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Edited on Mon Jul-27-09 12:31 PM by SoCalDem
She was the first (in a very long time) candidate that the "dirty 30" could identify with totally...could feel completely in sync with.
Nixon amped up racial politics, and it's been going strong ever since, but the candidates themselves have been pretty non-committal, until Sarah (with the obvious exclusion of David Duke & Pat Buchanan)
Looking back on the various republicans who were running for the presidency since '68, shows just how Sarah"s popularity came about.
Nixon was a taciturn, too-smart-for-his-own-britches loner..about as warm & appealing as 3-day old bathwater
Ford was a "northerner", a conciliator, soft-spoken man who may have been a laugh-riot in private, but whose public persona was pretty lackluster.
Reagan tapped into all those movie-star moments, rode horses, & said all the right populist things, but even in his prime, the people who are now the "base" had to know that he would never "be one of them".
He was rich, a former governor of the most populous state, and was a "converted democrat". To the faithful, that would have been akin to a rebel general switching to the union side.
Reagan, even though never much more than a B-movie star, was OF Hollywood, and not a religious person. The Reagan worship of NOW, is born of the foggy haze of a time when the people who revere him, were young themselves. People tend to wax nostalgic about the way things were when they, themselves were young. To be a republican in the time of Reagan was a pretty sweet ride, even if they did not foresee how the politics made then, would eventually bite them on the ass, later. By the time "later" came along, they had Clinton to blame, and did so willingly.
Bush1 was the "guy behind Reagan's curtain" and probably ran the 12 year show without much help from many people, and he also was not a warm guy, and was a northerner, just another rich guy who had little personal attraction.
Dole was no populist, not religious, and as appealing as a warm bucket of spit.
George W had "charm", but his cronies were old-school, hardcore Bush1 people, and even the most loyal of the base, had to be embarrassed about George's lack of smarts, and what exactly did he DO for the base? Abortion's still legal, nothing's settled on guns, school prayer... poor people got poorer, and none of the things he ran on, ever really came to pass. Overall he "looked & acted" the part, but at heart, he too was just a rich northerner with a fake southern accent and a mean streak a mile wide.
McCain was not someone the base could identify with. Not religious, a military guy from a long line of admirals (not ordinary military). Not an outdoors-man. His main identity has been that of a life-long politician, more than willing to compromise in order to get a bill passed. His wife was so "chilly" that she wore a cast long after she needed to, just to avoid having to touch the masses.
Sarah was the one who made it all warm & cozy for the base. With HER, they felt perfectly comfortable to yell "KILL him", "Traitor". With a wink & a nod, she TOLD them it was ok with HER. They had pictures of her with critters she had shot & killed, with fish she had hooked & killed, so they KNEW she was on their side when it came to guns. They knew that a Down Syndrome baby came into her life and was not aborted, so they know she's on their side when it comes to abortion. Her kids' schooling was kind of sketchy, and they probably identified with that too.
Her "story" was carefully choreographed, and by the time things started to leak out about her actual life, it was too late..they were already smitten with that "cute gal in those red high heels & short skirts". She's got a smart mouth on her, and has a "Flo-like" charm to her; she's rough around the edges, but the men could see themselves having a chance with a "gal like her", and the women could identify with her too, since she was probably someone they might see at a Walmart or Sears store. She is common. She's the kind of woman who loved revving up the crowd to a xenophobic, racist crescendo, and then with a wink & a flash of teeth, told them "she was one of them"..
Since the base has shrunken to its most concentrated core, she will always have these people, since they believe, with every fiber of their beings, that she's right, and everyone else is just being mean to her. She's their own rock star.... a true believer... their messiah. They thought it was GW, but it's really Sarah.
Sarah is their Moon-Pie, their chicken-fried steak with cream gravy, their double-decker bacon burger, their chili-cheese fries & RC Cola. Not good for them, but just so damned tasty, they cannot back away..
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