VDH on Palin and why they hate her

I just linked to this in the previous post but feel compelled to share some juicy excerpts from Victor Davis Hanson, who speaks with authority on "why the hatred?":

Too Many Rug Rats

And which is worse, to have a kid at 17 or one after 40? And worse, worse yet, she does not support abortion! Here is Hell in Sarah Palin’s world: I am up for a promotion at CNN, foolishly become pregnant at 42, and discover “it” has chromosomal “issues.” Am I supposed to deliver this thing? I don’t think so (nor would my daughter, should she become pregnant by her boyfriend the summer before starting off at Vassar [all that SAT camp for nothing?]).

Going against the culture of elitism is a magnet for venom.

And then there's the 'hotness factor.' Sure, she's attractive, but it's all wrong:

Elly May, not Jackie

There are looks and then there are looks. Brainless men without taste think Palin is “hot.” And she is in a sort of unsophisticated Carny way. But looks are really defined by an Audrey Hepburn/Jackie O understated grace, a slightly emaciated look with a grimace now and then. Or through race and gender prisms — a Michelle Obama or a model that is half-Asian, a quarter-Native American, three-quarters African-American. But a pink woman with curves that delivers kids about every two years? Come on! — in the old days, who would have preferred an Ann Margaret to a Candice Bergen? A Raquel Welch to a Mia Farrow? In our postmodern DC-NY nexus, women who are highly educated, with Ivy-League degrees, with some sort of exoticism — a French name, a trace of Indonesian ancestry, a first husband who was Nigerian — a good title such as Senior Editor at Knopf, or Executive Producer at CNN — are, by definition, sexy. And then along comes “It Came From Wasilla”, who excited these Neanderthal males at NASCAR who know nothing of classical understated, real beauty, of real pillow talk.

One more, maybe the coup de grace:

The Alaskan Clampetts

And if you are to have scandals in your trailer-park family, let them be elegant ones — cf. Ted Kennedy, Ted, Kennedy, Jr., Michael Kennedy, William Kennedy Smith, David Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and their assorted sins such as drug convictions, drug overdoses, serial sexual predations, loss of life, etc. — At least sin and quote Niebuhr, or discuss alleviation of the sin in Palm Beach or Hyannis Port.

Read the rest. VDH is awesome.

Comments welcome.

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