posted by Dustin
I think this comment below is an important one to read. It puts Palin's background in perspective and we should really try to understand her appeal in the popular imagination.
Thus we have to be very careful about how we talk about Palin among the politically uniformed, or those who cannot reason to their own interests in this election. Yet even then I'm not very confident in voters ability to discern fact from fiction and wonder if respect really is an effective strategy. It is certainly the moral highroad, and obviously the conscionable thing to do, but what slander has done for Rove et al. has led us to a bloody mess we can ill-afford to repeat any longer. Approach this issue with caution, people minds are going to close quickly. Start with reason, correct misconceptions, but be cautious.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/
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Tuesday, September 2nd 2008
An Alaskan view of Palin
A couple of days ago I wrote that Sarah Palin didn’t bring much to the McCain ticket, and I’m frankly horrified that she got her first passport in July 2007 and has made one trip abroad (to Kuwait and Germany, to see Alaskan National Guard troops). But here is a more nuanced and informed view from a geographer in Alaska, Johanna Haas, who contributed this to a discussion of Palin on a geography list-serve. She agreed to let me republish it:
As a country-girl (from West Virginia), a geographer who studies rural
energy production (right now, the Mat-Su Valley of Alaska - where Palin is
from), and a non-Democrat (Green all the way) - I do feel the need to enter
this debate about Sarah Palin and the vice-presidential nomination.WASILLA -
Wasilla, AK is not that small of a town. About an hour north of Anchorage,
it serves as a goods-and-services hub for a fairly large area. It is
growing at an incredible pace and in the middle of rapid changes. Wasilla
sits in the developed band between Anchorage and Fairbanks that serves as
home to the vast majority of Alaskans. Wasilla has the distinction of being
the largest town between the two cities.It’s not the prettiest place and has more than its fair share of strip malls
- but then most Alaskans love their strip malls and want development at all
costs. In office, Palin encouraged and pushed for this sprawl. In Wasilla,
Palin’s record is that of cutting the budgets of education and arts services
while growing the city’s budget overall. She did expand environmental and
recreational services. Managing this area is a little different task than
that of your average small-town mayor, equating more to the mayor of a
medium-sized city.ENERGY -
I believe that energy is the single most important issue facing Americans
this election. McCain has chosen, in Palin, someone who knows energy
extremely well. (I’m not saying I agree with her positions, just that she
is expert in this area.) Her position on the Alaska Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission was one that involved real work. This commission
oversees many aspects of the state’s only major industry. (Second is
working for the federal government, followed by fishing and tourism). The
Commission hosts a steady docket of hearings and produces a steady line of
reports and other public information.Palin has a reputation of sticking up for the people of Alaska in matters of
energy development. Most Alaskans strongly believe that more development,
more drilling, etc. are always good. They believe they live in the last
frontier, and it is their duty to extract it, tame it, and bring
civilization (in the form of the fore-mentioned strip malls) to it. Palin
backs this position entirely. That said, she does not always back the oil
companies. She has backed pulling leases out of their hands when they have
failed to develop oilfields in a timely manner. She has increased taxation
on oil companies. And, her support of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline with $500K
of government grants, is opposition to the Denali Pipeline to be owned and
operated by the oil companies. (I sat in on pipeline hearings - there are
far bigger problems going on here, ones that Palin’s plan ignores.)ALASKAN POLITICS -
Alaskan politics rotate around two themes:
1) Development is good, and
2) The federal government is bad.Let’s face it - any person who governs AK during times of high oil prices
will be popular. This translates into low taxes and large checks from the
permanent fund, both of which will make people kiss any politician. Palin
managed to make herself even more popular by sending all Alaskans a big
check to help them pay for high oil prices. (Poor, rural Alaskans - read:
Native Alaskans - paid nearly half of their incomes for home heating alone.)Right now, Alaska is up to its neck in corruption investigations. This is
not new - and corruption in the area dates back to its days as a territory,
no - back to its days as a Russian territory. Palin was elected because she
turned her back on the Republican power structure and ran as a maverick.
She has, in the past, run campaigns against the state party and without
their funding or blessing. (If McCain can use this angle, it contains his
real chance of winning.)Palin has a reputation for enhancing party divisions. In her local races,
she ran on issues such as abortion and gun rights that really had little
bearing on the local issues in the area. (Face it - gun control will never
fly in Alaska, no way, no how.) Where Palin’s politics are strongest and
most popular in AK are her anti-federalist positions. She, like many
Alaskans, believe in full state sovereignty. This is the most extreme of
the states’ rights positions, and is gaining traction outside of Alaska.In summary -
I think some people (both in this discussion and out) are writing off Palin
far too quickly and far too easily. What has me so disheartened is the raw
refusal to take the woman seriously - for any number of reasons - many of
which hit home to me in a personal way. You may not like her (I know I
don’t), but you need to respect her. To do any less is to make a serious
strategic error.
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