Why I'm Afraid of Sarah Palin

If you're like me and you eat up every little tidbit about this woman published in the online news, you'll have seen a consistent pattern in the comments from her supporters... accusations of lefties being "afraid" of Sarah Palin to explain the negative press.

Ok, I'll admit it. She terrifies me. Not just for one reason either.

Sarah Palin believes her own crap...and so do you.
It is immeasurably more convincing when someone believes their own bullsh*t. And while Mrs. Palin is ambitious and charismatic, she is certainly not an academic or information-hungry. Despite this, she speaks with absolute authority on topics she has only flirted with casually and you buy it. Not only do you buy it, but you don't even bother to question her facts and accuse others who have been willing to listen and engage in her speeches of being afraid or dismissive. If there were articles, politicians, environmentalists...hell, anyone... speaking out in support of Mrs. Palin's facts, policies, and criticisms, maybe they'd have more weight. But if you notice, that's not what we hear. We hear the equivalent of "stop being mean to her!" You want to show her some respect? Respond to her words, not her status, and if you still find her to be correct... well, share it with the world. No one else has been able to yet.

Sarah Palin makes no sense and you're ok with that.
This is the quality that makes her uniquely fascinating in a reality TV sorta way, but not worthy of public office. Predictability in public office doesn't equate to being stale or boring, it comes from being clear on your positions and articulating them well. This is something she famously has not mastered, which is forgiveable in the grand scheme of things as someone new to the field, but doesn't make her an attractive representative for me. (Or anyone else.) But so many of you are willing to simply forgive or ignore this fact (and it is a fact) because you find her adorable or inspiring that there is a very real chance of her being put in this very position.

Sarah Palin passes the buck, and you find that inspiring.
This one's easy. She's quitting an elected office 18 months early because (if I've been able to decode her correctly) she feels she's no longer effective, so she's passing it to someone else to ride out the lame duck phase. Nice. Did she put that one to an election or did she just decide that people weren't quite as willing to work with her as they were previously (read: the job has gotten harder since people have fallen out of love with her dazzling winking "you betcha" charm) and it was easier to take the money and run? She was elected for a full term, she should've held up her end of the deal. She's a quitter, plain and simple. It may not be "business as usual", but she was elected to conduct business and she's converted an elected office into a selected office just because it was becoming more difficult. There's nothing inspiring about that. When the going gets tough, Sarah gets going.

The combination of these things and her followers' complete willingness to simply brush right over these topics terrifies me. It's caused me to increase my awareness that there are far more sheep in the flock than I optimistically believed before and it's threatening. Enough sheep could impact my future by catapulting this loose cannon to the top-- THAT is why she scares us. Because the sheer numbers of you scare us.

You, the fact-deprived, paranoid conspiracy theorizing, Disney movie loving, easily dazzled population. You are what makes her scary.