The XX Factor: What women really think.

What Happens in Des Moines ...

Palin and Uniters and Dividers

You're absolutely right, of course, to say that Sarah Palin has been a divider, not a uniter. I didn't see it because I wasn't looking for it. Even though I'm in a bit of a unique situation—I'm geographically planted in Ohio while spending my days virtually on the East Coast—at the end of the day, I'm one of those average folks in Middle America to whom Palin is speaking.

But if we can continue our conversation, I think it's important, while ackowledging the negativity, to ask, what does Sarah Palin have to gain from reaching out to East Coast elites, to the "residents of downtown Seattle" as you write? (And I think we can all agree that no one has ever lost points for running against "Washington insiders," right?) How many votes will that get her? Let's look at the reaction to her nomination. Obama spokesman Bill Burton made fun of the fact she was a small-town mayor (yes, Obama issued his own more tactful statement shortly after). Nancy Pelosi questioned John McCain's judgment. In the days between her debut in Dayton, Ohio, and her convention speech, critics and media members questioned her ability to juggle a campaign and an infant with Down syndrome, made fun of her kids' names, and demanded to see her son Trig's birth certificate. One of my personal favorite reactions came from the day after the speech, when the New York Times' David Carr wrote that before Palin arrived in St. Paul that "there was a lot of sniggering in media rooms and satellite trucks about her beauty queen looks and rustic hobbies, and the suggestion that she was better suited to be a calendar model for a local auto body shop than a holder of the second-highest office in the land" and, later, that "journalists wrinkled their noses in disgust when Piper, Ms. Palin's youngest daughter, was filmed kitty-licking her baby brother's hair into place. But to many Americans—including some I talked to in the convention hall—that looked like family church on Sunday, evidence of good breeding and sibling regard." [Emphasis mine.] I give him credit for his candor and for actually seeking out what ol' Joe and Jane Six-Pack thought of that moment, but what on earth can Sarah Palin do or say to win over people who think it's disgusting when a little girl spit-shines her tiny brother's hair, who chuckle about a governor as a "auto body shop" pinup girl? Since the financial crisis has hit, she has spoken to the concerns of all Americans, pointing out that she and her husband can relate because they've taken a hit in their 401(k) and their savings and because they worry about sending their kids to college. But I know you're looking for more from her. That's fair, and it's something the Republicans might regret if they lose this election.

You are also right that Obama gave an incredible speech at the 2004 convention. (His speech on race during the primaries was excellent, too.) I thought it was refreshing and different. But let's not forget that he also felt compelled to tell his wealthy audience at a San Francisco fundraiser that when people in other parts of the country struggle, "they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." Let's not forget that he came to Ohio during the primaries and said he opposed NAFTA and criticized Hillary Clinton for supporting it, only to have an economic adviser reassure the Canadians that Obama wasn't about "fundamentally changing" the agreement. Obama talks of hope and change and uniting us all, but when push comes to shove, he can be just like any other politician, saying what he has to say to get elected.

If Obama wins, I hope he can be transformative, that he can make progress in helping Americans set aside their differences. I'm not such a partisan that I want to endure four years of misery just so the Republicans can take back the White House in 2012. If McCain wins and the "pit bull in lipstick" is down the hall in the West Wing, I hope they can accomplish the same thing. But, just like Palin said in her debate with Joe Biden, that in response to he credit crisis Americans need to step up and stop taking on debt that they can't afford and live within their means, the same goes for our discourse. We're not going to get anywhere, regardless of who's president, as long as we're calling one another Dumbocrats and Rethuglicans. If someone wants to convince me that President Bush is the devil, they shouldn't start out by calling him Chimpy McBushitler. Here in the friendly confines of our little blog, we tend to limit ourselves to healthy and respectful debate, but that doesn't happen everywhere.

