by Rachel Tabachnick at Talk To Action, two-part article:
Part One
Palin's use of the term "blood libel" has caused a furor for reasons described in Chip Berlet's
article. Journalists have speculated whether use of the term was inadvertent, with one writer stating that because Palin is from Alaska, she is "oblivious to the sensitivities and political correctness" of the lower 48. Palin knows her base and its sensitivities. Some of her supporters believe themselves to be the most persecuted and oppressed minority in American history. Their media warns that Christian patriots are the new Jews, headed for a holocaust at the hands of a "dangerous Marxist/Leftist/Homosexual/Islamic coalition." In a video titled "
Marxism in America," (Ret.) Lt. Gen. William Boykin warns that Obama and his brown shirts (planned in the healthcare bill) are leading to an authoritarian state. The video was promoted on numerous Tea Party websites prior to the election. Militant imagery has become commonplace, including "spiritual mapping" featuring marked targets showing the location of demons which must be eliminated from communities. (More on this in
Part Two.)
~snip~
Part of Palin's appeal has been her politics of victimization, a narrative which the Religious Right has made their own. The "moral majority" did not survive, but the persecuted minority, with them as David against the evil secular humanist Goliath, has been a winning formula. But this is not just a ploy.
The urgency and paranoia can be partially explained in the prevalence of narratives warning that born-again believers will be persecuted in a coming "New World Order" or one-world government of the Antichrist. They are convinced that we are rapidly approaching the end times, and that America is sliding down the slippery slope of Marxism/socialism/communism/fascism (all at one time) in preparation for the reign of the Antichrist.
The human villains in this narrative are members of a cabal of elites who are pulling the strings and manipulating American government and leaders - intentionally deflating the dollar, destroying the American economy, taking away U.S. sovereignty, and laying the groundwork for a global one-world government.
~snip~
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/1/13/14015/8393/Front_Page/Dog_Whistle_for_Prayer_Warriors_Palin_as_Victim_of_Blood_LibelPart Two
Spiritual mapping, taught by many apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation and related ministries, involves marking the locations of so-called "demonic strongholds" on maps of a community or city. If it sounds a little like Palin's now infamous map of targets, it is. More importantly, the spiritual warfare practiced by those who believe that their prayers can eradicate the houses of worship, organizations, and businesses of those whom they don't approve, has no doubt desensitized them to the demonization of others.
~snip~
Sarah Palin's speeches are not incoherent. They are written for her base and they make perfectly good sense if you know the narratives on which their worldview is founded. I would like to think that this past weekend's terrible tragedy might result in a change in the political atmosphere for the better. But the underlying problems behind the violent rhetoric go deeper than incivility. They are at least partially based on the belief among many in the Religious Right and the Tea Parties that they are, in the most literal sense, fighting demons.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/1/13/41430/3459/Front_Page/Dog_Whistle_for_Prayer_Warriors_Palin_as_Victim_of_Blood_Libel_Part_Two