The Mean Season

Late yesterday evening I received an e-mail from Eric Blair, a regular reader and commenter around here and a friend of mine since the days when we were both part of the commentariat at the blog of the late Cathy Seipp. Like me, Eric is an academic, but works in a different field than mine. Here are Eric's thoughts on the present political scene:

I dislike politics, and dislike this season more than most. Several friends of mine have been forwarding political “talking points” to me with alarming regularity. I don’t find the things they send me thoughtful, nor do I find that they have much new to offer the debate. They are just cutting and pasting the latest from the DNC.

Victor Davis Hanson is an extremely bright classical scholar. I like his writing and his thinking very much.

Add to this mix the horrifically elitist and sexist commentary I have seen---from my neighbors on the Left, no less---and the hypocrisy drives me batty. If a person feels that Governor Palin is underqualified to be VP, okay, I can understand that. What I cannot understand is the sheer level of venom I read from the MSM and blogosphere. The sneering condescension of Charles Gibson’s interview. The sick rumors about her Downs Syndrome son. Why, when her e-mail account was hacked, I have even read pundits claim that it is somehow Govenor Palin’s fault, for not having better e-mail security! This from people who feel it is a criminal act to wiretap a potential terrorist.

As I say, I hate this season.

So, like a sorbet to clear a bad taste from my palate, here is VDH’s take on Sarah Palin. Pass it around, if you care to do so. You have my apologies if you don’t wish to see this essay. Just delete it then...and I think that this is better than the “broadcast” political commercials that friends of mine are sending me (though note that I am not sending those friends this essay, since I am sensitive enough to know that they do not agree!).

Here is Hanson's essay, entitled "Palin and Obama - What Really is Wisdom?" As usual, Hanson makes a number of good points. I particularly liked his explanation of why so many of us feel the way we do about Sarah Palin:

I have been asked by many why I have such confidence in a rookie Alaskan governor, given the rigors of the campaign to follow. (Many Republican pundits apparently do not.) I think we are starting to see the answers to that question. The proverbial “they” hacked into her private email accounts. They swore that her daughter was the real mother of her Down Syndrome baby. They sent legions of reporters and lawyers to Alaska to dig up dirt. They wrote columns suggesting that she was stupid, uneducated, dishonest, a liar, and worse still. All this was the work of moralists, who, in their more extreme manifestations, tried to flood a Chicago radio station to disrupt guests, who doctored photos of McCain to subvert his portrait, who disgraced the Atlantic brand by trafficking in pregnancy rumors, and who now publish the private email of Palin.

And? She is still smiling and apparently unmoved. Had they done this to Biden, he would have gone berserk. Wait—they didn’t do this to Biden, and he seems near berserk in his daily gaffes.

Again, when the proverbial "they" attack Sarah Palin, they're really talking about you, dear reader. On November 4, keep that in mind. I certainly will.