- MUST READS
- PRODUCTS
- RESOURCES
- MULTIMEDIA
- ENFACTLOPEDIA
- FSM AUTHORS
- ABOUT US
- CONTACT US
- FSM BLOG
- DONATE
- PRESS COVERAGE
SEARCH FSM
- IN THIS SECTION
October 30, 2008
Elite Media and Goofy Ideas Try to Trash Governor Palin
Things have gotten so wild and panicky in the field of political journalism these days that very goofy ideas can now get by editorial gatekeepers. One of the goofiest has been allowed to escape into the political ether from the romantically overheated brain of journalist Kathleen Parker .
She wants us to believe that John McCain chose his running mate because he went gaga over her. That her beauty, like Cleopatra’s, had clouded his judgment and rationality, and made him forget all of the more qualified possibilities like Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Joe Lieberman. She has no evidence for this except her sexual intuition, her perfervid imagination, and, oh yes, science. Journalists often resort to “science” when they have no facts to back up their views, and also do not know how science really works.
Parker latched on to an inexpensive little study done by a couple of young faculty members, one of thousands done each year in order to publish something to keep from perishing from their field of psychology. The experiment studies the narrow economic behavior of students and is thus largely irrelevant to the complexities of life and politics. But what Parker must have thought was so cute about this study was that it used the well known fact that men (and women) are attracted by beauty in the opposite sex – duh.
It is not a strange or deadly phenomenon, this observation that in most forms of animal life – birds, elephants, humans – the attraction of beauty and the fact that it is a powerful factor in evolutionary biology. The reason is that beauty is often correlated with states of good health and robustness. So that it is probable that when two beautiful people get together they are more likely to have their progeny survive.
So, contrary to Parker’s goofy idea that Sarah Palin swept John McCain off his feet, gave him a haircut, and took over his mind, astute politician that he is, he saw that Sarah Palin was prettier than Mitt Romney, more personally charming than Ron Paul, and younger, more assertive and livelier than Joe Lieberman. Perhaps more than journalists, politicians understand the effect of beauty and charm on the electorate. He knew what he needed on his ticket to win, and he was right.
One last point. Parker seems to feel that Sarah Palin’s qualifications are not up to standard. According to the Constitution there are no qualifications for President and Vice President except to be a naturally-born American and to be at least 35 years old, suggesting that what meant something to the founding Fathers was maturity and a sense of allegiance.
Why did they not write in an obvious list of job pre-requisites – solid knowledge of world history, major in micro and macro economics, five years in diplomacy and foreign policy, etc? Because it’s not really necessary. Experts are a dime a dozen. What our Founding Fathers knew was needed was good judgment, a love of country, and uncommon sense.
And as for Palin, I’m sure she’ll be able to spell potato better than Dan Quayle and count the number of letters in j-o-b-s more accurately than Joe Biden.
FamilySecurityMatters.orgContributing EditorDr. Yale Kramer, a former faculty memberand graduate of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, psychoanalystand former Clinical Professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, is the author of Talking Back to Liberal Power.His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, American Spectator and The Public Interest.
| Print This E-mail This |
|
