A Palin of the People?

Well, Sarah Palin's campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination book tour is going pretty darned well, at least according to this article from the BBC. Regular readers will know that I am not a fan of the former Governor of Alaska. In fact, I think her luddite attitudes and deeply simplistic world view would be inappropriate in the Mayor of Shitsville in the arse end of nowhere, let alone being the so called leader of the Free World. So it is both surprising and alarming that she seems to be such a hit with some Americans, garnering the sort of praise and earning the type of reverence that hasn't been seen since, well, the beginning of the Obama bid for the presidency.

And it takes this sort of comment to understand why Palin is such a hit in parts of the US:

"She's one of us," he said simply. "We're hard-working, 9-to-5 Joes and like her we didn't go to the elite universities that other politicians went to. She understands real life and she understands America."

Of course, that is palpable nonsense. It is like claiming John Prescott is a man of the people, despite his enjoyment of a lifestyle of grotesque opulence at the expense of the British taxpayer would be beyond the means of most people in this country. But let's break it down and look at just how Sarah Palin is not a "normal" person.

First of all, is she really "hard-working"? I doubt that many ordinary "Joes" could jack in their job on a whim like former Governor Palin did. Likewise, how many other ordinary people in the USA are propelled to national stardom and a position where designer wardrobes are bought for them at great expense on the feckless whim of an old man in a hurry?

And her university... now, her academic career is a little bit all over the place, but it turns out she graduated from the University of Idaho. A little bit of internet research sheds some light on what that uni is like. From Wikipedia:

The University of Idaho is the state of Idaho's flagship and oldest public university

Flagship and ordinary are far from synonymous, as a graduate from the University of Idaho might know. Also, from the University of Idaho's own website:

The University of Idaho is included in the 2009 edition of Princeton Review's "Best 368 Colleges." Only about 15 percent of the nation's colleges are included the in the ranking of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education.

Top 15% of the nation's colleges, then. Interesting. And there's more:

We are consistently recognized among the "top national, doctoral-granting universities" in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

Also:

We have more National Merit Scholars than all other institutions in the state combined and have a nationally-acclaimed Honors Program.

Finally:

We're ranked in the top 30 in the nation as "a great university to hit the books and backcountry" by Outside magazine.

Sure, Idaho might not be Yale or Harvard, but it is hardly a crappy Alaskan Community College either. It sounds pretty elite to me.

And does Sarah Palin actually understand "real life" and "America"? Because almost everything that happened during her campaign sinking performance as McCain's running mate would suggest that she doesn't have the first clue about real life or America. Despite all this, I don't doubt that the real reason why Sarah Palin is such a hit with many Americans is because people identify with her as someone who is like them, and therefore can represent them more effectively. Which does beg the question "does someone being like you actually mean they will be an effective politician?"

Put simply, I don't think that you have to have a level of personal identification in order to buy into a political candidate. In fact, I think that being able to personally identify with a politician should actually be a massive warning sign. I don't want my politicians to be like me. It isn't and shouldn't be a question of personal identification; it should be a question of finding someone with the intelligence and interpersonal skills to be a political representative, even if that person comes from a very different background to those they are representing. Gordon Brown has a similar background to your humble author (except I have spent a lot longer in the real world), yet he is not an effective representative of or for me. One of the most striking thing about life in the modern world is just how disparate the individuals are within society. It is a nonsense to expect those who work on behalf of you to be like you. I mean, would you prefer a surgeon from an elite university who is immensely well-qualified or one with limited education and limited knowledge but who happens to be an ordinary "Joe"?

So Sarah Palin is a not an ordinary person. And even if she was, it wouldn't be a good reason to make her a Republican Presidential nominee or President of the United States of America. The very best thing that the Republican party could do right now is get over this godawful infatuation with Palin and instead focus on finding a viable candidate capable of taking on and defeating Obama - a man who, despite not being perceived as an ordinary "Joe" is more than capable of taking on Palin, chewing her up and spitting her out in any election he fights against her.