The Palin Threat

By now everyone has become aware of the effort that ABC's snooty and supercilious Charles Gibson made to disparage Sarah Palin under the guise of conducting an interview of her. It clearly was not an interview as Mr. Gibson sought merely to ridicule her rather than to elicit any meaningful information from her.

Ms. Palin did just fine, thank you. On the other hand the ABC snot showed himself to be a haughty ignoranus (sic) further debasing -- if that is still possible -- the profession of journalism.

Why did the usually bland talking head attempt the hit on the estimable Ms. Palin?

The very intelligent and highly perceptive fellow blogger who publishes the Gunslingers Journal believes -- correctly, in my opinion -- that Mr. Gibson was trying to raise his professional standing and esteem with his BOM (Big Old Media) cohorts and those with whom they mingle and identify. And that, in turn, raises the larger question of why these smug, sanctimonious elitists harbor so much rage toward Ms. Palin.

To get and understand the answer, in my opinion, one need only look at the attitude that old line Tories exhibited toward Margaret Thatcher even as she led them to one victory after another and successive glorious successes in England. After all, they sniffed, she was "a shopkeeper's daughter." Ultimately, the upper crusters brought the Iron Lady down, preferring defeat to being led by a commoner, irrespective of how able and accomplished.

We in America also have among us those who consider themselves superior to, and entitled to rule their ordinary countrymen. Here the attitude goes even further. As was noted by the Benjamin Franklin character in the play 1776: "We've spawned a new race here -- rougher, simpler, more violent, more enterprising, and less refined."

The eltists among us are embarrassed by this. They identify with and seek to emulate European patricians -- to be gentler, more sophisticated, never violent no matter how great the provocation, certainly less enterprising, and of course more refined. They would transform our vibrant culture into one resembling the terminally lethargic one of modern Europe in which people believe in nothing other than their own comforts and are devoid of values worth defending.

Sarah Palin is a threat, and a potentially lethal one, to the un-American and often even anti American dominance over our institutions enjoyed by those who hold such attitudes. The effrontery, the temerity, the sheer gall of that woman to presume that she can participate in the country's governance . . . the very idea that commoners, ordinary people not members of the elite establishment can govern themselves.

No matter what the cost, she has to stopped and the idea she represents must be nipped in the bud. Both have to be not just defeated in the election but totally discredited . . . destroyed.