13.1.11

Sarah Palin and the Learned Elders of Zion

Clearly, violent rhetoric in politics was started by those damn journalist and pundits


Sarah Palin victimizes herself, again.


There's a lot of things I can say about Sarah Palin. To me, she is the Paris Hilton of the political sphere: plastic, retarded, and I still don't know why she's famous because she hasn't accomplished anything save being rich and having a failed reality show. But I digress. None of things are really important, I suppose every generation needs a Dan Quayle. As spokes person of the Tea Party, gun enthusiast, and avid heterosexual, Sarah Palin has done a great service by being the little gift that keeps on giving: this time in the form of misuse of a historical term.

As a history major who just finished writing her undergrad thesis on the Nazi movement in America during the early 1930's through US entry in WWII; when I heard her use the term "blood libel", I cringed. She accused (left, I'm assuming) journalists and pundits of creating a blood libel against her. While technically the use of this term isn't wrong, it is still gravely inappropriate. Why? Because of it's original use against the Jewish people:

*For over a thousand years, Christian communities have accused local Jewish residents of killing a christian child (usually a boy) to take the child's blood to make matzo for Passover. While this sounds ridiculous to us, it was used as an excuse to brutally torture and murder many Jewish people in Europe. In the 19th century is was put in writing by a Russian lawyer in a book he claimed to find called "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion". Essential it is supposed to be the minutes in a meeting between powerful Jewish leaders to discuss how they will take over the world. It also "verifies" blood libel upon the Jews. Many modern historians relate the term blood libel to this paticular piece of propoganda. It's an ugly book, used to start pogroms (local massacres) of Jews in Russia, as well as a favorite piece of a "literature" for the Nazi party of Germany to the KKK here in our own country.

My point is, no only could she not manage to really be sympathetic to the great loss of life experience by the people of Tuscon, nor to the struggles of the victims or their families, she had to go there too! To compare the blame being placed on her with the plight experienced by the Jewish community for hundreds of years is not equal. The root of this problem arises from her posting cross-hairs over the districts of D representatives. One of these was on Rep. Giffords' office, and she even spoke out about it possibly inciting violence. Was this the cause of her injury and the death of several others? Probably not. Do images of the guns and cross hairs and watchdog language like "reload" and using "second amendment solutions" incite violence? Duh! Of course they do!

But this is coming back to bite the extremist republicans in the ass. This tragedy has given our president the opportunity to rise up and be a father figure for us. They way he has honored the families and addressed the tragedy has been beautiful. I hear from people not only on the radio but also in stores telling me how their view of him has completely changed. The defensive nature taken up by these republicans who have said and done things they shouldn't (not all republicans mind you, just the loud, ridiculous ones) has earned public ire. In a time where everyone is wanting to make amend to prevent this from happening again, to end the constant fighting, it's now time for both sides (if at fault or not) to say:

   "If I have ever done or said anything to incite or justify violence on any other person or group, I am deeply sorry. I do not condone those actions. We need to move past this anger and slander. We need to unite to perform the duties of government for those who elected us."

And its also time to let responsible public officials take the reigns. We need to turn our backs on people like Palin who have really done nothing but ruin the image of the Republican party. Take a note from The Simpsons and Paul Anka's song: "Just Don't Look". It makes them loose their power!

2 comments:

  1. Her popularity truly saddens me, and the fact that she can't seem to say one genuine thing without offending someone or having a pity party for herself.

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  2. I'm very glad that you chose to address the inappropriate use of "blood libel" since it had really bothered me as well. Excellent blog!

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