Enemies

Lissa encounters a co-worker in full-on Palin Derangement Syndrome. I started to jot down a brief comment over at her place, but you know me - it grew to be the Comment That Ate The Blogosphere, so I'm elaborating on it here.

First, her post, which you should read in full (I only have a small bit here):

I’ve always liked Sarah Palin as a politician, though I can understand why others don’t, and I’d be concerned about how much negative branding she’s absorbed for the next time she runs for office. But there was palpable contempt and disgust dripping from CW’s voice; she was genuinely angry.

Why?

Alan left a comment that Palin's an attractive female Republican, and that's not to be allowed (since women are presumed to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party). I think that's right, but I'd go further in explaining the PDS on display (my comment):

Alan's right, but I think that the killer is that she's perhaps the country's most effective politician right now. "Effective" meaning able to shape the discussion on her terms. Think "Death Panels" - the howls of outrage over that remark were the strongest sign that she'd hit a nerve, and all that "curve bending" discussion pretty much ended then.

That she gets under the skin of all the bien pensants shows that they realize that she's effective - otherwise why keep bringing her up (like Obama did last week).

The Internet has destroyed all sorts of business models, and made incredible successes out of nobodies who turned into Google, Amazon, and eBay. What these "nobodies" understood - and what their Old School competitors did NOT - was how to reach into the "Long Tail" of the Internet, to people who were poorly served (or not served at all) by the current players.

Both political parties govern for themselves and their cronies/clients. Both parties hate her guts because they see her reaching out to the unserved voters, and harnessing their energy (and money). They fear her power, and their old top down command and control structures are not nimble enough to keep up with her, so they keep finding themselves dancing to her tune. They hate that perhaps most of all. As John McCain might say, she's on their six.

So the sound you hear is the sound of political business models shattering. People overly comfortable with the old model don't know how to respond, and are reacting not from their cerebral cortex, but from the ancient reptilian brain stem - shock and fear.

As I've said more than a couple of times before, the Dinosaurs smell a change in the air, and roar their defiance.

What I didn't say in my comment was that the rage really comes from a realization that Palin has considerable political skill combined with what Alan points out. From the point of view of your run of the mill, not too smart Obama voter (this includes most Democrats and just about everyone in the media [redundancy alert]), membership in a "protected group" (minorities or women) is a sort of armor that's supposed to deflect criticism. All of the "you oppose Obama's policies, you must hate him/be a racist" is offered as Exhibit A. In the world of the Leftist, they think that this armor would make her even more formidable.

And so the hate - real hate, real disgust, real fear. Lissa points out all sorts of Wicked Smaht logical reasons why this doesn't make sense, but this is not bubbling up from the Cerebral Cortex. It's visceral, tribal, primitive.

And quite frankly, it's the correct response to a leftie confronting someone who is probably the most formidable opponent to their entire agenda. Their "arguments" are laughably idiotic, but their IFF mechanism is working properly, and they have correctly identified Palin as a Foe.

As I said before (at lamentable length):

When you hear talk of "teabaggers", or how "dumb" Palin is, or how Brown won "because he stood in the cold shaking hands outside Fenway Park", you know that you're talking to one of the people that the Internet is turning into a loser, as their political business model collapses around them. They'll all be gone in ten years.

Lissa, if you like CW, you should point out to her that she's talking like a loser. I'd think that it's probably not worth your while. It shouldn't surprise anyone that this Internet phenomenon that has massively disrupted business, overthrown retail and media empires and replaced them with vigorous new young kingdoms would do the same in the sphere of politics. Some people - like Palin - get this. Most others do not. I don't know how this will play out for Gov. Palin, but I'm not worried about her prospects, "negatives" and all.

The sound of PDS is the sound of victory. The Dinosaurs smell a change in the air, and roar their defiance.

UPDATE 23 April 2010 14:26: Welcome visitors from Snarkybytes! As always, thanks for the link Alan. There's quite a lively discussion going on in the comments here, so if you just stopped by, don't miss it.