If the always-astute Thomas Sowell is right—and I believe he is—then that’s really what the irrational negative reaction to Sarah Palin in some quarters last fall came down to. It explains the fact that many liberals thought her wonderful (even though they would never vote for her because they agree with her on almost nothing), while a number of prominent conservatives came down with the reaction even though they agree with her on almost everything. It also, I think (though Dr. Sowell doesn’t go this direction), explains why many of those same conservatives came out for Barack Obama over against John McCain: because if Gov. Palin is “not one of us,” as Eleanor Roosevelt said of “slouching, overweight and disheveled” Whittaker Chambers, while the “trim, erect and impeccably dressed” Ivy League New Dealer Alger Hiss was, it’s also true that Sen. McCain isn’t “one of them” either, while Barack Obama most certainly is, on almost all the same scores. (Sen. McCain actually fares worse in that respect than Gov. Palin does; neither of them is overweight, but posture and fashion are only problems for him.) Never mind that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy, or that Barack Obama had no discernible record of accomplishment in actual governance: to the intelligentsia, each man qualified as “one of us,” and at a visceral level, that’s the qualification that they really believe matters.We are not as far removed from the class system of our British forebears as we like to think; we’ve just changed the terms, is all.HT: Conservatives4Palin
