I was in Boston (and not blogging much) at our annual political science convention when they announced Palin as the pick. I was standing next to Wilbur Rich and my man Harwood. I laughed aloud. A brilliant pick. Young, charismatic, and committed to the particular brand of conservatism that catapulted Bush into the White House.
It was on.
But looking at her actual record of accomplishments combined with McCain’s what do we have? A couple of lowsmen. McCain was almost dead last in his class. Palin flunked out of three or four colleges. Cobb, writing about why conservatives vote the way they do, notes they do so because they want to be rich. And then backtracks, in large part because there are a large group of what I call broke conservatives who are voting for McCain and Palin not because of what they desire. There’s no way they’ll get rich unless they win the lotto. They won’t even be “well off.”
They vote the way they do out of a fierce desire to protect what they believe to be the national identity. And they also do so because they are vain enough to believe that people like them actually have the capacity to run one of the largest and most powerful institutions in the history of mankind. Finally they do so because they are resentful. Of blacks, of foreigners, of city folk.
I haven’t seen Good Will Hunting in more than a minute. But thinking about these issues and the types of choices we’re facing this is the scene I’m reminded of:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpnFFHxg5a0[/youtube]
Thoughts?
Love this scene. I usually applied it to low-income blackness and what that means and why it keeps getting tied to a certain kind of lived experience, namely that down for the people = down for the hood = down in the hood. Not in college. Not in Martha's Vineyard. Not owning property. Just getting by = cool. Having a stock portfolio = not cool. Etc. That isn't changing and its undertow is FIERCE and hard to shake off even when you are in college, at Martha's Vineyard, have a stock portfolio or own property.
Applying it to Palin makes sense. Scary. But makes sense.
On point.