It’s nothing new when liberal women complain about sexism, but when conservative men take up the banner, calling NEWSWEEK sexist for portraying Sarah Palin on the cover in her jogging clothes, that catches my attention. Why do right-wing men rush to Sarah’s side to defend her? My theory is that this is payback time. They’ve been called sexist and racist, and subjected to media ridicule of their allegedly retro views. Palin is their way to push back against the elites that have marginalized them.
For the record, I loved Palin’s interview with Runner’s World, and the cover image that graces NEWSWEEK. She’s in great shape, and she’s shown herself capable of handling whatever comes her way─and making a tidy profit in the process. She’s turned media criticism into a cash cow. Anybody who can stir up the body politic like Palin is a force to be reckoned with. With such Christian-right leaders as Jerry Falwell gone and the Reverend Dobson retired, Palin is the new kingmaker. She may not run for national office again, but those who do will seek her endorsement as the key to mobilizing the populist energy emerging on the right.
Right-wing men embrace her with the same fervor they did Clarence Thomas when he was first nominated for the Supreme Court. Whatever reservations they may have had about the minorities that gravitate to the Democratic Party, Thomas was their guy─and they believed he was every bit as qualified as contenders who’d gone to fancy colleges, even more so, because he understood ordinary people. And supporting him, and now Palin, they believe should put to rest any notion that they are racist or sexist, or somehow not up to the standard of Washington and New York dinner parties.
Palin embodies the backlash against the intellectual and geographical elites that the folks who live in flyover country blame for wrecking the economy and denigrating their values. She’s a vehicle for their rage. After all, there is something to be said for mediocrity, declared Republican Sen. Roman Hruska in 1970 defending G. Harrold Carswell, an undistinguished Supreme Court nominee who was ultimately rejected by the Senate. In the words that immortalized him more than anything else, he said of Carswell, "Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters, and Cardozos.” Substitute whatever names you like for those legal giants, and you’ll plumb the whys and wherefores of Palin’s appeal. She’s ordinary folk, and in times like these, when the elites have messed up, the segment of society that feels most marginalized─white, working-class men who more often than not are conservative─have found their heroine.
Click here for a visual retrospective of Sarah Palin's career, from Wasilla to the presidential trail.
