The Problem with Preaching to the Choir

In reading an article from Foreign Policy regarding what I assume is Palin's new book, I realized that while I might sit through the article nodding my head, thinking, "well, duh," my agreement with the point of view means absolutely nothing. By most's standards, I am a bleeding heart liberal with want to only further the Democratic Party's agenda. I am not who needs to read the article about former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. I am not her demographic, not one of the conservative, "drill,baby, drill" chanting, "family values first" Americans who love seeing a pretty woman from a small town without any knowledge of foreign or domestic policy almost attain the second highest seat of power in the United States. Pretty women serve beer and sell clothes, but if you're pretty and want power, you better know what's going on. I digress.

I am concerned that while the article is less than biased, it brings up some interesting points on Palin's naivete, but think of the people who have faith in her as an adequate representation of their views on the world. How do you combat ignorance, which in many cases is willful? Before Palin was thrust onto the national stage, she was governor of a state ranked 47th in population (with just over a half-million residents). A large portion of the residents of the state are blue-collar workers in fishing or natural resource industries. I cannot imagine what it would be like to live what I expect to be a difficult life (mostly because of the cold).

I assume that, in Alaska, family is first, and education is not necessarily on the top of the list because children are taught early-on that the options for employment are limited. It is less competitive in such a small world to rise to a seat of power. Palin was able to become governor, raises a number of children, and still have time to run for vice-president of the United States. How do you combat that? A full-time mom, elected official, and small-town lifestyle-- she speaks to a part of America with whom most politicians cannot truly empathize or emulate.

Every politician has stories about small-town, working-class people, but very few can state what it is like. There are always embellishments (especially by the conservative right) to play down any sense of entitlement or privilege in order to gain a particular part of the population that prays before dinner, all members of the family present at the table; that goes to church every Sunday and attends Bible study on Wednesdays; those whose entire universe exists within the boundaries of the town in which they were born. The liberal narcissist in me rolls my eyes and says, "what's wrong with you people!"

The fact of the matter is that there isn't anything wrong with them, other than their ignorance that there's an entire world beyond their immediate view which they don't care about. We (liberals) admonish these people for their limited knowledge of foreign policy and domestic issues, but these are the people who bear the burden of the wars waged in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are the people who forgo a doctor's appointment because they don't have the money to pay for basic prevention care. So why do they support a Palin over an Obama when one cannot name a periodical she has read and the other offers possible solutions to the person's most immediate problems? The simple answer is identity.

This country has spent so much time dividing and categorizing people, that we ignore that all people are generally the same. Douchebags and saints, all of us. If we could show the Palin population that the discussion is the same whether we are big-city or small-town, that poor is poor, that the war hits home no matter what part of the nation you live in, that we all want our children to have a better life than ours, that liberals are not per se atheists and that, regardless of religious beliefs, very few people want the government interfering with our personal lives more than is necessary. We have to close this socio-political fissure which divides "us" and "them."

How do we do this? Well, us liberals have to stop being so condescending. We stick our noses up and talk about how bad Fox News is, and how American news outlets are too skewed. There is no room for a "I'm better than you" mentality. The sad fact is that most of us will die within 30 miles of where we were born, whether we grew up in a big city and know the goings on of every nation in the world, or a small town with only an 8th grade education and a knowledge of no more than who slept with whom at the Piggly Wiggly. The point is, we need to get off our high horse and recognize that we are no different than Palin people at the root.

Hold a conversation with someone whose politics disagree with yours. Don't fight. Discuss. See where that gets you. Honest conversation may destroy the threat of the future Palin's of the world. Try it out.