Sunday, March 7, 2010

Will 'conservatives' let Palin be Palin?

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Author and talk radio host Austin Hill, in a Townhall.com commentary, looks at the phenomenon of apparent "conservatives" who seem to begrudge Sarah Palin her success:
The continual attacks on Palin from the cultural left, while reprehensible, are nonetheless understandable. Given its narrow-minded allegiance to stereotypes, liberal America simply doesn’t know what to do with a sexy, telegenic woman who believes in things like traditional marriage and American exceptionalism. Women who believe as Palin does, so the liberal assumptions go, are supposed to fit the frumpy, dowdy, "church-lady" description. But Palin shatters that assumption, and thus, the left’s response to her is to lash-out.

But regardless of one’s political or cultural leanings, any American who feels uncomfortable in the face of Palin’s recent choices and fortunes should ask themselves “why?” Why is it so unnerving to observe a woman in the public eye rise from modest, middleclass status, to wealthy, high-powered celebrity status, in less than two years?

[...]

“But if she keeps charging people for photos and all of that” a caller to my talk show told me, “she’s going to irritate her core supporters.” Yep, Sarah Palin’s choices may very well alienate her supporters. And without our government guaranteeing economic outcomes, all our economic choices entail a level of risk. But Palin is nonetheless free to charge for photos, risky as that may be - and I’m free to decide whether or not to buy them.

Will “conservatives” let Palin be Palin? Will Americans allow the “free market” to remain free?
We suspect that some of Austin's callers are deceiving him, a prospect that the author doesn't delve into beyond putting quote marks around the word "conservative" when discussing these callers. There's an old expression for such callers to conservative talk shows -- "seminar" callers. Seminar callers are "progressive" operatives who routinely call conservative talk shows posing as conservatives and working to undermine the conservative cause. Also known as trolls and sock puppets, the use of such operatives has long been a tactic of Democrats and other leftists.

The never-ending Obama campaign actively recruits seminar callers and other operatives to call targeted talk shows and get the Obamunist talking points in. It recently set up a website for that very purpose to try to get ObamaCare passed. Be ye not deceived. A corollary to the seminar caller is the seminar poster, who does to conservative websites what seminar callers do to talk shows. And they're not just about ObamaCare.

The same seminar tactics are being used to try to undermine support for Sarah Palin among her base. A variation on the prototype is what our friends at Conservatives 4 Palin have dubbed "concern trolls." Concern trolls pose on conservative websites and call radio talk shows pretending to be Sarah Palin supporters and expressing their "concern" that what the governor is doing or saying or not will somehow hurt her. We suspect that not just a few of Auston Hill's callers are concern trolls. 

True supporters of Sarah Palin are well aware that Gov. Palin has uncanny political instincts, and they have never failed her. True Palin supporters know that The Arctic Fox is going to do what she wants to do, so all discussion about whether such actions or words on her part will serve her well are moot points. We trust her, and we trust her instincts. Let Sarah be Sarah!

The full Austin Hill op-ed is here.

- JP

2 comments:

  1. Both the DNC and Organizing for America have instructed their followers to target conservative radio shows as well as websites, to pose as conservatives who have lost respect for Palin. It's surprising that this guy doesn't know that, and it's a bit worrying, that some don't keep up with what is going on.

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  2. These are the facts.

    Most of Americans consider themselves conservatives. The Tea Party movement is mainly made up of conservatives. Sarah is respected highly among the Tea Party movement. Many conservatives said that when they voted, they voted for Palin not McCain. So I know that these so called disgruntled Palin callers are liberal seminar callers. The Neoconservative newbloods are the ones on the right who mainly don't like Palin. The grass roots love her.

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