The question many of us have been asking ourselves this weekend is, "Why the hell did he do it?" Alaska governor and former small town mayor Sarah Palin has been in office for less time than John McCain has been running for president, and manages a state less populous (683,000) than the city of Indianapolis (784,118). Up until Friday afternoon the theme of the McCain campaign was that experience was a vital qualification to be president. Now, apparently, it isn’t. What, for crying out loud, could McCain possibly have been thinking? Follow me below the fold for a tour of possible answers and a strategy for how to handle Sarah Palin.
My first reaction was to crack jokes: stuff about single-handedly saving the Kodiak Pander Bear or the worst head fake ever. Then came the obvious: it was an attempt to vacuum up disaffected Clinton voters. But that couldn’t have been it. Even the most ardent, one-note, low-information "feminist" on the shop floor couldn’t be brought round by an anti-choice, serial mom who gives her offspring offbeat names and squanders the crucial first moments of her introduction to America pratting on about her husband and kids. Sarah Palin is no PUMA pleaser, and recent polling bears this out. Pallin’s selection is driving Clinton voters toward Obama:
Among Democratic women — including those who may be disappointed that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton did not win the Democratic nomination — 9% say Palin makes them more likely to support McCain, 15% less likely.
McCain couldn’t have been that dumb, right?
My next hypothesis was "brand confusion." On this scenario, McCain was like a Detroit executive in 1970. "This Volkswagen thing is really killing us and we need our own little counterculturemobile. It’s for mavericks, see, only smaller. We’ll call it a Pinto." McCain was trying to co-opt the change brand and muddy the waters by being Mr. Pibb to Obama’s Dr. Pepper. But, again, this would be transparent and stupid. People would see through it.
Then I thought, no, he’s going after the fundies. But, really, besides Jesus who’s Dobson and Robertson got to turn to but McCain? The all-abortion-all-the-time crowd was already on board, and enthusiasm over a VP pick won’t drive up turnout significantly—particularly given that some of their pastors are actually reading the gospels these days and have figured out that Jesus of Nazareth had way more to say about the rich and the poor than about the social issues that bedevil the older preachers.
So, thanks in part to Leighton Woodhouse on the HuffPost, here’s my working hypothesis: Sarah Palin is an Orthagonian resentment trap. First some history, the Orthogonians were an anti-club founded by Richard Nixon during his undergraduate days at Whittier College. The group self-identified as a "silent majority" working hard, complying with authority, and nourishing a seething resentment at the perceived "elitists" in the competing Franklin Club. The key word here is "resentment." Just as a sizable chunk of American voters, let’s call them rednecks, identified with George Bush precisely because of his limited intellect and apparent inability to experience complex emotion, a large number of rednecks will identify with Palin precisely because of her inadequacy. Her limits are their limits, and her narrowness is their narrowness. Attack her on that level, and you only feed the Orthogonian resentment and stoke the backlash.
To amplify this point, Obama’s "bittergate" remarks were a classic political gaff: the candidate said something that was obviously true but unspeakable, and he couldn’t retract his words without looking disingenuous. Rednecks' lives really are fucked up by macroeconomic forces that our public education and media systems not only fail to equip them to understand but actively work to interfere with such understanding. Hence they find solace in warm guns and a cold Jesus. Palin, then, is flypaper. We’re supposed to attack her, and it is hoped that our attacks drive resentful, low information voters toward the GOP. These voters might have some inkling that they’re voting against their own best interests, but don’t underestimate the power of resentment. They’ll vote McCain just to show us that they can "take it"—just like Sarah Palin beavers away with upright Orthogonian semi-competence.
So, how do we deal with Sarah Palin? First, don’t point out that she’s inept. That’s what we’re expected to do. Rather, use the old management trick for dealing with unsophisticated union folks: the open door policy. Sarah Palin is a "reformer," that is the character on the shop floor who likes to give the boss a talking to, usually over specific issues: a broken microwave in the break room, trucks not being loaded properly, whatever. The open door policy for trivial complaints trivializes the complainer, disguises basic workplace issues, reaffirms the power structure, and is rewarded by the complainer’s gratitude (gee, boss listened!). The point will be to get Palin to talk as much as possible. She’s someone of limited ability, and sooner or later that will become more than apparent.
Second, (and I owe this strategy to my wife) begin insinuating that she’s not really an Orthogonian at all but, actually, a low-level Franklin...a cheerleader and a mean girl. Here Palin even gives us some help. She really was a cheerleader, and she graduated to being a local television personality. Moreover, she really is a mean girl who spitefuly lashed out at her small town political opponents:
Once Palin was elected Mayor of Wasilla [AK], she dropped the hammer on [Wasilla police chief Irl] Stambaugh. While to Stambaugh’s face she told him that he was doing "a wonderful job" and assured the police chief that she "was not going to fire him," two weeks after the last assurance Stambaugh came into his office and found a letter telling him not to come back the next day. So, too, did Wasilla Librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, who recoiled against Palin’s attempts at censoring books on the library’s shelves. She also asked for the resignation of Wasilla’s Public Works Director, John Felton, who was replaced by Palin with her political crony Cindy Roberts, who had no engineering background but had extensive Republican Party connections. By all accounts, these were professional and dedicated public servants who had simply refused to kowtow to Palin’s extremist right-wing dictates.
Then, of course, the pattern continues in the Alaska governor’s cabin:
In a press conference this afternoon, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) conceded that someone inside her administration pressured the state's Department of Public Safety to fire State Trooper Mike Wooten, Palin's former brother-in-law, who is now embroiled in a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister. Palin's statement is the latest in what has come to be known around Alaska as "Wooten-gate." The scandal began on July 11, when Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired from his post with little explanation, a move that quickly raised questions in Alaska.
So here’s the executive summary: McCain selected Palin to provoke a response from us that would, in turn, stir up resentment in low-information, working class voters. We should respond by: (a) not taking the bait and (b) accurately portraying Palin as someone who spitefully abused her power to harm political opponents.