Governor Palin is a gambit -- produce one of the single largest most slow-moving targets in the history of American politics and then accuse anyone of sexism that bothers to shoot at it. Why else nominate an inexperienced governor of a tiny state, with an astonishingly reactionary social agenda, a boatload of professional and personal scandals, and have her deliver 45 minutes of hate? There is absolutely nothing to recommend her, nothing, that is, until she is attacked.
It is thus now clear that the GOP, not Obama, wants to make the campaign about words rather than policy. And for that reason, we have to use words carefully. An accusation of sexism, of course, is inevitable whether anyhting Obama or his supporters say anything remotely sexist or not. (Obama has been all class, but somehow, the faux victimization has been targeted at him.) We can nonetheless work to keep every kernel of truth out of their talking points. So lets talk this out -- what words can we use to capture the toxicity, the ineptitude, and the abusive character of this new figure in American politics, without playing into their allegations, and without letting them be in any way right?
I tend to think that shrill carries unfomfortable connotations of sexism because it refers to tone of voice, a gender-variable characteristic. Screed, although it has no denotative significance in terms of gender, is onamotapoeically similar to shrill. Vicious, sarcastic, and venomous are likewise perfectly good words, but seem for subjective reasons that may be unique to me to invoke a gender specific caricature more readily than toxic, hateful, insipid, and smug.
This might also be a good time to play thesaurus and think about some good ways to capture what was so offensive about it. The right way...