Frontier Woman for America

Governor Sarah Palin continues to invite a refreshing change in America, turning the page on the old cultural divide. She was gracious enough to appear on SNL, the cool liberal milieu, and was a natural. Perhaps she gets that bone-deep confidence from having actually tackled real challenges and succeeded--in the last frontier for America, as governor of a big and energy-rich state.

Charlotte Allen is in Big Lake, Alaska. Invited in for some savory stew, Allen visits with Sarah's friends and colleagues, and gives us her sense of Sarah Palin:

Palin represents a uniquely American brand of feminism, rooted in the material hardships of frontier life which demanded women not only nourish and raise their children but also do men's work because there always was so much work to be done: clear the trees or help your husband on his fishing boat. It is a feminism that couldn't be more at odds with the relentlessly ideological post-1960s feminism that, paradoxically, presents women as weak and needy creatures, victims of men, who need collectivist boosts from the government in order to hold their own in a male-dominated world. Not surprisingly, Gloria Steinem, the doyenne of 1960s feminism, called Palin a tool of the "patriarchy" who had failed to make "life more fair for women everywhere."

In Alaska, there seems to be little room for perceptions of female weaknesses.

Her self-reliance suits Alaska, and those of us who have no love for Steinem's man-hating, whiny feminism. Hmm, and Slate actually comes out with a compliment--Sarah Palin is a locavore!, the latest greenie accolade, which actually meets up with traditional gardeners, victory or otherwise. Next year I'll plant more veggies. But what of the critique of the elite pundits, mostly left, some supposedly right, that we and Sarah are too vulgar? The subtext is typical liberal elite arrogance--Can the American people be trusted in a crisis? Bill Kristol:

But, as Pew summarized, “there is little indication that the nation’s financial crisis has triggered public panic or despair.”

In fact, “There is a broad public consensus regarding the causes of the current problems with financial institutions and markets: 79 percent say people taking on too much debt has contributed a lot to the crisis, while 72 percent say the same about banks making risky loans.”

This seems sensible. Indeed, as Sept. 11 did not result in a much-feared (by intellectuals) wave of popular Islamophobia or xenophobia, so the market crash has resulted in remarkably little popular hysteria or scapegoating.

Indeed. Elitists like Barack Obama ascribe only the most benign motives to radical thugs and terrorists, but are afraid of their neighbors--that hostile territory in the heartland. Joe the Plumber, for one, has shown that the Emperor has no clothes in the realm of common sense. Frontier woman for America Governor Sarah Palin seems just the ticket to take us forward as a nation.

UPDATE: RCP Blog on the Palin split? Obama's appeal in RedStates? We shall see.