Palin phenomenon cause for concern
10/27/08 | 28 comments
Guest column

Palin phenomenon cause for concern


Janet M. Alexander
OP ART BY JENNIFER KOHNKE

The most worrisome feature of this election is not that Barack Obama may have too little experience or that John McCain may have too much of the wrong kind but that our politicians don’t understand the Sarah Palin phenomenon. Everybody has had a good time with “caribou Barbie” moose burgers, hairdos and those cornball “you betchas.” However neither candidate is addressing the middle-class anxiety that the Palin popularity represents.

Although she is dismally unprepared to be vice president let alone president, she speaks for an anxious middle class that has had to stand by, powerless, as Washington and Wall Street deregulated, gambled, lost spectacularly then demanded a trillion-dollar bailout for their risky behavior. She represents angry taxpayers duped into paying for a long expensive war that was billed as short, cheap and brilliant. She gives voice to anxious retirees who have seen their pension and savings disappear, homeowners seduced by mortgage lenders’ promise of ever-increasing home values, soldiers maimed in the war but uncared for on returning home, veterans promised then denied benefits, discouraged parents sending children to failed schools and residents told the economy was in great shape when Washington and Wall Street knew it was tanking. She speaks for a betrayed middle class who believed corporate promises that working harder would save their jobs from outsourcing.

These are the people she attracts, a middle class that feels frustrated, angry and fearful about the future because the government appears to be working against them and for the wealthy at every turn. The irony that Palin is a member of the same party that legislated against them is lost in her powerful campaign rhetoric legitimizing their anger and anxiety. For many in the middle class she represents the only way to fight back against political forces that have ignored their needs for a very long time.

Sure, she’s angry but she is the only one talking directly to people who have lost significant economic ground and are now on the verge of losing middle-class status.

Yes, she sometimes garbles her syntax but her meaning is crystal clear to those people flimflammed by the economic double speak coming from the president and his corporate cronies.

Yes, her slogans are often over the top but they give a voice to a middle class unable to make Washington and Wall Street listen to their fears about present conditions and the bleak future to which it may lead. Sarah Palin is a lightning rod for people who feel they have been patronized and used by both parties and to ignore them because of her style is dangerous.

The middle class is being eroded faster than the polar ice cap and neither democracy nor capitalism can survive without a strong middle class. A large, vibrant and respected middle class has always been our strength. It is what has made us a world leader. Industrious people have always wanted to come to the U.S. where opportunity and upward mobility assured them participation in our middle class. This is what has given us wealth and moral authority in the world.

Wall Street needs the wealth created by Main Street to survive not the other way around. Wall Street merely plays with this wealth. It doesn’t create it. Now the middle class has hit really hard times brought on by policies that favored Wall Street over Main Street. They are angry and afraid and nobody seems to be paying attention to the one person articulating their feelings.

Sarah Palin has a tenuous grasp of geography, history, diplomacy and the idea that questions require complete answers. This does not mean we can ignore the more subtle meaning of her appeal and what it signifies for our country. A strong middle class is vitally important to the survival of the United States as a capitalistic democracy. Right now the middle class is losing ground in ways that will bring our beloved country dangerously close to an oligarchy. Democrats, Republicans, Washington, Wall Street, voters: You have to address the middle class anxiety that Sarah Palin taps into or she may be president.

Janet M. Alexander of Old Town is a retired special education teacher.

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Comments
28 comments on this item
On 10/27/08 at 4:01 AM, ShawnDaily wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Somebody like Sara Palin is dangerous but the country being run by a communist like King Barry Obama is what we need? All Palin would have had to do is be a community organizer and talk about spreading the wealth around and she would be over qualified as president if you compare her to King Barry Obama. The disaster that awaits us having the socialists in charge of this country is going to be a painful lesson. Democrats have never given a damn about the middle class and they will not magically start doing so in 2009. Wake up people.

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On 10/27/08 at 7:55 AM, InsanePreacher wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Communist? are you kidding me? There is no real basis for calling Senator Obama a communist even with your painfully displayed ignorance of historical fact and or political systems. The fact of the matter is that Sara Palin is grossly unqualified to be anywhere near the Oval Office. The woman has no known opinions on world events as opposed to Senator Obama and Senator Bidens understanding of forign relations, detailed knowledge of diplomacy and understanding of the regional spheres of influence around the world. Governor Palin is 44 years old and just got around to getting a passport last year, her only trip outside the United States was to Kuwait for a day or two with a fuel stop over in Ireland. The governor claims that being able to see Russia from an island in the Aleution Islands is forign policy experience, and is so clearly out of her depth that her nomination is a tasteless joke. Governor Palin also has been unable to articulate any sensible economic proposal for a way to address the current economic crisis, she only can parrot tax cuts. Tax cuts at a time when there is a ten trillion dollar national debt, how then are we to pay back the money we owe?

The current financial crisis we are facing is a direct result of lazzie faire policy so passionalely pursued by the republican party, systemicly stripping away every bit or consumer protection and industry regulation that was put into place to prevent another Great Depression, ( the New Deal and Glass-Stegall Act etc were enacted by a Democratic presadent and congress, these actions were taken to preserve the middle class and prevent a potential revolution- what with 25% unemployment and such.) While I am all for turning a profit, I also realize there is a need to have established rules and regulations.

