What Palin's Show Says About Us

[Blue_In_AK]

From USA Today, written by a "real Alaskan."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-01-06-column06_ST_N.htm

Sarah Palin's Alaska, a TLC miniseries, has been quite a spectacle.

We've watched Mama Grizzly mush a dog sled across a glacier; stalk caribou on the tundra; paddle raging white water; and match her frontierswoman sturdiness against Kate Gosselin's urban diva shtick. In the lulls between action, the ex-governor gushed about family values and her love for Alaska, and threw political elbows. Love or loathe her, this series seems a huge success at projecting the essence of Sarah to the world. And without that myth, what's left?

However, thousands of Alaskans hold a different view. Those of us who've actually lived off the land are less than impressed by Palin's televised exploits and, more important, by what they tell us about her. Tentative, physically inept, and betraying an even more awkward unfamiliarity with the land and lifestyle that's supposedly her birthright, Palin deconstructs her own myth before our eyes.

To be sure, packaging and style have often trumped substance in American democracy. From the days of literal stump speeches and catchy but empty political slogans such as "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!" politicians have vaulted into power on the shoulders of charisma and sound bite, projected to the widest possible audience by the best available media. Indeed, Barack Obama's own ascendance had less to do with his scant political résumé than his ability to light up a teleprompter. You could argue that Palin's mercurial, tweet-propelled rise is just the latest manifestation of a time-honored tradition. However, Sarah Palin's Alaska seems to have ushered in a new and troubling era in our democracy: the point where a burgeoning cultural fascination with reality TV and celebrity worship intersected mainstream politics, and the three merged into one.

<snip>

Alaska writer Nick Jans' latest book, The Glacier Wolf, is available at nickjans.com. He is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

[BobbyBoring]

1. She's a phony

As an eight dollar bill. The fact that so many love her and think she is qualified to be POTUS says a lot about todays American~

[IntravenousDemilo]

2. I just find it funny that this bovine, unlearned woman is on The Learning Channel.

And I hope the station plans to put quotation marks around "Learning" some time soon.

[Harry Monroe]

3. Have you even seen "The Learning Channel" lately?

It should be renamed "The Lunatic Circus". My wife, for some unfathomable reason (she is an otherwise very intelligent woman) watches the garbage that passes for programming on that freakshow of a cable network.

[awoke_in_2003]

7. "The Learning Channel"...

cannot be taken seriously- they have a weird obsession with irresponsibly large families.

on edit- they also took on "American Chopper"- the worst show ever to grace the airwaves.

[BobTheSubgenius]

8. The bovine leading the ovine.

Seems like synchronicity too good to be believed, doesn't it?

[Spyderama]

4. She's a Phony All Right!

If any politician was ever a phony, it's Sarah Palin! Here is the story the MSM does not want you to read:

<http://www.amazon.com/Paradigm-Shift-Matrix-Progressive-Strikes/dp/1456409328/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294353162&sr=1-7>

[patrice]

5. Nailed it!: ...the point where a burgeoning cultural fascination with reality TV and celebrity worsh

ip intersected mainstream politics, and the three merged into one."

There is not even the slightest exaggeration in that statement's relevance to millions of Americans. This is why I fear SP not just in 2012, but thereafter also.

[southernyankeebelle]

6. I am happy to say I have never ever seen her show. I have family living in AK and they say she is

nothing but a phony.

[Scottybeamer70]

9. Palin.........

and "learning" in the same sentence, doesn't compute!

[Enthusiast]

10. That was well said.

FWIW her program isn't convincing to Ohio outdoorsmen either.