Jeffrey Feldman has done a couple of wonderful diaries about the Palin Phenomenon. You can and should read them here and here. They got me thinking about how our society has allowed the rise of someone like Palin, and what we can do to turn it around. Sarah Palin didn't happen in a vacuum, and I suspect that some of the reasons that her followers seem to love her are not as unreasonable as they seem.
I grew up in a medium sized city in the middle of a rural part of the country. In my town there was an industrial plant that employed thousands of people. There was heavy Union membership, and the town was solidly democratic. People earned a decent middle class living and were able to send their kids to college. The Catholic church had a strong presence and was very focused on helping the poor and other issues of social justice.
That all started to change in the late 80's and early 90's. The industrial plant closed it's doors. Union jobs plummeted. People could no longer afford to give their kids an education, and slowly but surely the town turned dark red. Nowdays the biggest employer in town is the hospital, and every time I go back to visit it seems like the city is falling down around me. Even the billboards are dominated by either right wing groups, Republican politicians, casinos, or evangelical groups. A while ago I went back to my old church for a wedding and the only literature in the lobby was all about abortion and gay marriage, nothing about the poor or social justice.
I recently took a trip back to the rural midwest to visit some relatives. They live in a town of under 1000 people and it has many of the same problems that my hometown has. The main employer is laying off a huge chunk of their workforce, and if you go downtown about half of the storefronts are empty and dilapidated. This is the kind of place where living there means you're going to do a lot of driving. The nearest real supermarket is almost 20 miles away and if you need something specific you're going to spend some time in the car (or in this area of the country more likely the truck). What do you do when you spend a lot of time on long boring drives? A lot of people flip on the radio, and if you do that there you will find only a few choices: country music, pop music, christian programming, or right wing talk radio. When you feed a large segment of the country a steady stream of bile directed at liberals, gays, African Americans, immigrants etc. with no counter arguments on the dial and then add in a healthy dose of economic disaster it's pretty predictable what the results will be.
Which brings me to Sarah Palin. I don't have any evidence to back this up, but I have a strong suspicion that my hometown is a hotbed of support for her. It's not hard to see why. Sarah gives them someone to blame for their misfortunes, and they know that if she is put in a position of power she will take a chainsaw to anything their perceived enemies (liberals, gays, African Americans, illegal immigrants, ect.) like or depend on.
I also think we should fess up and admit that the conservative and rural voters who are Palin's core followers have some legitimate grievances. Even though it may be directed at the wrong targets, they have every right to be angry, and even though it has been conservative policies that have ruined their cities and towns, liberals haven't exactly done much to reach out to them and speak to their fears and anxieties. Now I know what your thinking. Your thinking " Yeah your right, but it was conservatism that wrecked your hometown, not us. If you want to blame someone blame Reagan and The Bushes." Your right about that, but there are a couple of factors that are hard to ignore:
- Rural parts of the country have been hurting for a pretty long time now. Through both democratic and Republican administrations and congresses.
- The Republicans have pulled a neat trick over the years. They go out of the way to destroy whole swaths of society and then turn around and blame democrats for the carnage.
When you look at these factors it is easy to see how an average rural person who is only casually interested in politics, and who flips on Rush every once in a while would fully buy into someone like Sarah Palin.
A lot of people on this site don't take Sarah Palin as a serious threat. But even though I find it hard to believe that she will ever be elected to high office, I think that the phenomenon she represents is very dangerous and must be addressed. Simply put, even if Sarah is not talented enough to ride this wave of resentment into the White House there is always the chance that someone more talented and articulate at exploiting it will.
So what do we do to counter this? I have a few thoughts and would appreciate any input in the comments:
- Democratic politicians have to lay the blame where it belongs, on Conservatism. As I said above, Republicans don't have any problem blaming democrats for the problems that they themselves have created. And Democrats being mostly a polite bunch don't want to ruffle any feathers. So when confronted with conservative bullshit they often say things like "I think that's misrepresenting the truth" when what they should be saying is "You're lying". Democratic politicians need to make a habit of pointing out in clear simple language that conservative policies and politicians have decimated traditionally conservative parts of the country. Until democrats make conservatives own their failures they can't expect rural America to place the blame where it belongs.
- Pass a Stimulus bill ( and for crying out loud don't call it a "stimulus" bill) that is specifically focused on rural areas. When I was growing up there was a good amount of resentment that the big cities got lots of great infrastructure and government programs, and the smaller towns got nothing. I can only imagine that that resentment has grown over the years, espescially now in the age of bailouts. A rural jobs bill would let rural America know that Democrats care, and it would have the delicious effect of making Republicans oppose a bill that would be popular with their constituants.
- Invest in our bench. I think there are a lot of people on our side of the aisle who think that there are areas of the country where liberals can't win. I think this is completely untrue, and all you have to do is look at Montana to see a template for success. Brian Schweitzer is a pretty progressive governer when it comes down to it and he is very popular. The key is that he is culturally acceptable to Montanans. He was born in the state, has been a farmer and rancher, and if you have ever heard him speak in an interview you know that he talks kind of like a good ol' Montana boy. This is important to a lot of voters. A farmer or cowboy would probably never be elected mayor of New York so why would we expect rural states to elect candidates that aren't culturally in tune with them? I think that there can be many more politicians like Mr Schweitzer if we put in the time and effort to nurture them. We have to invest in a progressive infrastructure in small states. It's something that is realatively cheap to do and could pay huge dividends down the road.
- We need a presence on rural AM radio. I know we have Air America, but most of it's stations are in large metropolitan areas. The one sided debate on the dial in rural america is fueling a lot of the conservative movement and we can't let it go unchanllenged. This one is going to be tough because any attempt at it is probably going to lose money, but ceding so much of the debate on radio to Rush et al has had a devestating effect on our party and our country. I can draw a straight line from the rise of Rush to the reddening of my hometown.
A lot of people here seem to think that conservative voters are stupid. I don't think that is the case. I have a a very conservative friend who can literally take apart a car piece by piece and put it back together. He custom builds machines and furnaces for his place of employment and figures out complicated chemical reactions in order to do his job. He is no dummy. Yet he is obsessed with birther theories, believes global warming is a hoax, is adamantly opposed to healthcare, and is fearful that the government and democrats in particular will take his guns. I think there are a lot of people like him out there. The sad thing is that I have no doubt that he was at least at some time in his life reachable to a more liberal and reasoned message, but that message was never delivered to him and now he can never be convinced. We need to find a better way of talking to people like him before they become lost to us. For whatever reason we are not speaking in terms they understand, and it is not because they are all dumb (though some of them absolutely are).
And liberals and Democrats need to do more to specifically address the problems in places like my hometown. Those places are hurting and have been ignored for too long. Of course they are going to be angry and resentful, and those feelings are going to spill out somewhere.
So those are just some thoughts I have had kicking around in my head after reading Mr. Feldman's diaries. If I'm wrong tell me so, and if you have ideas of your own I'd love to hear them.