What Senator Obama is proposing is using the assets available to the Federal Government to stimulate the economy and prevent the country from total economic collapse. This is communistic or socialistic only in so far as it is keeping the people who put the ship on the rocks in the first place from having to stand up and take their comeuppance. On the whole, there is the realization that what we have been doing for the last eight years has been a failure of biblical proportion, can we afford not to try something new?

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On 10/27/08 at 8:06 AM, buckyor wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Barack Obama a communist? What is this, 1956? If you gotta go back and borrow political arguments from two generations in the past, you've already lost this race.

Maybe next you can tell us how Barack Obama's opposition to the gold standard precludes him from being president.

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On 10/27/08 at 8:11 AM, Bangorian wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

ShawnDaily - Do you even know what a communist or a socialist is? The reason that they picked Sarah Palin is to secure the votes of people who are ignorant and willing to believe what she tells them. You really should be more informed before you post something in the paper.

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On 10/27/08 at 8:39 AM, Tikitorch wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

If you vote Obama this you will be turning our country into a socialist state. The democrats are more socialists than democratic!!

"Socialism, economic and social system under which essential industries and social services are publicly and cooperatively owned and democratically controlled with a view to equal opportunity and equal benefit for all. The term socialism also refers to the doctrine behind this system and the political movement inspired by it."

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On 10/27/08 at 9:22 AM, CommonsensePaine wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

If we could return from the lunatic fringe a moment and get back to the column at hand, I think Ms. Alexander is wrong in her diagnosis of the "Palin Phenomenon." Here she essentially blames politicians for taking advantage of the common folk Sarah Palin appeals to. It's true that our leadership has betrayed us and enriched themselves and their friends at our expense. But we voted for them. In a democracy you get the government you deserve. And if you are too disinterested in government to pay attention, you risk being hoodwinked. If you buy into the idea that people who think are less to be trusted than "people you would like to have a beer with," you risk being hoodwinked. Sarah Palin is taking advantage of Joe Sixpack and Joe the Plumber just as much as the slickest Bushie. Her populist appeal can only take us one of two directions: either she is serious when she suggests you don't have to know anything or think anything to run the country, or she is much slyer, and is taking advantage of populist ant-intellectualism and what Al Gore calls "the assault on reason" in order to install people like herself, and people like George Bush, who love every crisis and catastrophe that comes along, because it is a chance to make money for their rich friends. Either way we lose.

The end of the road has come for that school of politics. The question is whether the rascals will take the rest of us down by giving us the bill for their decades of greed and imprudence. Sarah is either too dumb to be part of the solution, or craftily angling for another piece of the pie garnered from pulling the wool over the eyes of people who see her as one of them.

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On 10/27/08 at 10:23 AM, fredrogers wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

A famous socialist reformer, a coal miner by trade, and a graduate of Harvard, ( most likely too would today be labeled a community organizer, a union labor terrorist, un-American, etc) in the US from the days of the intolerant McCarthy- WW II era, Powers Hapgood, was brought before a judge on some minor charge and the judge stopped the proceedings and asked Powers why with his background would he choose to live a life as a mere coal miner. His answer, “….why because of the Sermon on the Mount, Sir..”

Read, study, investigate, and re-read, re-educate and challenge yourself, and maybe just maybe you may be surprised that 99 % of all “Americans” want the same thing, they just take different paths and views to get their.

Tolerance is a good thing. Hate never wins.

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On 10/27/08 at 1:02 PM, ghanscom wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Seems as though Ms Alexander has become an expert on recognizing those of us in the middle class. And I am offended at being recognized as Joe Six-Pack who goes around skinning moose and saying things like "You betcha". Ms Alexander is apparently in the class she descrbes, although it not be the middle class I am familiar with.

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On 10/27/08 at 1:02 PM, ghanscom wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Seems as though Ms Alexander has become an expert on recognizing those of us in the middle class. And I am offended at being recognized as Joe Six-Pack who goes around skinning moose and saying things like "You betcha". Ms Alexander is apparently in the class she descrbes, although it not be the middle class I am familiar with.

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On 10/27/08 at 1:02 PM, ghanscom wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Seems as though Ms Alexander has become an expert on recognizing those of us in the middle class. And I am offended at being recognized as Joe Six-Pack who goes around skinning moose and saying things like "You betcha". Ms Alexander is apparently in the class she descrbes, although it not be the middle class I am familiar with.

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On 10/27/08 at 1:02 PM, ghanscom wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Seems as though Ms Alexander has become an expert on recognizing those of us in the middle class. And I am offended at being recognized as Joe Six-Pack who goes around skinning moose and saying things like "You betcha". Ms Alexander is apparently in the class she descrbes, although it not be the middle class I am familiar with.

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On 10/27/08 at 1:02 PM, ghanscom wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Seems as though Ms Alexander has become an expert on recognizing those of us in the middle class. And I am offended at being recognized as Joe Six-Pack who goes around skinning moose and saying things like "You betcha". Ms Alexander is apparently in the class she descrbes, although it not be the middle class I am familiar with.

