Demosthenes, she is not, but there’s nothing new about Palin’s penchant for populism or lowbrow rhetoric. What does feel new is that she has finally gotten around to roundly losing conservative opinion leaders. (OK, this has been a long time coming. In 2011, Conor Friedersdorf noted that the hard right was skewering Palin, and that Kathleen Parker had been vindicated. And as recently as this past April, I wondered whether it was finally safe for conservatives to criticize her publicly. But it does feel like we have finally reached a tipping point where criticizing Palin isn’t only acceptable for conservative opinion leaders, it’s now almost expected.)
Before we go any further, I should confess that I might be one of the most unusual Palin critics you’ll ever encounter. Before most Americans had ever heard of her, I was among the few suggesting she’d make a fine veep pick. My intern at the time even started the Draft Sarah Palin movement. A few years later, I edited a book of Palin quotes, titled The Quotable Rogue.
I defended her when some on the left said she was to blame for Gabby Giffords’ shooting, and recently defended her daughter Bristol when the press laughed at her for being a victim of what certainly sounded like a physical assault. (For what it’s worth, I’ve also criticized Palin when I thought she was wrong.) This is all to say that I’m not reflexively anti-Palin; I don’t suffer from Palin Derangement Syndrome.
In fairness, Palin was once a reform-minded governor who enjoyed an 88 percent approval rating. But something happened on the way to Des Moines. I suspect the most vicious attacks (especially the “Trig Truther” stuff) radicalized her and embittered her, but I also suspect she also took the easy way out. Instead of going back to Alaska after the 2008 defeat, boning up on the issues, continuing her work as governor, and forging a national political comeback, she cashed in with reality-TV shows and paid speaking gigs.
There have been a number of conservatives who have recently washed their hands of Sarah Palin, but Matt Lewis is certainly noteworthy in that he was once one of her staunchest supporters and somewhat instrumental in inflicting her on America in the first place.
So for him to break ranks is no small thing.
However I have to admit that what made me decide to write this post was this one line from the article:
I suspect the most vicious attacks (especially the “Trig Truther” stuff) radicalized her and embittered her.
Lewis views these as "vicious attacks." But the truth is that if there were no validity to the charges then they would have been the easiest for Palin to have laughed off. In fact she could have used them as proof positive that liberals will say anything to besmirch her character.
However the reason why the trig truther allegations drew blood is because they are grounded in facts. And as more time has passed the stronger the case that she faked her pregnancy and Trig's birth has become.
We now have photos which prove she was not pregnant, e-mails that indicate access to information that she could not have had before the birth, and even a Providence Hospital schedule that seems to prove that CBJ could not have been the attending physician.
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Yes I agree that all of this could have "radicalized" and "embittered" her. I just disagree that it was vicious.
If anything it was necessary. Even, if I dare say, patriotic.
So if there is ANY validity to the charge that the questions about Trig's birth had the effect of making Sarah Palin babble like a demon possessed lunatic in Iowa, which resulted in her losing the last vestiges of support from the conservative Right, then I call that a job well done.
At the end of the article Matt Lewis offers this mea culpa:
It’s probably time to concede that the early critics of Sarah Palin had a point, and that they shouldn’t have been tarred and feathered and (in some cases) nearly purged from the conservative movement. I’m not excusing the vilest attacks, of course, but for a long time, there was close to zero tolerance of anything remotely critical of Palin (or, at least, even mild criticism would evoke stern rebukes), and that was wrong. And, as evidenced by the spate of articles coming from conservative venues this week, it’s also over.
It is not exactly how I pictured babygate taking her down, but a victory is a victory.
