There is some language that I've intentionally avoided when talking about Sarah Palin. You won't ever hear me say "I feel sorry for her." You won't hear me say "I have sympathy for her." and you won't won't hear me say "I feel bad for her." I don't feel sorry for her and I don't feel bad for her. I do have sympathy for her--the same sympathy that's required whenever you try to write honestly and engagingly about people you don't know.
I want to be clear--please don't ever confuse my quest to understand those whose core beliefs are different from mine with a wavering of my own. Do not think that because I am attempting to look at the world from someone else's perspective that I believe that that invalidates my own perspective. Writing is fighting, as the great Ishmael Reed once said. Any serious combatant in this piece better be doing his homework, and trying to get a thorough understanding of his opponents. On one level, he may have to concede that his opponents are right--but even in that there are tactics; the combatant coops his opponents moves and makes them his own. But on the straight-up pugilist level, there is simply the point of knowing your opponent. When you ridicule them and are dismissive of them, when you condescend to them and offer them your pity, you underestimate them.
I, on some level, relate to Sarah Palin. On another level, I relate to McCain. But I'm not interested in the false choice of either you hate them, or your coddling them. There are plenty of places on the web where we can go to unleash our rage and vent at the opposition. Personally, I'll always prefer the dagger...
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
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Nicely put.
It's really quite sad when people must see things as a dichotomy. Humans aren't that way.. we are all shades of grey.. and just because I disagree.. (as you much more eloquently put it) doesn't mean I have to hate...
Again.. nicely put...
Sen. Obama tonight talked to those White voters who don't want to be racist. Think about it, these people have to overcome two centuries of social, cultural, political and legal racism against Black people. Its hard for them. Sen. Obama could not and should not have kicked this old man in the head. No angry Black man here. Just a smart, cool, informed, competent American who is running for President of the United States-part of the seed corn of this country. I think Sen. Obama laid the ground work in this debate for taking out M
Fallows wrote:
"... and I genuinely feel sorry for Palin. This really is pathetic. Again it's not a mass/elite matter."
Personally, I am disgusted by Palin. To think that she may be VP to a 72 year old man whose health is suspect, is insulting to me as a voter and American. Palin is by far the least prepared intellectually, least knowledgeable [and everything that implies] candidate for VP or president I have ever seen. That's saying a lot, when the names and accomplishments of Quayle and Ferraro drip through my consciousness. I am not talking about "hate." I am talking about a mortal enemy, to each of us and untold millions of innocents around the world.
Yes, you have to understand your enemy in order to render them harmless. I have no idea at all how you can "relate" to them? In what way and why? I don't understand what you mean by "relate." This is a tough business. There is some sense I guess, that's it is Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee, but that's a form of self-deception. McCain-Palin are very dangerous. There is no room for quarter. These guys will offer you none.
I don't feel sorry for her in the least. She took the offer voluntarily, and has been treated like a dog on a very short leash by the McCain campaign. Only pure ambition and utter lack of self-respect allows her to stay on the ticket. I don't rule out the possibility that she is incapable of understanding what is going on around her. If that is the case, then perhaps the McCain campaign is simply complying with The Americans With Disabilities Act, and making 'reasonable accommodation' by shielding her from the press and demanding a format for the VP debates that are more favorable to her.
This election is not a light-hearted game. It is not a reality TV show. It is a stark choice. It will mean life or death for many people.
I am reminded of what Joseph Roth wrote in 1933 of how educated class watched the fascist rise in germany:
"The technical apotheosis of the barbarians, the terrible march of the mechanized orangutangs, armed with hand grenades, poison gas, ammonia, and nitroglycerine….all that means far more than the threatened and terrorized world seems to realize. It must be understood. Let me say it loud and clear. The European mind is capitulating. It is capitulating out of weakness…out of lack of imagination…as the smoke of our burned books rises into the sky…"
Now it is the American mind that may capitulate. If we think that Americans may fall for this ticket of two lying, militaristic, jingoistic, right-wing, perverted religious shams wrapped in the American flag, we should be doing something more about it.
This is not a case of elitism or Joe "Six-Pack." This is a case of smart versus ignorance, of the truth versus cruel propaganda.
German historian labeled this attitude "verstehen." Understanding. Trying to put yourself into the shoes of the people you are studying. Not to sympathize with them, but to understand how they undertand the world and why they make the choices they do.
I know for myself, as much as I disagree with the right wing, I also want to struggle to understand where they are coming from. Partially, this is simply a professional obligation (I am a historian). But partially, I want to know what drives them, not so I can tear them down, but so I can find points of agreement that might make possible a meeting of the minds; to find a way to show that policy choices I like, and that reflect my values, are reflective of their values as well.
Seems like a lost cause, I know. But it seems like a more fruitful approach than just screaming. Certainly, I think Obama's great strength is his empathy for people he disagrees with. This, I believe, is what makes him so effective.
Hector repeats the lie: "Er, Obama sure showed one hell of a lot of empathy for CHILDREN WHO SURVIVED ABORTIONS when he sat in the Illinois state senate.
Your 'empathetic' state senator stood up for legalized infanticide."
It doesn't become less of a lie when you repeat it, Hector.
Stop beating your dog.
Coates, that is the smartest and most honorable (and most likely-to-win) approach, keep it up and I'll keep reading. You may make a liberal out of me yet. (probably not but keep trying.)
coops -> co-opts?
your -> you're
I know you asked for corrections, but I still feel like a troll...
There's a calmness about him. He doesn't look like a killer.
Ta-Hehisi, you sound quite familiar with "The Opening of the American Mind" by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. If you are not, I highly recommend it (and its precedent, "The Closing of the American Mind" by Bloom). These books helped define liberalism and conservatism for a generation.
Your piece reminded me of this passage from "Opening":
Once Justice Holmes and Judge Learned Hand discussed these questions on a long train ride. Learned Hand gave as his view that "opinions are at best provisional hypotheses, incompletely tested. The more they are tested ... the more assurance we may assume, but they are never absolutes. So we must be tolerant of opposite opinions." Holmes wondered whether Hand might not be carrying his tolerance to dangerous lengths. "You say," Hand wrote Holmes later, "that I strike at the sacred right to kill the other fellow when he disagrees. The horrible possibility silenced me when you said it. Now, I say, 'Not at all, kill him for the love of Christ and in the name of God, but always remember that he may be the saint and you the devil.'"
ds -
Time is running out. It's for real though, let's connect politic - ditto.
Word up, peace to incarcerated scarfaces.
Moe,
The only liar here is Senator Barack Obama. Do you deny that he voted 'Present' on the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act?
How any 'progressive', and an African-American to boot, can support a practice that amounts to genocide against unborn African American children, is beyond me.
Hector,
Quit now. Or there will be deleting. That isn't the topic. You're thread-jacking and spoiling for a fight. Take it outside.
Athena and ds,
Acts like he has a dream...
Mr. Coates,
I'm sorry for thread-jacking. I'll try to stay on topic.