Prejudice Towards (Bristol) Palin (Update: We Have a Winner–Not Bristol)
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; send your tips here.]
Update: Bristol Palin said, “Going out there and winning… would be like a big middle finger to all the people out there who hate my mom and hate me.” Heh. But let’s not forget, this is a dance competition.
Update (II): And Bristol was third place, out of the top three. So hopefully no more televisions will have to die. And the winner was Jennifer Grey.
I’ve pointed out before how often attacks on Sarah Palin were based on prejudice toward her, writing:
To pre-judge a person is to literally “judge before.” Before what? Before it is appropriate, before you have all the facts. Of course normally we think of prejudice as being based on specific traits. Racial prejudice is to judge a man by his skin color, rather than getting enough facts to judge him as an individual. But it can be based on anything.
Take for instance, Sarah Palin. Liberals have convinced themselves that Palin is a moron. So when Sarah Palin told a crowd of Tea Partiers that it was too soon to “party like its 1773” liberals freaked out. OMG, she is so stupid. Doesn’t she know the American Revolution was in 1776? As well documented by Cuffy Meigs, Markos Moulitsas, Gwen Ifil (who moderated Palin’s debate with Joe Biden) and others mocked her in that fashion.
One guy, Steve Paulo showed enough introspection to wonder “WTF happened in 1773?!” Well, hey, I was a history major, but I couldn’t rattle off every event of any year, 1773 or otherwise. But I can google. As of this moment the first link I get is this. You only have to page down once to discover that in December of that year was the original Boston Tea Party. You know, the event that the Tea Party is self-consciously invoking with its very name? Yeah, that one.
And well, it’s really hard to come up with a better example of the seething, prejudicial hatred felt toward the Palins than this little bit involving Bristol Palin. It turns out that the WaPo/ABC was so worked up over a dancing show (only slightly less lame than the annual Harvard/Yale football game) that they actually commissioned a poll. And supposedly the results are devastating:
Fifty-four percent of Americans think Bristol is one of the finalists on “Dancing With the Stars” because of large-scale voting by viewers who support her mother, according to a poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News.
Just 14 percent of respondents think Bristol is still in the competition because she is one of this season’s best dancers on the show.
An additional 26 percent responded that they had no opinion on the subject. (The remaining respondents cited either “both” reasons or “neither.”)
Only there is one problem as pointed out by NewsBusters’ Tim Graham: “ABC and the Post did not limit the poll to people who told them they had actually ever watched Palin’s daughter on the program. It was a random sample. So the ‘sampling error’ also has a ‘non-viewing error’ in it.” Indeed, Neilson estimates that around 23 million people watched the show last night, or around 8% of the American population. So it seems pretty obvious that the majority of those people telling us that Bristol Palin did not get to the finals even partially based on her abilities have not even watched the performance. They just hear the word Palin and they automatically say whatever is the most negative thing about her.
Meanwhile, Ann Althouse has way too much fun mocking Sally Quinn for her hypocrisy about the supposed cheating going on, in the voting. Really read it all to watch the woman get a shellacking.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
Just finished the latest issue of National Review. I would suggest that Florence King would be one of those who’d respond reflexively against a Palin, any Palin, in the polls. There’s a creeping elitism among conservatives who wish that they could hang around with the liberal big shots. They seem to envy that Ivy League patina. They look down on community college types, like Palin, and consider them inherently ignorant.
King pictures Palin, Angle, and O’Donnell as the three Fates on Segways. Personally, I’d rather have a Palin, with basically sound values and decent common judgement, than another in the long list of “experts” from Yale and Harvard.
Gesundheit (aab7c6) — 11/23/2010 @ 2:22 pmThere’s a creeping elitism among conservatives who wish that they could hang around with the liberal big shots. They seem to envy that Ivy League patina.
That is the money shot ….. it is only after you have spent your youth among the Ivy Rot that you realise how much smarter, and better informed, your uneducated parents are in comparison them.
What is sad is the “aspirational” pretensions of those who say they are conservative yet promote the very collectivist, centralized control dogma of the Left.
