RealClearPolitics - Articles - Palin and the Narcissistic Left

Palin and the Narcissistic Left
By James Lewis

The Left always counts its presidential chickens before they're hatched. They did it with Algore, they did it with Kerry. They think they have victory in their grasp, and when reality says otherwise they feel robbed and betrayed. They have to find dark plots and conspiracies to explain the impossible; the Supreme Court was corrupt in stopping the Al Gore assault on the election rules in Florida. Ohio's voting machines were hacked to give George W. Bush his win there. Today, Algore is still bulking up with rage, eight years after Florida. Kerry still thinks he was "swiftboated" -- when his Swiftboat chain of command finally got its chance to tell the truth. Rapper P. Diddy was on YouTube yesterday going "Alaska? Alaska?" and "McCain, you're getting the *** out of town."

It's the gangster theory of electoral democracy. They're all counting on victory. It's theirs already. Like the Obama campaign keeps telling us, the election is just a formality. We have a new president, and his name starts with an O.

The Left is entitled to power, because in their own eyes they have Truth and Morality on their side. They are Mahatma Gandhi, they are Dr. King, they are the vanguard of the marching proletariat. It's not just Big O who has the incomprehensible egomania. His inner circle and vast numbers of his supporters do, too. Entitlement, grandiosity, narcissism: In psychiatric thinking they all suffer from secret feelings of inferiority, narcissistic wounds to their self-esteem. Every time they lose, those nagging feelings come up again. So they are always overcompensating, trying to bully reality into the shape they need.

So shrewd old McCain picks Sarah Palin for Veep, and steps on the Obama victory with devastating timing, the day after the launch. No big bounce in the polls for O. Within hours the Left feels cheated and betrayed. Why? Because they are entitled to victory. Because they have been in a rage for the last eight years and can just feel that aching need for revenge. Because Governor Palin is a traitor to her gender, in their eyes, just as Justice Thomas is a traitor to his race. This is the language of the Klu Klux Klan and the Nazis, of course; "race traitor" was their name for whites who supported civil rights for blacks. But it's ok to be a racist if you're a liberal. In fact you are supposed to be a racist, a sexist, and a heterophobe: It's practically mandatory to take on all the sins of racial fascism as long as you flip the targets.

What's more, Sarah Palin is pretty, well-spoken, smart, athletic, normal and middle aged. She made it to the governorship of Alaska on her own, bringing down corrupt Republicans on the way. But the Left has the exclusive rights to all the good-looking young women (or men) in Hollywood. You may think that's mad, but they secretly really believe it. Madonna told the world that O is just like Gandhi. You may think that's funny or annoying, but millions of her Obot fans fall for it. They are emotionally immature, to say it nicely.

Senator O's campaign started with an attack on Sarah Palin, but caught itself fast and backed off. Attacking the lady without careful planning would have been disastrous. Instead, unattributed rumors are circulating in the Leftosphere: Palin's Down Syndrome baby wasn't really hers, there is secret corruption in her past, and more. These wild, vicious slanders are trotted out mainly to satisfy the emotional needs of their authors. The nasty, vicious quality is a signal of irrational, narcissistic rage.

The saner Left, including the O campaign, is trotting out lines of more plausible attack: Inexperience? Heart-beat from the presidency? Can she be intimidated like Dan Quayle, who was media-whipped to the point of stuttering incoherence? "Fix and destroy" is the old Alinsky rule. The attack-hound media will try its damnedest over the next two months.

Governor Palin can probably handle it, but had better bring along that big-game hunting rifle to the campaign. There are Leftie grizzlies out there waiting to ambush her, regardless of her gender.

Suddenly the Left cares about competence in a woman. Hillary never needed it. Eight years as First Lady qualified her to be Senator from New York. Obama never needed to show foreign policy experience; he could get away with amazing gaffes.

For the moment all the attention is off Obama and McCain. McCain, they thought, would be an easy target. A normally sane leftist friend of mine literally screeched "Old! Old! Old!" about John McCain, like an enraged chimp doing a threat display. If he'd had any bushes within reach he would have pulled off the branches and brandished them, or thrown them around in his personal fireworks display. "Old!" was going to be the line of attack on McCain, ageist prejudice considerations be damned. The Left can be as ageist as it wants, because they have the higher morality, you see. They were sure it would work. They earned the right to have it to work after all these years of impotent rage.

This is going to be tough election for the Left, barring surprises. They don't handle the uncertainties of a neck-and-neck race very well. They have too much of their sizable emotional needs riding on the outcome.

Rarely has the inner life of the Left been so exposed to public view. Look for a lot of uncontrollable rage if the McCain/Palin ticket sweeps to victory.

I don't enjoy watching people go Daffy Duck-style mad with rage -- but given the track record, who deserves it more than our buds on the Left? But watch your step, or they'll chew up your nice new carpet.