Sarah Palin is Back

My biggest problem with Sarah Palin is not her obvious ignorance and lack of education, or rumors of her being a “diva” spread by McCain campaign officials. My problem is her positions on the issues. It seems that she has alienated not only Alaska Democrats, but has also alienated some of the moderate Republicans in her home state.

While Sarah was in Indiana rousing the Republican faithful at a right-to-life dinner, the Republican-controlled legislature in Alaska turned-back her controversial nominee for state attorney general. Her nominee, Wayne Ross, was rejected in a 35-23 vote after a week of damaging confirmation hearings that revealed a string of past controversial comments. It was the first time in Alaskan history that a nominee for the head of a state agency has failed to be confirmed by the Legislature. All of the Democrats in the Legislature voted against Ross and were joined by nine Republicans, including the Senate president and the House speaker.

Ross came under fire for an op-ed piece in which he defended the showing of a Ku Klux Klan statue and mocked a black student who protested the display. In the 1980s, when the Alaskan legislature was considering the creation of a holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, he wrote manifestos accusing Dr. King of being a subversive and a communist. He was also criticized for a 1991 quote in which he is reported to have said: "If a guy can’t rape his wife, ...who’s he gonna rape?" Ross, a director of the National Rifle Association, also characterized gays as “immoral” and “degenerate.” He refused to repudiate the remarks about gays during his confirmation hearings, and admitted that he hated them.

Palin said in a statement that she was “surprised” by Ross' rejection. “Mr. Ross is a fine Alaskan,” she said. “He is held in high esteem by many Alaskans. I appreciate his willingness to serve the public.”

There is growing talk of Palin being the Republican candidate for president in 2012. What if Sarah somehow got elected and nominated this creep to be the U.S. Attorney General? Would she and her garbage-mouthed attorney general simply forsake millions of gay Americans? Would they forsake married women? Would they lend support to that despicable gang of moronic losers, the Ku Klux Klan?

One can reasonably assume that having nominated Mr. Ross and defended his nomination even after his past remarks surfaced, Sarah Palin has no problem with his statements. I think that it is reasonable to say that Sarah Palin does not represent mainstream Republicanism. She certainly does not represent mainstream Americanism.

I suspect that there are many people out there who like dim Sarah not because of her obvious good looks, or because of her public-speaking facility, but precisely because of her lack of education. They feel that she is one of them; an ordinary dumb person who shares the intolerances and bigotries handed down by generations of ignorant people. They like the fact that she chooses to turn-down federal stimulus money even though it would benefit many people in Alaska (The Alaskan Legislature rebuffed the governor's rejection of $400 million in federal stimulus funds and, instead, stated that it will accept all of the money).

I suspect that there are also people out there who approve of the kind of statements made by Wayne Ross. They may come out of the woodwork for Republican events, but they are not really Republicans. They like it when somebody erects a Ku Klux Klan statue. They like it when the governor of Texas threatens to secede from the Union. They support the militias and other far-right extremists. I don’t think Sarah Palin is one of them, but her casual indifference to their kind of morally reprehensible rhetoric makes all thought of her accession to the presidency worrisome.