Torquemada (a8a9b2) — 11/23/2010 @ 2:43 pmThe Sally Quinn piece about DWTS as quoted and dissected by Althouse is awesome!!! It gave rise to a good old fashioned laugh-out-loud guffaw that startled the cat. There’s just nothing quite like a crystal clear example of Lib hypocrisy to warm a nice late fall afternoon. Thanks for posting it, AW.
elissa (036455) — 11/23/2010 @ 2:43 pmWhy does a high school level story about – unbelievably enough – DWTS qualify to be in the “On Faith” section of the WaPo? Is this some sort of new massive spiritual dumbing-down on the paper’s part?
(Quinn may not remember her 10 Commandments but if she actually opened the Book, she’d find some choice stuff about hypocrites. It ain’t too purty.)
Dana (8ba2fb) — 11/23/2010 @ 3:07 pmI’ve respected and admired Sarah Palin ever since I heard her speak at the Republican convention. I actually watched the entire DWS last evening, and I have to say Bristol is no dancer. She has no business being in the finals, and I say that as someone who has no problem with her mother being in the White House.
mo (f08b4f) — 11/23/2010 @ 3:20 pmI would suggest that Florence King would be one of those who’d respond reflexively against a Palin, any Palin, in the polls. There’s a creeping elitism among conservatives who wish that they could hang around with the liberal big shots.
I don’t think that is entirely fair to Florence King. Yep, she probably doesn’t like Sarah Palin, but she pretty much hates all populist politicians. Her old column at NR was called “The Misanthrope’s Corner” you may recall. I don’t agree with her regarding Palin, but I can assure you that the last thing in the world that Miss King wants to do is hang out with liberal big shots.
JVW (9bed62) — 11/23/2010 @ 3:27 pm==They seem to envy that Ivy League patina==
Don’t we need to be very careful not to fall into the trap that perpetuates the notion that all Ivy League and Ivy League-esque grads are pompous liberals, while conservatives, libertarians and tea party types place a different value on the level of education and intellectual heft? There is certainly plenty of truth to the stereotype of the nose in the air eastern “liberal elite”, but this is a narrative that really does not incorporate or reflect the important contributions and sheer number of Ivy League grads among the people we all probably know and highly respect within those three intersecting right leaning “groups”. Being an “anti elite” is in some ways quite similar to being an “elitist snob”, I think. I personally favor a Team R tent that has room and respect for Harvard PHDs as well as those with GEDs.
elissa (036455) — 11/23/2010 @ 3:39 pmOur host is an Ivy League grad.
JVW (9bed62) — 11/23/2010 @ 3:44 pmJVW #8 – so *that* explains it !
{/me *mallards*, grinning}
Alasdair (6c03a9) — 11/23/2010 @ 3:50 pmJVW
I remember once ann coulter said that clarence thomas has the disdain for liberal elitism that you can really only gain from an Ivy League school. I can totally relate.
Aaron Worthing (b8e056) — 11/23/2010 @ 3:57 pmThere are wise Ivy Leaguers, and then there is Frum, Weisberg, (Yale) Yglesias, Alter, (Harvard) Uygur (Penn), Olbermann (Cornell) well you get the picture
narciso (82637e) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:04 pmI grew to dislike Ivy Leaguers after growing up for much of my childhood in Kenilworth among them – and then my brief time in Aspen really put the dislike level at eleventy. Then I’ve had to endure MBA’s from those schools at almost every corporate gig I had – although there are doubtless many valued grads from all of those schools, the attitudes I encountered were so stereotypical you’d think it was a parody if it wasn’t real.
Dmac (498ece) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:13 pmnarcisco
um, didn’t ann coulter reveal that olbermann actually went to a different cornell than “the” cornell?
Aaron Worthing (b8e056) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:16 pmYes he certainly did, AW – and Keef blew a gasket on air attempting to prove that he still did graduate from a school adjunct from Cornell.
Dmac (498ece) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:22 pmnarc
ah, yeah, here we go. this is olbermann rebutting her… by saying she is basically right.
I mean he admits that she had to pay $10K more to go to her school, but they were really the same.
Aaron Worthing (b8e056) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:24 pmoh, sorry, forgot the link.
