I wish to bring to your attention this really insightful comment from one of the comboxes below, by Richard, who says that to understand why Sarah Palin doesn't fit neatly into settled political and cultural categories, you need to understand something about how Alaska shapes the character of its people -- and its governor:
If the Right attempts to shove the Sarah Palin persona into a box that is in the Ozzie and Harriet and Up with People continuum, they will fail. Directionally, the culture is moving away from anybody's past -- it always does so.A thought: maybe sincere "critics" (in the classic sense of the term) of Sarah Palin and what she supposedly represents truly need to spend some field anthropological time in Alaska. In Alaska one will find a strong influence of what some have termed the "leave us alone" coalition. For some on the right, that's all good in the context of guns and taxes, and something to be feared when it comes to two gay ladies buying the house down the street. In Alaska's small towns (and I lived in one), places that are relatively new and raw, one certainly finds intolerance, and suspicion of change that threatens, especially if seen as imposed from above. But, because you also find neighbors who depend on each other, and who encounter each other in the stores and at high school basketball games, a person has experiences that bring them into direct encounters with people with whom they might disagree, or with whose values they might believe to be alien, or wrong. This is a piece of the "Last Frontier" experience that is as old as the Comstock Lode, the Northwest Ordinance, and the Mohawk Trail.
What most often results -- from my years of living up there -- is that those who come into those encounters with strong Christian principles (or for that matter, strong principles of many other kinds) make the decision that the key to life is to live those principles, not simply to proclaim them. Now, don't get me wrong. People are imperfect, and Alaska has its share of fallen Christians, hypocrites, and all the other sociological subgroups anyone on this blog could name. What I think is different is that the greater intimacy of life in a community where one has a deeper understanding of "who is my neighbor" compels a deeper encounter with what one professes to believe. In a smaller and less anonymous community, it is much more difficult to proclaim one thing in the church hall during adult Sunday school, and do another thing in the office, or at the sales meeting, or at city hall. And if you do, you're likely to get called on it.
The combination of a frontier-driven "leave me alone" spirit, the relative intimacy of community, the fact that the place itself -- Alaska -- calls to your attention that you are small and something else is big (whether that something else be God, or Gaia) leads a great many people to a two steps forward, one step back way of life that involves walking their talk. Please understand, I am NOT saying "as opposed to Barack Obama or Joe Biden". I am just speaking from what I do understand about the place Sarah Palin comes from. Agree with her or disagree with her as you will. I think this is one key to understanding her.
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allbetsareoff
Yes, but even if 250000 live in the Anchorage area, they still have the leave me alone attitude and seem small. Richard is exactly right about the culture and anthropology of Alaska. Whenever one gets on a plane from Seattle to Anchorage they see someone they know or recognize. When we go fishing each year for salmon on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers, we see at least 10 people we know from the "greater Anchorage area". Anchorage is just a bigger "small town" than Wasilla, Palmer, Soldotna, Fairbanks, Juneau. After those little communities the town size drops to "village" and your talking 100 to 1000 people. Forget anonymity! EVERYTHING you do is front and center!
Has anyone seen the sign that says:
McWhatshisname
PALIN
It's hilarious. I have been wondering if we've all forgetten that it is McCain who is running for president and will be holding the veto pen.
Yeah Shelley, one of the things I like about going back to visit family in AK, is once you hit Seattle, you're bound to run into someone you know.
I now live in a midwest city roughly equivalent in size to Fairbanks. In the Fairbanks/North Pole area it was common, especially in winter to see 4-5 cars pulled over helping someone who had broken down. In three years I've never such a thing here. And I consider Jeff City a pretty friendly town actually.
Apparently it has been debunked, but I don't see what the big deal is over if she ever belonged to the Alaskan Independence Party. Heck, we elected a governor from that party. Very few think it will ever happen. But is it a forbidden idea? At least 3 other states also have independence parties. Hawaii is one of them.
Is the "comparing those you disagree with to Muslim terrorists" a whole new law or just a corollary to Godwin's Law? Just wondering.
There is a lot of truth in the way Richard describes community life in Alaska. I lived there for about three and a half years, and thereafter never again enjoyed the type of friends, community and trust my family found there. We never locked our homes or cars, but I doubt it's as true today as it was then. My wife cried for three days straight after we came back to the Washington, DC area.
Even so, people like ossicle never fit in because BS artists (e.g., "the values of... Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers.") were known to all.
Even so, people like ossicle never fit in because BS artists (e.g., "the values of... Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers.") were known to all.
A few months ago (May 1st, actually), on my inbound flight to Barrow, I sat just one seat up and one over from some rather self important egomaniac who did nothing but brag about how he knew all of the media executives and lots of other supposedly impressive people all over the world. He was trying to impress the YL sitting beside him with his "worldliness". It's about an hour's flight from Fairbanks in, and he managed to maintain this unceasing flow from before he got onboard to after they got off the plane in Barrow. As best I could tell, he was assigned to BASC in some capacity for around a year. He reminds me of a LOT of the laughable characters who post their silly rants here all the time.
In contrast, the guy who sat across the aisle from me was part of Search and Rescue for Barrow and surrounding area. He was interesting to talk to, and not full of himself.
Far more interesting and knowledgeable, as well, was the "white guy" with the sled dogs, who keeps a team in shape year round, and for fun takes people out with the dogs to keep them in shape and give them a chance to run. It helps pay for the food, as well. Seriously, where else in the world will you see traffic signs that tell you that the snowmobiles use the CENTER lane, cars to the edges?
All around, the average Alaskan has a rather self effacing humor about Alaska's oddness as compared to the lower 48, but a well deserved "leave me alone" attitude, as the know-nothings down south insist they're far more qualified to run things up there.
[Gosh, Rod! Thank you again!]
In terms of Alaska -- even Anchorage -- being small enough to run into someone you know almost anywhere, Shelley in AK might agree with my wife, who once said that if you go to four events a year in Alaska, you will meet or see nearly everyone else in the state. Her list of four includes: the Iditarod Start; the AFN (Alaska Federation of Natives) Convention; State Fair in Palmer; and the Great Alaska Shootout.
And Shelley is right. Live in Alaska any length of time, and if you're flying through Sea-Tac, you will see someone you know (or at least recognize) in an Alaska-bound Alaska Airlines departure area.
And Cleveland's wife is correct. The thing that makes the Last Frontier so special is the people. As a friend in a church home group years ago during our first tour of duty in Anchorage once told us, words I will never forget: "You come for the scenery; you stay for the people".
Rod, I don't know if that sort of environment qualifies as "crunchy" or not, but then, along about mid-November, most of the state qualifies as pretty "crunchy" in at least one key regard!
Richard
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