This blog is not by me. I am posting a note my sister, Caralee Woods, sent me in response to long piece by a resident of Wasilla, Alaska (a place very few people had ever heard of until a few days ago) that chronicled the mixed record of Sarah. My sister lives in the small town of Kanab in southern Utah, a place with perhaps more than its share of ideologically bound right-wingers. With this as preface, here is what my sister had to say:
Since I've now lived four years in a small town of about 4,000, I can totally relate to this woman's essay. When our city council here in small town Utah adopted the Natural Family Resolution, it finally brought out in protest those people who had before remained silent and groused only in private in fear of retribution from the city leaders. Even I tried to stay under the rug because Jim and I still need to get annual permits to live on our land in a temporary building while we build the permanent house. The opportunities for harassment there are obvious to anyone who lives here. And of course there is great overlap between who is on what committee and everyone pretty much knows who everyone else is, so you can't hide. We aren't 6 degrees away from anyone here; we're about 2 degrees away. To make it worse, the likelihood that whoever you are talking about probably has a close relative in the room, so you have to be very careful. So I know what this woman is talking about. In fact, if the mayor of Kanab suddenly died, the net average IQ of the entire world population would have a measurable increase.
This Palin thing is very ugly and frightening. I have immersed myself in information about Palin and realize that who we're talking about is just a female George W. Bush. Bullying tactics; lacks knowledge but acts anyhow; doesn't listen to anyone but her small group of cronies; likes to shoot things; is a flat-earther. If you think McCain follows Bush's tactics and programs, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. If I prayed regularly (or at all), I'd pray that somehow the stars would align, that, as Bill Clinton said, “the right side of history” would come into play, that fate would take over and Obama will win in a landslide. Or even by 1 vote. Whatever it takes. Because if he doesn't, it means that the American voter no longer has the kind of heart it takes to want to help their neighbors in a meaningful way; that they are incapable of learning from past mistakes--or even recognizing them. Instead, they will have become mean-spirited, anti-intellectual, lost souls who can no longer have hope in their hearts but instead wish only to force their self-righteous beliefs on others because that's the only way they know how to deal with their cognitive dissonance over how screwed up the world whether it's the environment, invasions of other countries, health care, education, or the economy. They have decided that the Emperor is fully clothed and if you say it often and loud enough, the Big Lie will come true and prove them right—so THERE!
So all I know to do is send Obama money, make canvassing phone calls for him, and if not pray, at least hope that whatever is left of my optimism that the United States can right itself is warranted.
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Dare Carrie Woods,
I got to your little essay via a good friend of mine, Tim Guy, who is a good friend of your brother. Three degrees of separation, eh?
I was just about to pen this Sunday morning almost exactly what you wrote about Americans. I will just quote you instead when I send an email to friends.
It is neither John McCain nor Palin that distress me so much, it is about 50% of the American public that does. I think of my sister who is a Republican but a good, consuming American. She got angry when I sent a few pieces about Obama, saying “I am intelligent. I can make up my own mind.” Well, she is at least not an evangelical right wing Christian (I am far left Christian basing his faith on the Beatitudes). But, she seems determined once again to vote for another Bush, even though she says, “John [her husband] and I don’t want another Bush.” One might think she would feel a bit chastised about her ability to size up candidates. But, apparently not, if she thinks there is anything to weigh between McCain/Palin and Obama/ Biden. (I am absolutely astounded, to take just one quick example, that no one in the press mentions that Palin went to North Idaho Community College and University Idaho, both of which I am familiar with, having taught at the former and having gotten another MA from the latter and that while these are nice post-secondary schools, they are not Columbia Law school nor Harvard. There is a reason Obama went to Harvard and Palin to NIC. But, if you don’t value intelligence, don’t think it is a criterion for the presidency, then a president with a GED will do just fine.)
Anyway, thanks again for your words. I will paste here something Deepak Chopa wrote as it may begin to explain what both of us (and your brother and my friend Tim) see as a mystery—why Americans would be voting for Bush again.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.
Stephen Drinkard Sandpoint Idaho
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