Sarah And Me

I think to understand why this whole Letterman thing is bothering me, I need to take a step back and explain how Palin's candidacy and her subsequent treatment by the media affected me.

My mother is a staunch Democrat. I think my dad had Democrat leanings, but he didn't talk about politics as much. So growing up, and through my college years, I considered myself a liberal. I would watch the news and it generally concurred with my beliefs. Therefore, I knew I was smart. If other people would just be as smart and caring as me, they'd be liberals, too. It really seemed that simple. I despised Reagan, and couldn't understand how he could have been elected, twice.

I can remember in 1988 I voted for Al Gore in the primaries because he was the only Dem who identified himself as pro-life. (I would probably be hard pressed to find any evidence now that he had taken that position then) I voted for Dukakis in the general election, but I was surprised to find myself relieved that Bush had won. That election was the turning point. The abortion issue, combined with the fact that I had an actual job, (working with prisoners who were, surprisingly, not just misunderstood but actually deserving of their punishment) pushed me squarely into the Republican camp by the 1992 election.

So, as a liberal I did not understand the appeal of Reagan. As a conservative, I have always considered the Clintons hollow, willing to sell their souls for a few votes. I voted for G.W. twice, because he was the best option. I'm certain he did a better job than Gore or Kerry would have done, and I'm thankful he had the guts to take unpopular stands in the interest of keeping my family safe. However, there are number of ways that he disappointed me.

This is all to say that I had never felt a strong connection to a politician. While I can admire McCain's courage fighting for our country, as a candidate I was less than enthusiastic about him. I had not decided if I was even going to vote in the election. When he picked Sarah Palin, I was ecstatic. Finally, someone I could relate to.

She's my age. She values her family. She has a strong marriage. She's pro-life. She had the kind of college education I had. She worked for everything she had.

Sarah Palin was me. The connection was immediate and total. Finally, someone who represented me. Someone who could relate to me and to the kind of life I lead. I felt on top of the world. For about a week.

And then they tore into her and her family. I was new to the world of reading political blogs, and I had never seen anything so vicious in my life. I'm not saying Sarah Palin is perfect, but she certainly did not and does not deserve the attempts at annihilation that the media, the pundits, the comedians, the lazy joke tellers who think they're comedians, have heaped on her.

After the election, I was exhausted. It was more than just having my guy lose the election. It was personal. The attacks against Sarah Palin weren't just attacks against her policies, they were attacks against her person. They were attacks against me.

So, you see, when Mr. Letterman makes jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughters, he's making jokes about me and my daughters.

I remember during the last election (and maybe I've already made this point in a previous post) there was a poll done concerning republicans and democrats, and their attitudes towards each other. Republicans could understand why democrats held their beliefs, but democrats had no such empathy for republicans. Going back to my days as a liberal, I can kind of understand that. I honestly felt it was just a matter of the other guys not being as smart as me. Their viewpoints weren't nearly as enlightened as mine and couldn't possibly be valid.

I'm so glad I grew up.

I believe that the reason there isn't an outcry against Letterman's statements from the feminist community and other liberals in the media is that they've marginalized the Palins to the point where they consider them less than human. Therefore, it's okay to say whatever they want about her, and by extension, me.

And so this is the end of my post-election complacency. I'm still tired, mind you. I'm tired of having my opinions belittled and marginalized. I'm tired of the public discourse being so thoroughly one-sided. I'm tired of people confusing snarks and mean-spiritedness as some kind of deep thinking.

I'm tired and I'm angry.