Why is Palin Still Around?

While speculations have been abound in the news as to whether Sarah Palin’s presence in Iowa means that she’s positioning herself as a possible 2012 presidential candidate, I’d hazard a guess that she doesn’t need to be one to have political power. In a sense, she already does. Those whom she has supported have created an upset enough to make the Republican Party queasy. Palin has become a celebrity for disillusioned, conservative Americans that have been dipping their toes in the Tea Party.

Americans have a love for relatable politicians, and Palin fits that bill with her much publicized tendency to “go rouge.” Unfortunately, the lack of political sensibility has been overlooked as a down-to-earth demeanor for the past decade or so. No offense to Bush, I’m certain I would’ve liked him as a person, just not as my president. Likewise, I’m fairly certain Sarah Palin is agreeable on a more human level. Just not politically. While I share the same combination of XX chromosomes as well as the same faith as her, I don’t enjoy the prospect of having her be a representation for me as both a Christian and a woman.

Palin is a curious representation of values. As someone conservative on women’s reproduction rights, the very idea of her being a success for “feminism” is often laughed at. However, she wouldn’t be that different in stance from the likes of early feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Danelle Bean, who wrote an article in the Washington Post, recently spotlighted Palin as a woman who is a far better feminist than those “liberal” ones; her article has earned quite a few predictable angry comments. While I won’t call that progress, I do think it’s far better than associating gender equality with destructive behavior, which is something that side has done far more often.

While polarizing, her popularity points to an increasing division in politics. In the wake of a struggling economy where jobs are few because our greed caused the housing market to crash and thus everything else to collapse with it, Arizona passes a law that’s nothing short of racial profiling and we’re complaining about a mosque built near Ground Zero. 

Somehow it’s always better to gripe about others than to deal with the real issues in our society.

Palin appeals to a crowd that hasn’t been content with the Republican party. With two wars that started under the idea of thwarting terrorism and avenging ourselves from the events of 9/11, two wars that have gotten no where, America is restless in general. But none are more restless than those who felt justified that we needed smite those nasty terrorists, even if it takes going into a country where there were no conclusive evidence of it having done anything to contribute to the terrorist attacks in New York. In comes Sarah Palin. As someone considered outside of the Washington spotlight with a folksyness that, on the downside, also happens to be a crutch when it comes to international politics, she appeals to the sensibilities of the everyday uber conservative American. From the perspective of gaining votes, Palin is highly valuable for those seeking to retrieve the favor of the ultra right, but she’s also a good indication of fears taking over the American public due to an increasing crowd that’s willing to be wooed by her.

I don’t want to get stuck on the question of whether or not she’s a figure of feminism since it detracts from some of the implications her world view and popularity indicates. The real success of feminism in the political arena is when we vote for a politician because of her opinions and ability, not because she’s a woman. At the end of the day, it’s not Palin that I would be concerned about. It’s America.