Aaron Worthing (b8e056) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:25 pmDmac–
To your point, there are the lovely stereotypical folks who manage to work into any conversation–usually within the first three minutes–that they went to Yale. But I think there are many, many others out there like my neighbor, an attorney we’ve known for over twenty years, but who we found out just last year (quite by accident) is a graduate of Harvard Law.
elissa (036455) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:32 pmI can’t speak for other fields of study. But when I earned my PhD from an institution in Palo Alto, California, I had a seminar (as did every PhD grad) on how to behave at other institutions.
The same could be said for everyday life.
There are very smart and successful people who never went to college, and their folks with multiple degrees from Ivies who can’t hold a job.
It is the person, not the edifice, that matter.
In my opinion, anyway. Which is why Olbermann’s little bragfest made me wince and shake my head.
Eric Blair (720ce1) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:35 pmDWTS is a dance competition only in the loosest sense of the word. It’s more like a popularity contest, and Bristol isn’t the first one to make the finals who wasn’t a very good dancer, and not as good as others eliminated before her/him. She’s just the first to generate such vitriol.
mbs (3f5b58) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:40 pmelissa @ 7,
Well said.
It is the person, not the edifice, that matter.
Absolutely. Nothing beats being able to look oneself in mirror at the end of the day with a clear conscience.
Dana (8ba2fb) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:56 pmBut when I earned my PhD from an institution in Palo Alto, California, I had a seminar (as did every PhD grad) on how to behave at other institutions.
Eric, I had no idea you have a degree from The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Do those students drink at The Oasis Beer Garden too?
JVW (9bed62) — 11/23/2010 @ 4:59 pmWhat can I say? The only reason Sarah Palin didn’t get my vote was her running mate. I watch DWTS, or more precisely, my wife does, and I keep her company.
And I can’t see any other reason for Bristol Palin to have survived so long on the show. It sure isn’t her dancing…
Brett Bellmore (48aeab) — 11/23/2010 @ 5:07 pmI agree with elissa. Mitch Daniels is a Princeton grad and I’d hate to see Republicans use that as a basis to eliminate him from the list of potential nominees.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 11/23/2010 @ 5:19 pmBrett
fair enough. my point was about the people who decided she stank without actually, you know, watching and seeing for themselves.
myself, i watched the show and i couldn’t tell the difference, honestly. But then i have little appreciation of this kind of crud. dance doesn’t speak to me, on any level.
Aaron Worthing (b8e056) — 11/23/2010 @ 5:23 pmShe was wrong about that. My recollection is that he went to the Ag school. That is Cornell University. In-state residents often go there to save money because some of the schools on campus are state schools and cost less. But they are still Cornell University. I say that as a grad of the (non-state) School of Arts and Sciences.
Patterico (d519ff) — 11/23/2010 @ 6:01 pmPatterico
Ah, i was hoping to see the olberhead a little deflated. But you don’t always get what you want.
Aaron Worthing (b8e056) — 11/23/2010 @ 6:05 pmEnough of this fixation on Bristol Palin. Who cares about Bristol Palin?!! One more post on Bristol Palin and I promise you, I am gonna shoot my monitor!
The Emperor (0ab629) — 11/23/2010 @ 6:16 pmJVS, I haven’t back to the Farm in a long time. But I have been to the O, and also to the St. James Infirmary in Mountain View, complete with giant Wonder Woman statue.
In loving memory of Little Leland, right?
Eric Blair (720ce1) — 11/23/2010 @ 6:39 pmAnd I hadn’t heard of this:
http://www.itp.edu/academics/spotlight/sufism.php
Wow.
Eric Blair (720ce1) — 11/23/2010 @ 6:43 pmThere’s a creeping elitism among conservatives who wish that they could hang around with the liberal big shots. They seem to envy that Ivy League patina.
If these big shots have done something of substance in hard science, including biology, I’d be suitably impressed. But academics best known for propagating their lefty views, or trying to hijack science to that end, leave me aquiver with ennui.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (fb9e90) — 11/23/2010 @ 6:49 pmThe poll would have been more accurate if there had been a fourth choice:
Do you think: 4) Bristol is getting votes from people because they know every time she advances in the show, people who hate Sarah Palin have an aneurysm?
Having seen a couple of the episodes this season, I’d concur with what others have pointed out–that she has no business being in the finals. These are spite votes by people who want to see leftists chimp out about anything positive happening to someone named “Palin.” But you know what? If the system is that flawed, then the voting needs to be limited to the judges.
