Originally published at Bob Belvedere's highly regarded site "The Camp Of The Saints"
Sarah Palin: America’s St. Sebastian Martyr
Saint Sebastian was martyred during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian:
“Sebastian had prudently concealed his faith, but in 286 was detected. Diocletian reproached him for his supposed betrayal, and he commanded him to be led to a field and there to be bound to a stake so that certain archers from Mauritania would shoot arrows at him. “And the archers shot at him till he was as full of arrows as an urchin“
The purest metaphors are contained in abundance in this brief description of the martyred Saint and Governor Palin with the addition of Governor Palin undergoing her trials without the protective benefit of having “prudently concealed her faith.” In fact both his real and her metaphorical martyrdom’s are, in his case totally, and in her case largely, the result of a deeply abiding Christianity.
Whilst Sebastian’s arrows were real (and not terminal as it happens) so too have been Palin’s in the Shakespearean “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” sense, and whilst his were physically painful Palin’s must have been mentally torturing to a level that only a near saint could bear.
That the foregoing might be considered by some as hyperbole is ludicrous to the nth degree. If anyone, who is not a monster, holds to that mindset let them consider this partial outline of what Palin has had to endure these last seven years. The benighted saint, in the Andrea Mantegna depiction, has at least 17 arrows piercing him, Palin’s “arrows” those made of specific and attacks on her and those representing forces in American society total at least seven, a martyrs quiver full too.
What great service Palin has done through all this is to expose to the scorching light of day the sick madness that underlies so much of the “progressive” movement. That this happened because, in the main, she dared to take on their idol Barack Obama in 2008 has a special piquancy now that the same progressive forces declare Obama to be a “centrist sell-out.”
Here are just some examples:
1. “Her ‘son’ Trig is not hers. It is her Daughter Bristol’s and Sarah pretended to have it”
This insanity was created at the execrable Kos Mouitsas’s “Daily Kos” (“Mission accomplished Sarah Palin” over Gifford’s) website and has run and run. The far fringes of “progressivism” at such sites as “Immoral Minority” have made it a staple with such variants as “The Palin’s have a number of ‘Trigs’ with different “ruffled ears” to identify them, which they wave around like a flag to get money.” They got these “Trigs” by taking in pregnant drifter teenagers and murdering them-subsequently burying the unwanted “Trig’s” under their airport hanger’s concrete slab.
2. Palin brought to light the utter hatred of conservatives from leftist elements of the homosexual movement. This descended into the pit of Hell with Andrew Sullivan picking up the “Trig Truther” madness as declaring it was “a legitimate question” as to whether Trig was Sarah’s and whether the Wasilla hospital staff had been “paid off.” Readers at Gay sites like “Joe My God” and “Towleroad” still go into spasms of foaming rage whenever a Palin-hate article is run even today.
3. The “progressive feminist” movement en mass left Palin hanging in the wind when she was under the most vicious, misogynistic attacks ever seen on a woman in public life. These same alleged humans go berserk at the slightest perceived attack on Hillary Clinton.
4. The leftist media gave away any pretensions of even-handedness when dealing with Palin who was the subject of the Ezra Klein “JournOlist” conspiracy. Even though Obama is safe they still deal with Palin in the most arrogant elitist manner with Politico’s Roger Simon leading the charge.
5. In the Blogosphere such luminaries as Taylor Marsh and Doug Mataconis seem to lose touch with reality and humanity when they address Palin. Permanent hate sites like “Sarah Palin Has a Serpents Heart” and various clearly troubled people like Malia Litman still slither across the social media whilst pure venomous hate sites like Wonkette use Palin for click bait and grifting whilst letting their alleged human readers call her every filthy name they can come up with.
6. Palin, through her mere existence exposed the irrationality, narcissism and ignorance of Hollywood and TV. Actors, to whom society gives some level of credence spout any sort of stupidity and or crudity about her which gets massive coverage.
7. Seven years later, at a time when Palin holds no office, is not politically active, the left, in the guise of former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, does a long hit piece on her in the Washington Post blaming the supposed state of the GOP on her. This is of course a back handed compliment to her as the left ascribes to her some sort of almost mystical power to change the course of history.
What it does signal in reality is the frustration of Daley and the administration at their near powerlessness in a Republican dominated Congress and country. That some of that is indeed Palin’s doing with her endorsements is, again, a compliment to her.
This small slim woman, holding no office, having no great wealth coming from a state as far away from the elitist Beltway centers of power as can be imagined.Yet she has been subject to a seven year long reign of error, hate, madness, insanity unseen before in American history and at a level so out of all proportion to the person who it is directed at. That it, the hate, and not the subject, has been exposed as a major problem in American life is a among her lasting legacies.
That Palin has born all these slings and arrows, these calumnies, on her narrow shoulders proves that if she is not a Saint, she has the patience, perseverance and faith of one. America is in her debt and history will look back at the campaigns against her with wonder and with the clear knowledge that some sort of collective madness affected a part of the American community.
It is a consummation devoutly to be wished that at some point sanity will return to the left and they can look inwards and start to cure the madness that has perverted their collective souls.
Objections to the Bush/Palin team concept would include "the country wouldn't want another Bush." That argument had force up until this year, but as the Obama administration sinks in popularity and credibility, G.W. Bush rises in both, and by 2016 his administration would be a memory which many might see through rose-colored glasses. Certainly "it's all Bush's fault" would be a ludicrous battle cry after eight years of Obama.
