“Palin, unlike some of her rivals who feel some kind of lingering need to relate their policies to fiscal and global reality, is a thoroughly post-modern creature. She creates her own reality, and that is an incredibly important talent for a party base that desperately wants to live in another reality (a kind of souped-up version of 1950s culture and late nineteenth century economy). Her book - a fictional account of an imagined life - sold well with the GOP base because they too want a fictional account of America’s current standing in the world and an imagined set of viable policy positions. She so lives and breathes this magical-realist culture she doesn’t need to channel it. She knows we can keep social security and Medicare and global power for ever and balance the budget without any taxes - because that is what she wants to know. And she has never let reality get in her way.”
Recently, I was reminded via Wordpress-comment-notification that my old site—or rather a post I wrote for it some time ago—is (bizarrely) Google-optimized for the rhetoric & composition term Engfish, thanks to this bit I wrote on Sarah Palin. I re-read it, and you know what? It’s pretty good.
Palin is politically insane, but theoretically and pedagogically fascinating.