Some perspective for the leftists and commenters on this site who think this is some sort of stain on our society: It’s a got-d*mn celebrity reality show. If you believe this is a culture-defining moment, you really need to think about serious therapy and perhaps some time in a padded cell.
Besides, if the magnificent, yummy Stacy Keibler couldn’t win, then did the show ever have any real legitimacy? 🙂
Another Chris (2e9afa) — 11/23/2010 @ 7:01 pmOne other thing–if you’re getting worked up about Palin making it to the finals and not the Disney kid (who wasn’t all that great compared to some of the other dancers, either, from what I saw), then you’re really in no position to be complaining about how Bristol’s somehow “stealing” a more deserving celeb’s spot.
Another Chris (2e9afa) — 11/23/2010 @ 7:04 pmanother chris
see the quote i added at the beginning. it seems really apropos to what you said.
Aaron Worthing (b8e056) — 11/23/2010 @ 7:17 pm“It’s a got-d*mn celebrity reality show. If you believe this is a culture-defining moment, you really need to think about serious therapy and perhaps some time in a padded cell.”
Welcome to the lamestream, bristol.
imdw (8bb588) — 11/23/2010 @ 7:21 pmAmen to what Another Chris said. That show lost all legitimacy when Stacy Keibler was voted off.
JD (eb5afc) — 11/23/2010 @ 7:23 pmIf you can watch that, while the Sons of Anarchy is on, you have serious issues.
JD (eb5afc) — 11/23/2010 @ 7:26 pmOK, back after a long break for the day job.
Florence King fits the word “misanthrope” like a glove, but her misanthropy isn’t just aimed at progressives. Try these bits from her description of the Tea Partiers… “To present themselves as an informed citizenry, they went along with the who, what, where, and when of the journalistic lede, but they balked at the why. Denizens of respectability and repression beneath their rage, they recoiled from the threatening cerebral practice of thinking things through. A little insight is a dangerous thing; it might reveal something you do not want to know or admit, so they reject it out of hand as passivity; thought instead of action, that dreaded intellectual approach to ideas that signals the elitists are at the gates.”
She targets Palin specifically later, but her column is about the intellectual unsuitability of the Tea Partiers – those hoi polloi with a fear of elites.
I don’t fear elites – nor do I have any animus toward them. If Patterico got his monies worth from an Ivy league school, that’s great. And if some of the would-be leaders of our party have developed, through that experience, the skills and personal contacts that will help the cause, then I hope they use them. But I still think that the *primary* reason that certain people have an aversion to Sarah Palin (and by extension any member of her family who hits the limelight) is because she’s a very ordinary lady with decent political and moral instincts who doesn’t talk like an intellectual. She mixes up words and she’s easy for our cultural elites to poke fun at – just like GWBush. She is an embarrasment to people like King.
I have a very low tolerance for that attitude. My father was a salt-of-the-earth, self-educated man who I believe had a better sense for the right direction of our nation than many a man who has been elected to steer it.
Gesundheit (aab7c6) — 11/23/2010 @ 7:42 pmIt is a dance competition – not everything is about her or her mom. She lost – get over it.
vor2 (802475) — 11/23/2010 @ 7:58 pmTasteless on her part and silly of news organizations to run polls on it.
But truth be told, just watched a clip of Bristol Palin on DWTS, on YouTube. And honestly, I thought she was hot.. Maybe she merits a little praise for her effort. She’s hawt!
The Emperor (0ab629) — 11/23/2010 @ 8:09 pmIt is a competition, but I’m not so sure about the dancing part.
I’m just relieved to know that Sally Quinn will no longer have to release Norman Lear’s hand while she votes five times on each of her six phone lines to preserve the sanctity of her “religion of dance.”
They don’t even know they’re strange, do they?
Ag80 (e828a4) — 11/23/2010 @ 8:32 pmAbsolutely. Nothing beats being able to look oneself in mirror at the end of the day with a clear conscience.
Comment by Dana — 11/23/2010 @ 4:56 pm
Amy Daczycyn, frugality expert, used to say that there weren’t any million-dollar Madison Avenue ad campaigns for the feeling of security that having savings in the bank brings you, that one broken window or blown gasket wouldn’t put you over the financial edge, but that that feeling was so much better than any store-bought trinket nevertheless.
