| David Broder is one of the most fascinating traditional media columnists out there today. Not because of his opinions - which are rarely insightful - but because of the tangled ideas and emotions that swirl and bake into a pie of absurd contradictions. He's the ultimate DC insider, always advocating for conservative, status quo policies, yet sees himself as the champion of Regular People.
Take his paean today to Sarah Palin:
Her invocation of "conservative principles and common-sense solutions" was perfectly conventional. What stood out in the eyes of TV-watching pols of both parties was the skill with which she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.
Freed of the responsibilities she carried as governor of Alaska, devoid of any official title but armed with regular gigs on Fox News Channel and more speaking invitations than she can fulfill, Palin is perhaps the most visible Republican in the land.
More important, she has locked herself firmly in the populist embrace that every skillful outsider candidate from George Wallace to Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton has utilized when running against "the political establishment."
Let's get this out of the way. Palin is about as popular as toxic waste with American voters. Her latest poll numbers are in the tank. Over 70 percent of Americans don't think she's qualified to be president, including 52 percent of Republicans. The more she's in the spotlight, the less people like her.
But Broder thinks she's got what it takes to woo voters! Even though voters really hate her!
So...you've got a conservative, establishment insider who hearts big-business Republicans, swooning over Sarah Palin because she's an anti-establishment, anti-insider populist hero? And to further complicate matters...she's not actually, you know, popular with the people...
Worse still, Broder actually represents inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom. This is what DC insiders actually think what we want.
But worst of all, there's a danger that this kind of "conventional wisdom" will echo throughout the traditional media:
...As I say, it's clear that most mainstream journalists are totally over Obama, the Democrats, and any sense that Republicans have demonstrated that they can't be trusted with power. That's just so 2006-2008. Stimulus? Health reform? Financial reform? Cap and trade? They're much more interested in that issue right-wingers love to use as a frame -- deficit reduction.
They're going to follow Broder's lead. Just as they've surrendered to the tea parties, they're going to surrender to the demagogic populism of the next crop of GOP presidential aspirants.
Now, this may not benefit Palin specifically, because every Republican candidate is going to hit the same populist/demagogic/know-nothing notes she hits. Broder and the rest of the media mandarins may develop a much bigger crush on demagogic populist Mike Huckabee or demagogic populist Tim Pawlenty or demagogic populist Newt Gingrich.
But they all may decide Palin's the one. They all may decide that her flat vowels and inept syntax are the realest. And that media consensus may, paradoxically, create a populist wave that delivers the GOP nomination to Palin, if not the election. The people will hear "Take Palin seriously!" so often, they'll start to believe it's true.
And, as Glenn Greenwald points out, it has already begun. |