Palin: It's Us vs. Them

Dahlia, you've put your finger on the reason my initial enthusiasm for Sarah Palin evaporated the minute she opened her mouth; it isn't her conservatism that rankles, but her bile. (Today, for example, she accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country'' because he happened to serve on a charity board on education reform with a '60s radical whose views he has denounced. According to the New York Times story Palin was referencing—and deliberately misrepresenting—"[t]he two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of [William] Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.' ")

We could have disagreed on every issue in the multiverse, and I would still have applauded John McCain's choice of a strong, conservative, pro-life feminist—yes!—who actually walked the walk. But Palin's whole up-your-nose-with-a-rubber-hose presentation—it's us-vs.-them on steroids, really—gives the lie to her talk of bipartisanship. She sells herself as a can-do frontierswoman, but also as the poor-me victim of reporters so mean that they dared ask her what she believes. And her overt contempt for difference makes a joke of her promise to bring all Americans together; her loudest shout-out at the debate wasn't to third graders, but to haters. She bragged that she's such a tolerant person that "I have a very diverse family and group of friends and even within that group you would see some who may not agree with me on this issue, some very dear friends who don't agree with me on this issue'' of gay marriage. But people who really are tolerant of other viewpoints are not quite so painfully aware of their own saintly forbearance; that she finds it worth reporting that she has friends who have friends who might be gay—at least, I think that's what she said—in fact suggests a lack of respect. And except for killing her own meat, she has nothing in common with my grandma.

Home Is Where the Heartland Is

Rachael, I think you’ve put your finger on Sarah Palin’s “heartland” problem, but perhaps not in a way for which you will thank me. Accepting your premise that Palin deploys the term not in a geographic sense, but to express her “experience, ideology, and personality,” it seems Palin can’t stop herself from using the word in the way she uses so many other regional terms: as a way to rope off the Americans who matter from those who do not.

Palin’s constant use of geographic and class code words—“East coasters,” “media elites,” and “Washington insiders”—reflects just how steeped she is in Ginsu politics: The slicing and dicing of Americans into those who deserve her respect and those who warrant only contempt. As you have eloquently observed, “People are similar wherever you go.” But Gov. Palin just does not seem to share that worldview. I am trying to think of a single sentence she has uttered that has evinced compassion for the residents of downtown Seattle or for the entire East Coast she likes to write off with a wink and a sneer. Whatever you may say about Barack Obama, his 2004 convention speech was transformative in that it renounced the view that some Americans count more than others, based on artificial geographic or religious divisions. Rachael, try as I may, I cannot think of a single compassionate, elevating, or ennobling sentiment Palin has ever expressed toward Americans with which she disagrees—unless you count parroting Ronald Reagan. I can’t think of a single instance in which she has expressed or implied that Americans have more in common than not, and that were she to be elected, she would be respectful of and accountable to all of them, including East Coasters, environmentalists, and community organizers.

Heartland: A Place or a State of Mind?

Noreen,

You ask why it doesn't bother me that Sarah Palin claims a connection to the "heartland." I would chalk it up to a couple of reasons. For one, every time I see a picture from Wasilla, I'm reminded of the small town in North Dakota that my husband grew up in: the tiny city hall, the barely there downtown (except that Alaska's got all that gorgeous scenery). Though I've never been to Alaska, such images make it feel like an extension of the Great Plains, which are definitely part of the "heartland."

Secondly, I guess I take "heartland" less as a shorthand for folksiness and more as shorthand for non-big-city America. In an office conversation earlier today, our colleague Tim Noah pointed out that more Americans live in cities than in small towns, and this blog post in the Wall Street Journal looks at the numbers. The Census Bureau says that 80 percent of us live in metropolitan areas and only 20 percent elsewhere. But it's not that black and white. Some metropolitan areas dwarf others, and not every city is surrounded by the same bland, sprawling suburbs. The "suburb" I live in is actually a town that was founded in the early 1800s and has its own schools, a quaint downtown, and its own identity.

