The Palin Disorder, “et al”, patent pending

All of America is obsessed with Sarah Palin right now.  The right loves her unconditionally, while the left looks for any sign of her suspected incompetence.  The recent release of several books by or about her has only inflamed the Publicke imagination.  I am pleased to announce, once and for all, that I have figured out why mainstream America and the radical left distrust Palin.

Sarah Palin’s contradictions indicate a type of personality dissociation usually reserved for paranoid schizophrenics.  My problem with her is that I can detect a clear divide between Palin’s actions and her very identity.   For instance, she took the name of her book, Going Rogue, from a slur constantly leveled against her by staffers in the McCampaign.  In Freudian terms, there is a marked split between Palin’s id and the image constructed by and for her.  Now, I’m not insulting Palin or calling her a hypocrite.  That would imply that her words and actions do not agree.  The truth is far more subtle and complicated, as two Palin biographers have recently noted.

Perhaps the problem is that the Media spent so much time trying to define the VP candidate, or that she was forced to waste so much time defending herself.  I may be wrong but I suspect many other Americans are bothered by Palin’s logic, at least on a subconscious level.   She can reverse the parts of herself that most Americans would consider a flaw into a talent, creating an alternate but relatively popular universe where she is the ideal conservative.  Consider the woman’s time in office, without bias or opinion.  Sarah Palin made a career by challenging entrenched Lobbyists, powerful Politicians, and various interest groups.  Then she was driven from the Governorship by one crazy woman and a handful of bloggers.  The crazy woman was Andree McCleod, who Palin avoided calling attention to because she was a former volunteer and friend.  Palin once signed a letter to McCleod as Love, SP.   And in return, McCleod learned Sarah’s methods of attacking opponents with endless suits and ethics complaints.  Palin drove moderates away from the McCain ticket in droves, and she still wound up with a massive support base.  The only republican loss in yesterday’s election cycle was the one where Palin became involved, replacing an electable moderate candidate with a diehard conservative who never stood a chance.

You might notice that nowhere in this post did I mock Palin’s politics, career, or family.  Media attention to these areas has effectively distracted from her personality problems.  My point here is that everything Sarah Palin touches turns to dust and dies.  And yet somehow, defying even the Odds quoted in certain Vegas bars, the former Wassilia Mayor has become a key figure in the Republican party, where cognitive dissonance is encouraged and sometimes required.  The only way Sarah Palin could make any sense to me is if she was bribed and corrupted in Winter 2006 by certain Liberal-leaning elements within the Alaskan Snowmobile Association in a conspiracy to prevent John McCain or any other Republican from ever gaining office again.