Jay Tea shared the lessons he learned this week from the reaction to Sarah Palin and her daughter’s pregnancy. I have learned a few things myself, but mostly have just come up with a slew of questions. Here are a few:
First, I wonder if those on the left, on the loony left that is (I assume there are still some on the left that are sane), can sink any lower? Every time I ask that question, the answer comes back “yes.” Times I have asked the question in the past include the Wellstone memorial service, John Kerry’s use of “Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian” in a 2004 presidential debate, John Murtha declaring U.S. Marines cold-blooded killers, those on the left openly pulling for the mission in Iraq (and later the surge) to fail, those on the left celebrating news that Laura Ingraham and Tony Snow had cancer, those on the left openly adopting more and more callous and extreme positions on late term abortion, and many more.
Over the weekend I read through hundreds of comments posted at Daily Kos and Democratic Underground. These are leading Democrat websites, both in traffic and influence. Democrat congressmen and other prominent Democrats like Elizabeth Edwards and Keith Olbermann post there so it is hard to label them as the fringe of the party. Although they are often foul and disgusting and sometimes over the top wacko, they are, sadly, openly embraced by many prominent in the party.
Some of the comments I read there this weekend were as low as I have seen. In addition to comments speculating on whether or not Sarah Palin’s fifth child was hers or her daughter’s, there were quite a few speculating (and some even claiming) that he was the product of an incestuous relationship between Palin’s husband and daughter. If there were only one or two such comments I would have written them off as lone crazies or perhaps even GOP operative infiltrators trying to make those on the left look disgusting, but there were many. There were some at the sites who warned others there that the subject was not appropriate or likely to backfire, but many at the sites continued to speculate with glee. As late as last night there were still some floating the incest insinuation. There were other spin-off theories as well, including this doozy accusing Palin of trying to induce a miscarriage with her son Trig.
The Anchoress said it better than I ever could.
They’re in serious trouble of the mind, and trouble of the heart and trouble of the soul. They are so paranoid, and so full of hate, at this point, that they are clinging to an insane idea – one that betrays a sort of soul-sickness that leaves me feeling both incredulous and chilled.
How much do you have to love your hate in order to surrender your reason, and your humanity, to it?
…Clinton and Bush “hate” grew over time to the insane levels. These people admit they knew nothing about Palin before John McCain announced her, yet their hate for her was immediate and electric. It is not sane. It is disturbingly unnatural. It is almost supernatural.
Can they sink any lower? It doesn’t seem possible, but there are still two full months to go before election day and I am extremely pessimistic at this point.
Will the gutter behavior by so many on the Left be exposed? Will it backfire? Not as long as the media is protecting those participating in it. Read Kevin’s post below which outline some of the connections between the recent Palin baby smears and those in the Obama camp. Redstate and others have done excellent work on connecting the dots (for lack of a better term). In a post titled Don’t Believe a Damn Thing Lefties Write About the Palins, Ace deconstructs the way those on the left create their own reality over and over again, whether it be regarding Palin’s baby or the economy or Iraq. Repeat an untruth enough and it becomes planted in the voters’ minds. (Please read his post in full).
Do those on the left actually know anyone they routinely label as “religious right” or “fundies?” I don’t see how they could. Their conception of what conservative Christians believe is so far from anything resembling reality that I can’t imagine they actually know anyone personally who falls into the category. Constantly throughout reading the posts and comments at DU and Kos I was shocked at how they thought conservative Christians would react to news of Palin’s pregnancy. This has happened in the past, as well. They thought those on the right would be shocked and angered to find out that Dick Cheney has, gasp, a lesbian daughter. Do these people really live on planet Earth? They have such an over-the-top stereotype image of who those on the right are that it is hard to believe they could know anyone on the right personally. They believe those on the right who are of faith are all about judgment. They completely disregard or discount (or are perhaps unaware of?) forgiveness, which is, of course, the foundation of the faith. They also miscalculated what would be important to conservatives of faith — not that a teenage girl became pregnant, but the reaction of she and the child’s father and their families. They took responsibility. They chose life. As so many others have pointed out — they walked the walk.
Jeff Goldstein touched on this this week at Protein Wisdom.
Many on the left will believe, quite mistakenly, that such an announcement is likely to weaken Palin’s support among “the hard-right conservative base”. But in fact, it will do no such thing — first, because the “hard-right conservative base” that liberal Democrats consistently invoke is largely a caricature that lives only in their minds and as a convenient trope in their rhetoric, from whence it can be trotted out as a foil and a boogeyman on cue…
I am just scratching the surface here. There are many interesting blog posts on the questions discussed here and more. Here are a few:
Melissa Clothier, Mike’s Noise, Mike Gallagher, Bookworm Room, Newsbusters,
multiple Ann Althouse posts — just keep scrolling.