I grew up in a small town. I lived for eight years in the burbs of one our most vibrant and beautiful cities, Seattle. Now I live near Cincinnati, a place the Census Bureau would call a metropolitan area but one that feels minuscule compared with megalopolises like New York or Los Angeles and even considerably smaller than big cities like Seattle or Atlanta. One thing I've learned in my various experiences is that in many ways, people are similar wherever you go. People want a lot of the same things out of life and have many of the same concerns. And thanks to the mobility we enjoy, a lot of people in the big cities come from the heartland. But there are differences. And thank god. One of the things that I love passionately about this country is that it offers such a diversity of lifestyles. If you want to live somewhere where you can have a working-class job and still afford a sizable home for your family, where everyone knows everyone and half the town goes to the high school football games on Friday nights, there are thousands of places for that. If you want to live somewhere where you need to be an executive to afford an 800-square-foot waterfront condo that's within walking distance of Whole Foods and public transportation, well, did I mention Seattle? If you want to work 80 hours a week and be a millionaire, move to Wall Street. Want to be a surf bum or ski bum? The West is calling to you.

Noreen, my fellow Buckeye, you're from a part of Ohio that is definitely hurting more than some other parts of the heartland. I grew up in northeastern Ohio, and I remember the steel plants closing in the 1970s and my neighbors getting laid off. I remember when my grandfather moved his men's clothing store off of Main Street because the area was dying. I know how real that pain is, even if I'm more removed from it these days, and I can see why voters might think that Sarah Palin can't relate. At the same time, it's a problem that's been going on for decades, and I think people are going to be sorely disappointed if they're waiting for the federal government to fix it.

But, to circle back to your original question, when Sarah Palin says she's from the heartland, I get it on some level. Governing an oil-rich state with a budget surplus is indeed different than governing a state that is losing jobs and trying to figure out what to cut from the budget to save the schools and build roads. But most of us make our voting decisions based on a combination of a politican's skills, experience, ideology, and personality. Her experience might not scream "heartland," but her personality does.

Heartburn

Marjorie, I couldn't agree more about Sarah Palin's convenient geographic confusion—why are people letting her get away with saying her Alaska roots give her a "connection to the heartland"? And Rachael, fellow Ohioan, why doesn't that bug you?

I get that the heartland is an easy shorthand for "folksiness." And the specifics she cited have a lot of resonance, sure: worries about a special needs child, a son in the military, the cost of college and of health care. But context is important. It's very different to be sitting around the kitchen table in Wasilla worrying about those things than it is in Ohio, where your local economy isn't hemorrhaging just jobs, but entire industries. The "heartland" she references so glibly formed its identity and its values from the industries—manufacturing, agriculture—that are rapidly changing or disappearing, and that's a large part of what makes the piecemeal worries about health care and tuition weigh far more heavily than the sum of their parts for people who live there. Palin made a big deal about American exceptionalism last night, but Alaskan exceptionalism is far more germane—as she pointed out last night, it's the "nation's only Arctic state." You can define the heartland as broadly as you want, but Alaska just isn't in it.

Alaska's economy, thanks to oil revenues, has been likened to that of Abu Dhabi. The state has a budget surplus. There are relatively few manufacturing jobs and few illegal aliens, so there's not the looming specter of losing jobs overseas or to cheaper labor here. The state has the lowest individual tax burden. She's co-opting—and cheapening—a narrative that she has had no real contact with. Living in Wasilla is nothing like living in the rapidly changing modern heartland. That bothers me on a visceral level, but what troubles me on a deeper one is that that means she has no experience in what it's like to govern in the non-Abu Dhabi parts of America and very little context that would help her learn to do so, fluency in "doggone" and "gosh darns" put aside.

There's plenty about Alaska that makes it symbolically appealing as uniquely American, and the same goes for Palin, I'm sure. But from where I'm sitting, this seems like the most plausible heartland connection she's got.