Tempted to Hatred

So, why the incendiary hatred (and there is no other word for it) for Sarah Palin?

You skim any story about Ms. Palin, and the comments tend to devolve into the most vile statements and outright twisted fantasy.

Somebody once said the other side of anger is fear.

They fear Sarah Palin, because of what her life says about the validity of their own beliefs, and about how they truly live their own beliefs.

I mean, look at the feminist assaults on her. It’s illogical, if you take feminists at their word: a woman is the equal of a man.

Sarah Palin decided to take on an entrenched male power structure, and on her own merits, SHE DEFEATED THE EVIL PATRIARCHY. She did it on guts, hard work, moxie, and her own native intelligence. She was not eased into the Governor’s chair through affirmative action; she wasn’t a token or window dressing. She did it on her own merits as a human being.

Logically, one might expect feminists to embrace her. She was not carpet-bagging junior Senator who had a very famous and Left-popular last name (well…sometimes the junior Senator had the popular last name, it depended…). She was a Feminist Philosophic Ideal Made Real.

But, she’s not the Right Kind of Real Feminist. With her evangelical religion, and her strong pro-life stance, her very real Feminist Achievements count for naught.

I think that’s where the anger comes in. Sarah Palin was a success without them. She, in fact, chose not to be a victim and blame The System/The Man/Whitey/Capitalists for her lack of success and her lack of internal happiness.

And that makes the KosKlownsKrowd (today’s new KKK) very frightened. Because they might have to take a closer look at their cherished notions about The System/The Man/Whitey/Capitalists/Republicans/Conservatives in the light of new information. They might have to own up to the sexism in their ranks. They might have to, you know, change their ideas.

That’s very threatening to their self-image. Remember, people will live up to their self-image. A gang-banger thinks he’s gotta be the baddest dude around, of course he’s going to shoot someone for disrespecting him. A social worker thinks he is on the earth to help people, of course he’s going try to help a stranger.

The KosKlownsKrowd’s self image is based on a lot of self-righteousness, and the whole, “Aren’t I a rebel, speaking truth to power.”

And Sarah Palin is standing there telling them, “I don’t need you to speak to power for me. I have already taken a lot of action on my own behalf.”

She did it without them. Hence the hate.