position in order to win an election. How many times have we seen Barack Obama do this? Obama — Obama promised to take public financing for his campaign, until he broke his promise. Obama — Obama was against wiretapping before he voted for it. When speaking to a pro-Israeli group, Obama favored an undivided Jerusalem, like I favor and like John McCain favored. Well, he favored an undivided Jerusalem — don’t get too excited — for one day, until he changed his mind. Well, I will tell you, if I were Joe Biden, I would want to get that V. P. thing in writing.
Let’s look at what Obama did. Obama’s first instinct was to create a moral equivalency, suggesting that both sides were equally responsible, the same moral equivalency that he’s displayed in discussing the Palestinian Authority and the state of Israel. Later — later, after discussing this with his 300 foreign policy advisers, he changed his position, and he suggested the United Nations Security Council could find a solution.
Apparently, none of his 300 foreign policy security advisers told him that Russia has a veto power in the United Nations Security Council. So — so he changed his position again, and he put out a statement exactly like the statement of John McCain’s three days earlier. I have some advice for Senator Obama: Next time, call John McCain.
No, we tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco. I’ve noticed a pattern with our opponent, and maybe you have, too. We’ve all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers, and there is much to like and admire about our opponent.
But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored twomemoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the State Senate. This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word “victory,” except when he’s talking about his own campaign.
But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot; when that happens, what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?
The answer — the answer is to make government bigger, and take more of your money, and give you more orders from Washington, and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it. Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit. Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions. Al Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.
Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election: In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change. They are the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners or on self-designed presidential seals. Among politicians, there is the idealism of high-flown speech- making, in which crowds are stirringly summoned to support great things, and then there is the idealism of those leaders, like John McCain, who actually do great things.
My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery. This world of threats and dangers, it’s not just a community and it doesn’t just need an organizer.
Finally, a word to Sen. Obama and his supporters. We’ll go at it over the next two months. That’s the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We’re dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn’t be an American worthy of the name if I didn’t honor Sen. Obama and his supporters for their achievement.”
Now do you see anything in this but personal disrespect and contempt for Obama the man, decorated with a little pro forma “We’re all Americans together” like you would put Happy Birthday on a layer cake?
I think all these people are perfectly authentic. But there’s only one that I’d have over for dinner. Guess which?
One last note: Obama is a man worthy of respect because refuses to let go of respect for others when he is called to give a public accounting of himself. He is also worthy of respect because he is man enough to admit error, even when it is to his disadvantage, as in the case of the success of the Iraq “surge”. And he is worthy of even more respect for his courage to admit it on the air to a man, Bill O’Riley, who is probably the most hostile interviewer you could find for him.
If you ever run across an instance where either John McCain, Sarah Palin, Joe Lieberman, Fred Thompson, or Rudi Guliani have done anything even remotely resembling this, drop me a line or a link.
If ‘authentic’ means showing such respect, honesty, and courage, then surely Obama is authentic.
Dear Miss A,
I think its telling that southern, white, conservative Christians give more money to charity than any other group. Supported by that fact, I have observed, over my 58 years, conservatives do good. Liberals want to force eveyone else to do what they, the liberals, think is good. They don’t do it themselves.
Regards,
Sarah