S.E. Cupp: Sarah Palin is happy, and her enemies know it

Liberalism needs to imagine an unhappy populace.
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We've lost count of the number of op-eds and blog posts written on the subject of why liberals hate Sarah Palin. Many of the authors of those pieces say it is because she is pro-life. Some contend that it is simply because she's a conservative woman. Still others cite the way she relates to ordinary Americans as the reason why elites on the left (and the right) spit their venom at her. In her latest column, S.E. Cupp offers a novel explanation for the left's anti-Palin hysteria:

It seems everyone wants a piece of Palin these days. Some are fans, some are hostile foes. But regardless, we just can't stop talking about her. Will there ever be a time when we decide that we've figured her out and there's nothing else to say?

And then it hit me. The reason Palin has become such a lightening rod, a kingmaker and a punching bag, a celebrity and a power player, is simple. It's because she's so gosh darn happy.

For her fans, like the ones I had the pleasure of meeting in Chicago [at a C4P meetup], she's refreshingly upbeat and resilient, the bubbly friend from childhood who was always great at cheering you up and cheerleading you on.

But for her detractors, nothing raises the ire of cynical liberals more than a happy-go-lucky, totally unburdened, freethinking and self-assured conservative woman who has everything she wants and then some.

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Liberalism, after all, needs to imagine an unhappy populace. Passing sweeping entitlement programs and convincing voters that big government is the answer only works if people are frustrated with their stations in life.

Thus Palin is a real threat to front-office operations.

And Sarah Palin, more than almost any other public political figure, represents the "can do" rugged individualism and self-reliance that liberals fear most. She's not just running her household. She ran her state! And in her new documentary series, we see that independent streak clear as glacier water. Whether she's casting for salmon or scaling the rockface at Denali, she's smiling - and just won't quit.

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Cupp may be on to something here. After all, it was Sarah Palin herself who said, in reply to Jeff Jenkins' request for a response to one of NY Times character assassin Maureen Dowd's many attacks on her:

"I encourage the other momma grizzlies to keep smiling as we work hard to put America back on the right track. We are going to stay happy and may we always be happy and may our enemies know it."

Oh, they know it all right. And that, says Cupp, is what drives the left right up the wall.

- JP