The invocation of “the people” sounds inclusive, but it is a technique of exclusion. (This was also the case in the preamble to the Constitution.) It is based upon a particular definition of “the people.” How do Palin and the partiers know who the real Americans are? The mystical certainty of her divisive intuition reminds me of what intellectual historians used to call the “epistemological privilege” of Marx’s proletariat, his reprehensible old idea that access to truth is a feature of class position. Palin, too, is idealizing the proletariat for the uniqueness of its understanding, though her economics is starkly indifferent to its tribulations.
…
There is also the rather immense hypocrisy of Palin and many other populists. Anyone who has run for the vice presidency, and has published a monster bestseller, and appears regularly on television, and will run for the presidency is a member in good standing of the American elite.
—
The People’s People | The New Republic
Palin’s stubburn refusal not to go down in flames leaves me in a lingering depression. After the exhausting effects of the Great Recession, I really don’t have the energy to deal with this. Can’t Tina Fey just permanently take over Palin’s life and career, turning the whole thing into one giant celebration of American humor?