People spend so much of life trying to justify misdeeds large and small (and Heaven knows I’ve spent my share of time doing the same) and chasing money fame and pleasure etc. but a clear conscience truly is better than anything on Earth.
no one you know (72db9b) — 11/23/2010 @ 8:36 pmHi NOYK. Nice to see you again. 🙂
The Emperor (0ab629) — 11/23/2010 @ 8:38 pmGot to catch the second showing of “S of A”….pissed…
reff (b43ea5) — 11/23/2010 @ 8:50 pmBristol showed herself to be a very charming and capable dancer last night. She did quite well, much better than i expected but its obvious she was not as good as Brandy who she defeated the week before…and its obvious why Brandy was defeated.
vietnameravet (35c6c1) — 11/24/2010 @ 6:05 amShe is likable in a kind of honest way and has a shy smile that wins your heart.
I was disappointed to hear her refer to “the haters” as that was a low point. Sounds like her mother. Her critics on the show never said anything like that about her even though it was obvious what had happened.
Unfortunately she fell victim to the same disease that Aaron Worthing, the guy that started this thread has. They both have that all-so-typical conservative attitude that there can be no such thing as honest disagreement only good guys and the haters.
Aaron you show your total ignorance and closed mindedness in your lack of understanding as to the root causes of the anger many feel toward toward S Palin. In your world its all a matter of seething liberal hatred and has nothing to do with Bristol’s obvious inferior dancing abilities when compared to Brandy nor to her mothers obvious lack of serious thinking skills.
But in your mind I guess you now have to include Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and now Barbara Bush both of whom have attacked the mama grizzly.
But dont let facts get in the way of your obvious fearful prejudice and ignorance.
But ending on a better note, Bristol is a lovely girl and I for one wish her well.
How did you keep your head from assploding when you typed that, vev?
JD (6e25b4) — 11/24/2010 @ 6:29 amI find that vev’s posting is
Dmac (498ece) — 11/24/2010 @ 7:48 amvery strange in that
he seems to have trouble typing in coherent sentences as well as
formatting in a comprehensive manner
also strange that he only shows up here during the holidays
he’s nutty as a fruitbat
I don’t get Sons of Anarchy all that much, but Terriers is awesome (watch anything with Donal Logue), and looking forward to next season of Justified. Still miss The Shield, but the new Sean Ryan show on Fox (set and filmed in Chicago) looks like another winner.
Dmac (498ece) — 11/24/2010 @ 7:50 amJustified and Sons of Anarchy might be my 2 favorite television shows, ever. Burn Notice and Rescue Me and Criminal Minds are only slightly less awesome.
JD (0d2ffc) — 11/24/2010 @ 8:26 amI find the running commentary on “Burn Notice ” very interesting- not sure if it is BS, though.
MD in Philly (cac12c) — 11/24/2010 @ 8:43 amdmac
I loved the shield and loved the recent BattleStar Galactica. Can’t get into caprica, though.
But if you didn’t watch BSG, you really should at least try it. give it 6 episodes and see if you are not hooked.
And it doesn’t hurt that all the cylon women are smokin’ hot. Resistance is futile, indeed.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 11/24/2010 @ 8:46 amPrejudice against a Palin? No, nobody had an opinion about these people before they burst onto the national scene. Dislike for the parents is simply deserved.
I was astonished about the middle finger story, and didn’t (never have) watched DWTS (the few minutes I have caught of most reality shows tells me there is just nothing there), so I searched for online video. As for the dancing, Bristol looked like she was trying hard (she definitely lacks a dancer’s body). As for the middle finger quote, I found it interesting that it came out in this walk-and-talk conversation in an uncertain-sounding voice. Poor girl has been handed some extremely bizarre notions as to what is considered dignified conduct–and more and more, I think celebrity types (like her parents) contribute to this confusion among young people. Then, of course, you have ABC gobbling up the moment to create buzz. Forget about elitism and ‘oi polloi–let’s start with atrocious behavior under the spotlight.
SRM (326874) — 11/25/2010 @ 7:39 amThe dislike is deserved? Atrocious behavior? Methinks you are telling us more about you than them.
JD (6e25b4) — 11/25/2010 @ 8:50 am