Coda

Poor title, actually, as I doubt that this will be anything near the last I have to say on the subject of Sarah Palin, or us-versus-them.

But.

Courtesy William Katz' Urgent Agenda, I learn of Angelo Codevilla's National Review Online article from July 4, titled Who the Hell Do They Think They Are?

The distinctions between Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, are being overshadowed by that between what we might call the “Court party” — made up of the well-connected, the people who feel represented by mainstream politicians who argue over how many trillions should be spent on reforming American society, who see themselves as potters of the great American clay — and the “Country party” — the many more who are tired of being treated as clay.

And also a commentary on it from the Toledo Blade, by Jack Kelly:
Article published July 11, 2009

Looking down on Palin

WHAT do Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, and Jon Huntsman have in common? All were governors who resigned this year to pursue other opportunities, and did so without a peep of criticism from journalists or their fellow pols for "quitting" on the peoples of Arizona, Kansas, and Utah, respectively.
...
Ms. Napolitano, Ms. Sebelius, and Mr. Huntsman weren't criticized for resigning to pursue other opportunities because the other opportunities they're pursuing are in government - as secretary of homeland security, secretary of health and human services, and ambassador to China, respectively.

In the Court Party, the only thing more important than holding public office is seeking a higher one. Barack Obama in effect quit his day job as a U.S. senator (while still drawing his paycheck) for two years in order to seek the presidency. Mr. Obama drew little criticism for this, mostly because what he did was so commonplace. Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain did much the same thing.
...
People in the Court Party think it proper they should decide what kind of cars the hoi polloi in fly-over country should drive and how much medical care they may have. Theirs is an aristrocracy not of birth but of connections, connections forged mostly by where they went to school. Every president since Ronald Reagan (Eureka College, 1932) went to Harvard or Yale.

For members of the Court Party, where you went to school is more important than what you learned there. Mr. Obama is said to be brilliant because he went to Columbia and to Harvard Law School. Someone who went to, say, the University of Idaho would be mocked mercilessly for thinking "Austrian" is a foreign language, that the United States is one of the largest Muslim countries, or that Canada has a president.

Back to Professor Codevilla:

We can see the nature and power of today’s Country party by noting how little Sarah Palin did to become its head. The person whom candidate John McCain introduced on August 29, 2008, struck the nation like James Stewart in the 1939 movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: somebody like you, who speaks your language, unlike the politicians and bureaucrats who talk, act, and live as if they were better than you. To confirm that impression, Palin hardly had to do anything. The Court party did it for her, and she leads the Country party because highly placed people have demeaned her and everything she stands for more than they have anybody else. They heaped contempt on her for the unpardonable sin of being an ordinary American.

America’s “Best And Brightest” — the media’s haughty personages, the college towns’ privileged residents, affimative action’s beneficiaries, the “mainstream” politicians who supported billions for bailouts and “stimuli,” the upscale folks who look down on the rest of us and upon themselves as saviors of the planet — these are the people who made Palin into a political force by making her a symbol of everything they are not. They did this despite her lack of brilliance when it came to communicating her ideas on the issues.

Speaking of "Best and Brightest"...

One would think that McNamara's passing on to what we sincerely hope will be his just reward--one envisions Viet Nam War vets (all sides) in Heaven, paying McNamara visits in Hell--that His Imperial Majesty Barrack Hussein Obama and his toadies minions posse, or at least the media--what am I saying?!-- would take the opportunity to reflect on the results of putting a lot of people who think they are smarter than everyone else but have little or no real-world experience in the fields they are suddenly allegedly smarter than everyone else in...

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(Sorry for the rather tortured last paragraph. I'll see about developing that thought, unless someone else does so better...)