Editor’s note: the following piece is written by Shanna Philipson, a recent addition to the Planet Waves blogging team. Her first piece, Yer-Anus: Astrology Comes Out of the Closet, was published on Monday. –RA
“Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased, I’m not taking them with me.”В — Sarah Palin, at a Republican rally in Tampa, Florida, regarding the controversy of her campaign wardrobe.
Dear Friend and Reader,
THIS HAS GOT TO BE my favorite moment from this week.В When it comes to politics, I’m a bonafide cynic, and for years I’ve maintained that, outside of professional theatre, there’s nothing more staged than a national political convention — or the rallies that follow the nominations.В
I happen to have a BFA, was trained as a costume designer and worked a few years in professional theatre, so I know the score. And I see political campaigns for what they are — theatre.
So when Sarah Palin got up before a campaign rally this past week and declared, in essence, that her clothes were just costumes, and every campaign event was staged like a theatrical performance, I had myself a good, long laugh. Yeah, sister — you preach it! Tell it like it is.
Of course, this totally pissed off the McCain people. The reaction according toВ Dana Bash on CNNВ was particularly ugly and personal, the sort of gross generalization and ad hominem attack that typically spikes my cynicism about politics. Bash quotes an “adviser” from the McCain camp about Palin’s independent statements, like the campaign wardrobe defense:
“‘She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone…She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.
Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”
Palin may be a “diva” and America’s next great emerging narcissist of national politics, but she’d only be filling the role of possible Savior that hundreds of politicians before her have also played. So why attack her? Because she dared to breach the fourth wall of political illusion that depends on faith. Yes, faith.