“Pit Bull with Lipstick”

One had the impression on Wednesday night the soldiers of the Base were calling the shots that night, not McCain’s lieutenants. Since Sarah Palin and the revelations about her family drama became the main talking point of the convention, the Base has not only been energized, they have taken control. The moderates, the few that are left in the Party, are sitting on their hands and dreaming about another time and place. As the main speaker of the evening, Sarah proved she is no wallflower; she was confident, articulate, and authentic. She did not write the speech; Matthew Scully who she knew less than a week wrote it. They crafted a humdinger, with plenty of barbs thrown at the Democratic nominee. She talked about her biography, Obama, and McCain who she praised to the skies. The hall roared every needle she stuck in her Obama voodoo doll. There was no discussion of our economic problems or what she might do to make our lives better. The speech was her first step and she did well, but there is a long way to go.

I have two other impressions of the evening.

The first was the emerging hostility toward the Media and the Press. Mike Huckabee was the first to mention it, calling the coverage “tacky.” He added he wanted to thank the Media for unifying the people in the hall and across the nation. This unity was crystallized by that shoddy and unfair treatment of their wonderful convention by those talking heads up in the skyboxes that were besmirching the event with their negative comments. Rudy Guilinai, the keynote speaker, went so far as to call the Media “left wing,” which seemed to really upset Tom Brokaw. He knows better. Carly Florina threw in the charge of sexism. According to her the press was only repeating what the Obama people were putting out. But the later part of the program was so designed that they gave the boys and girls up in the skyboxes no chance to interrupt with their unsympathetic commentary, until the final speeches were over. It was Chuck Todd of MSNBC who was first to notice they were being squeezed out to some extent.

The second thing was the tone of the dominance of the small town mentality of the Base, best represented by Sarah Palin. Bush was never mentioned. Clearly, Sarah was the new embodiment of their philosophy. They have elevated her to a unique position, almost as important as McCain, maybe even more. She’s an insurance policy for the near future. They were the folks of the red states ready to eat red meat. The most meaningful divide between the electorate is between, if you will, the country mouse and the city mouse. Palin represents the rural and small town people of America, a culture that is based on past values and attitudes, the rugged individualist, the rabid patriot, and the Protestant ethic. Contemporary Urban culture is so different to be like night and day. There is more sense of communities and subcultures, of diversity and a complex multiverse of values and perspectives; and religion, for example, plays less a role in people’s lives, where it seems more central for the country mouse. Abortion sits on the saddleback between the two cultures, one pulling one way, the other pulling in the opposite direction. This election will determine so many crucial questions how we will conduct ourselves in the future. Its importance cannot be stressed too much.