Obama and the Palin EffectSometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin’s pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and turning negativity into a cause for pride. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.” For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision
Look at what she stands for:
Small town values — a nostaligic return to simpler times disguises a denial of America’s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
Ignorance of world affairs — a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.
Family values — a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be needed.
Rigid stands on guns and abortion — a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
Patriotism — the usual fallback in a failed war.
"Reform" — an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn’t fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of “I’m all right, Jack,” and “Why change? Everything’s OK as it is.” The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness
Obama’s call for higher ideals in politics can’t be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow — we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
for our 6 year wedding anniversary, adam and i headed north to saugatuck
this was the view outside of our hotel room
heading down to the beach before the notre dame game....yes, i watched the notre dame game on our mini get-away.
after the game we headed to oval beach to watch the sun set
chillin at auntie amys
aedian, abbi and arianna, this was on amys first day back to work
kisses!
don't you just want to eat him up!!
more kisses : )
On Saturday we took the girls to the Wizard of Festival, and while I was a bit skeptical, I enjoyed it quite a bit! We didn't get to go to any of the festivities that required a special ticket which was a bit of a bummer, next year we'll know to get them in advance!
Abbi was in heaven!! When she first saw the characters come out she just stared for a good 5 minutes, and then... "I wanna see dorothy, I wanna see tin man" too cute!!
This was the munchkin that plays the first trumpet
This man, was 13 when he was hired to play a flying monkey in the movie!
If it isn't obvious already, this man played one of the munchkins in the "lollipop guild"
This woman was one of the munchkins that wore a flower pot on there heads, she also was one of the munchkins that is sittin in an egg shell.
Aislyn, Buscia and Abbi with the characters. Aislyn told the lion, "put em up"
Ais with her ruby red slippers on the yellow brick road!
After the festival we went to lunch, sams club and a candy factory that makes all of there candy where you can see it (through a big glass window) and buys most of there products in Indiana. It was super cool and i got the yummiest gummi bears ever, 2 lbs of them to be exact! Both girls were worn out by the time we were ready to head back home.
abbi playing dress up
I spent a bit of time looking around for aislyn on friday night, the above picture is where i finally located her at, lol!! (yes, she is inside a suitcase)
katie, peewee, vassar, joe, amy, aedian and anne ready for some touchdowns!!!
sweet baby aedian, unaffected by any of the noise around him
the lovely anne, 5 months along
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