Why the Media Discloses Every Dollar Sarah Palin Makes

The always clear-sighted Josh Painter posted a blog the other day called "Why the obsession with Gov. Palin's speaker fee?" This ongoing tactic from the left and their lackey media cohorts has been going on for some time now. I have some theories as to why that is, but I'd like to discuss something I read the other day I think might help explain it.

A guy by the name Mike Elk wrote an op-ed for the left-wing news site "Truthout" back in November of 2009 titled "Ivy League Liberal Elitism Will Make Sarah Palin President - How Only Union Organizing Can Prevent It." I stumbled upon this piece while looking in to something else entirely but I was struck by the author's candor. During the 2008 presidential election, Mr. Elk worked as "an organizer for the Obama campaign on the ground in Western Pennsylvania." He writes:

I remember how white, working-class, swing voters couldn't stop talking about Sarah Palin for weeks on end. For the three weeks between Palin's selection as VP candidate and the financial crash, we were scared shitless the Republicans were going to win as Palin led to McCain surging in the polls.

Many white, working-class people loved her because here was a politician who finally was working class and ready for a fight. They loved her even more as Ivy League liberals denounced her as basically "white trash." It felt to white, working-class people like liberal elites were calling them "white trash" too.

Liberals still treat Palin and the right-wing populist Tea Party Movement that she leads as "white trash." They spend more time attacking them as "stupid racists" than actually trying to win them over and address their concerns. Its as if liberals are saying we know better than you stupid working-class people.

Uh, yeah.

Despite the guy's incessant need to type "white" in front of everything, he does correctly identify the snobbery from the elitists within his own ranks. The left is growing more and more detached from the working class of this nation with the ongoing attitude that 'they know what's best' for us all. They look down on the non-Ivy League educated and continue to sneer at what they consider "fly over America."

While Sarah Palin does not "lead" the Tea Party movement as she has stated many times, this piece underscored a certain fear that prevails in the left's mindset in regards to her relationship them. The Tea Party Movement largely consists of people from the working class of America. The working class is a demographic that the left has sought out to win over mainly with their union courtship. This is also a demographic that any political movement needs to have the support of, to have any sort of staying power with the American political structure.

Governor Palin comes from the working class of America. Her upbringing, her marriage, her hobbies, and lifestyle are those of a "common-woman" and not of a member of the "elite." The connection is one based on historical fact and one the left wishes didn't exist. It's much easier to paint a republican foe as some "rich old, out of touch white guy" which always worked for them in the past. Governor Palin provides them with all sorts of new challenges.

Governor Palin's working class credentials are also an issue for members of her own political party. The elitists members of the GOP, mainly of the DC variety, belong to the same club as the elite from the left side of the aisle. Jeffrey Stewart, a professor of Black Studies at University of California at Santa Barbara and the chair of the Black Studies Department, posted in "The Arena" section Politico, on the topic of "Palin and the Neo-Cons"

Sarah Palin is not stupid. She's street. And there is no place for a smart, non-deferential woman from the street in elite White political culture. Black culture is more familiar with the man or woman from the street who is street smart and able to articulate the concerns of the masses.

The distance between the elite and the street has always been shorter in the Black experience. And since the Watts riot of 1965, no less than the Great Migration from the South to the North during World War I, the Black middle class has known that the street can rise up and fundamentally change the political calculus of everyday life for the Black elite, in an instant or a decade.

But in White power circles, a street person is usually seen as a threat, something usually called "Black Power" or, in this case, "Right Wing Populism." What's interesting about Norman Podhoretz's commentary about conservative disdain for Sarah Palin is that it unintentionally shows what everyone else knows--that Washington based political conservatives and liberals belong to the same class.
And they share the same class attitude towards her--or anyone-- who enters the mainstream without having gone through the vetting of its establishment.

This is why Governor Palin's detractors are never concerned with the speaking fees of Al Gore or even Mitt Romney. They aren't members or leaders of the working class. They are fellow members of the same elite establishment that leftist media belongs to.

So the main reason for such reporting and documenting of every dollar Sarah Palin makes is nothing more than the establishment and the lefty press trying to put a wedge between Palin and her supporters. They think, falsely that Governor Palin will lose some of that "street" cred they admit exists if she makes some money. Just look at any comment section of a mainstream news site. You will no doubt see any number of leftists repeating the same meme that "she's only in it for the money." ... Rubbish!

Working class Americans who support Governor Palin mostly come from a conservative worldview. The left seems to be confusing their own populist rhetoric with the true concerns of the modern populist movement. Conservatives don't begrudge people for making an honest living. And while the left constantly tries to say she is paid too much for giving speeches and such, these people are no experts on the going rate of high profile speakers. It's just more phony negative narratives about Governor Palin from the left.

Disclosing and attacking every dollar Sarah Palin takes in is just another trick the left pulls out of their big bag lies. Governor Palin's real supporters won't take the bait and fully understand that the media has a vested interest in tearing her down. The "lame-stream media" staked their entire reputations backing and building up Obama. She threatens them like she threatens the lefts political establishment, considering they are one in the same these days. To put a wedge between Governor Palin and her base would be to take away power from each. Without the peoples support, Sarah Palin is no threat to them. Without a leader, the working class grassroots is also not a threat.