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On 10/27/08 at 6:34 PM, MiloCrabtree wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Palin rocks. She's a babe and she hunts. Too bad she's not hunting Al Gore. The only assault on reason is the global warming hoax. And this business about the middle class paying the taxes that should be paid by the wealthy. They're not - the top 25% pay 85% of the taxes - how much is enough?

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On 10/27/08 at 6:51 PM, wallyo wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

how soon we forget remember a little known governor from arkansas remember bill with no experience

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On 10/27/08 at 6:51 PM, mainah514 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Keep on watching that "Fair and Balanced" Fox "News" propaganda. Whatever you do, don't read any books or do any research. YOU MIGHT DISCOVER YOU ARE MERELY PARROTING IDIOCY FROM THE LUNATIC FRINGE! What the hell? If you don't have any of your own thoughts, you might as well make do with someone elses...

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On 10/27/08 at 6:54 PM, wallyo wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

WE dont need experience we need some simple common sense which i dont you Baldassi democracts dont have a whole lot of...

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On 10/27/08 at 6:57 PM, wallyo wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

put think betweendont and you

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On 10/27/08 at 8:08 PM, buckyor wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The comedy just writes itself. . . .

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On 10/28/08 at 4:23 AM, DouglasWatts wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Hey, Sarah Palin believes that dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth together, which is what about 35 percent of Maine residents have been taught to think, so please leave her alone.

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On 10/28/08 at 4:25 AM, DouglasWatts wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

On 10/27/08 at 06:34 PM, MiloCrabtree wrote:

Palin rocks. She's a babe and she hunts. Too bad she's not hunting Al Gore.

--

Hello, BDN, this poster has just advocated Al Gore being shot to death. Could we please have this person banned from the site?

Thanks.

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On 10/28/08 at 4:30 AM, DouglasWatts wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

MiloCrabtree -- can you send you me your email address so I can report you to the Secret Service as a homicide threat?

Thanks.

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On 10/28/08 at 4:38 AM, MiloCrabtree wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

DW - yawn...

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On 10/28/08 at 4:43 AM, DouglasWatts wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

MiloCrabtree -- do you normally discuss killing U.S. Vice Presidents with rifles on-line, or is this just a new thing?

Are you from Milo or LaGrange or Brownville Junction?

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On 10/28/08 at 4:46 AM, DouglasWatts wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Hey MiloCrabtree, what would you say if a Barack Obama supporter wrote here about "hunting" John McCain with a .308 ?

Just wondering.

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On 10/28/08 at 12:04 PM, CommonsensePaine wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Interesting, but disturbing, to note how many commenters above react so negatively to the last vice president who both understood the role and performed it legally, who was elected president until the right-wing supreme court stole the election, who subsequently won a Nobel Prize, and who would very likely have avoided most of our most serious national problems if only the court had not denied him his presidential victory. Anyone who truly believes the projected climate changes are a myth is behaving like an ostrich at best, and guilty of destroying our grandchildren's opportunity to live safely and happily at worst.

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On 10/28/08 at 4:39 PM, MiloCrabtree wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Al Gore is a grandstanding twit who has made hundreds of millions of dollars off the global warming hoax. How about if Palin just wings him? And for the record, DW, neither rifles nor killing was mentioned in my post.

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On 10/28/08 at 4:47 PM, GlenburnGirl wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

To figure out who will benefit the most people in this country then use simple math. Realize that the average person across this country earns less than $200,000 per year. Obama's plan is to have the wealthiest pay higher taxes because they earn more which makes sense. The wealthiest are not going to go bankrupt over paying more in taxes than myself and others who make up the average person. It surprises me to think that someone would vote for McCain due to the fact they earn less than $200,000 per year, especially the majority of farmers in Maine. Haven't we paid more than enough for gas, oil, electricity, goods, groceries, retail goods, health services, and transportation? Gas was around $1.47 when Bush first came into office so microprobing the words 'socialist, marxist, communism, liberalism and the quaint elitist' is not going to change the fact that Bush's policies need to be changed in order to change the economy and future of this country. The cost of everything has changed so dramatically since Bush has been in office that it is now painfully obvious who we should vote for in this election. Vote for change:Vote for Barack Obama!! If not, then don't complain to anyone about paying the high cost of living and NO tax breaks. If McCain gets elected then I will gladly let you pay my taxes, oil bills and everything else over-priced. Guaranteed you won't be shopping at the local mall any time soon.

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On 10/29/08 at 11:19 PM, dirigodad wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Why all the focus on Palin's "You betcha" and dropping "g's" from the end of words?

At the risk of incurring the wrath of Obamanation, has anyone else seen and heard the Messiah at one of his rallies, especially those in the inner city? Phrases flying around like "Keepin' reform from happenin'" and sounding one of the brothas in the hood...and yet no one dares mention it.

If Sen. Obama wants to be colloquial and reach out to people on their level, that's fine. I don't have a problem with that. But let's be fair about it, aiight?

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