From: Deepak Chopra | Friday, September 5, 2008

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national
psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly
illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the
Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she
outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given
her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing.

Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the
job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City . By
comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin’s
pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal
goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding
his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In
psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides
out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with
qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence,
selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.”

For millions of Americans,
Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them.
He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly
clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama
is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on
the scene.)

I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not
welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful
here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:

§ Small town values—a denial of America ‘s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.

§ Ignorance of world affairs—a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.

§ Family values—a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim
for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be heeded.
§ Rigid stands on guns and abortion—a scornful repudiation that
these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
§ Patriotism—the usual fallback in a failed war.

§ “Reform”—an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out
corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who
doesn’t fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat.

The radical right marches under the banners of “I’m all right, Jack,” and “Why change? Everything’s OK as it is.” The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is
a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple
pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress.

The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting
against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national
elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama’s call for higher ideals in politics can’t be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow – we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest.

It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the
demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting,
without disguise.

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which
you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist. 

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”
White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a “light” burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.

And don’t think that you are not prejudice.  WE ALL ARE!  Tikkun Olam! Klal Yisroel. Tzedek tzedek tirdoph!

John McCain went to the finest prep schools that money could buy because his family had it to spend. There’s nothing wrong with that except for the fact that he didn’t appreciate it enough to apply himself.  Then he gets into the USNA...not on his own merits, but because his father and grandfather were alumni and both were admirals.  Talk about “affirmative action”. I wonder how the young man who did apply himself and got a rejection letter from the USNA because McCain took his spot..feels about it all.

Again, he didn’t apprpeciate these advantages enough to take advantage of it. He graduated 894th out of 899 students in his class.
Someone had the stupid audicity to suggest that someone who graduates last in his class in medical school is still called “Dr.”, just like the guy who graduated first in the class.
But who would you take your kid to if he were sick?
So, again..this isn’t just about the schools...it’s about the character of the candidates when they were young men and how they approached their educational opportunities.  You wanna vote for someone who was handed every opportunity on a silver plate and didn’t appreciate them..then go ahead..I’m gonna vote for the guy who put his nose to the grindstone and earned everything he got.

Since then, Obama supporters like Gladys, have been desperate to find a moral equivalent to Obama’s embrace of the Israel-hating/Farrakhan-loving Wright.

The best they have come up with are:

1. When Buchanan visited Wasilla, Mayor Palin stuck his campaign button on her lapel to be hospitable (she was not his supporter, she was actually campaigning for Steve Forbes).

2. A few weeks ago, a Jew for Jesus gave a speech at her church (after, Palin stated that she disagreed with his views).

What Gladys and Obama supporters have against Palin is a speck of dust in comparison to the mountain of Israel-hatred among Obama’s mentors, friends and Middle East policy advisors.

Finally, for those who admire heroism (unlike Gladys), I urge you to read this story about an Israeli war hero who made a film about Governor Palin:  http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/shooting_sarah_palin_20080917/

I am getting so sick of this garbage being spewed...I really hope that come this yom tov all the sermons at shule really focus on klal yisrael and steer away from the divisive politics.

If there is one thing I deplore with almost every fiber of soul is the mixing of politics and religion.  And we can thank the GOP/evangelicals for that.  It used to be that Jews would come to together in a common cause, when we are threatened.  It has taken the far right and there Jewish followers that have led the Jewish community into this rift and politicizing Judaism, playing right into our opponents hands.  If Jews are going to become more visible in the Republican party I would hope that also bring the moderation it needs to stave off and effectively silence the religious right that have hijacked it.

Shame.  Shame.

It is past time that NJDC is exposed widely for what it is--a left-wing Democratic shill group that uses its nominally Jewish identity to whitewash anti-Semitic hate speech from other left-wing Democrats (MoveOn.org) while publishing anti-Christian hate material (Bubbie vs. the GOP, except it’s really Bubbie versus Christians, Jesus, ministers, and the Cross) in the bargain.