Sarah Palin

Please see this great article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/03/sarah.palin.debate.feminism/print

Michelle Goldberg says, “It was an appalling display. The only reason it was not widely described as such is that too many American pundits don't even try to judge the truth, wisdom or reasonableness of the political rhetoric they are paid to pronounce upon. Instead, they imagine themselves as interpreters of a mythical mass of "average Americans" who they both venerate and despise.”

Sarah Palin is a brand. It is obvious that she has honed her skills [of blabbering with a hick-ish accent] to sell the elements of her personality that the McCain campaign wants to promote- an abrasively down-to-earth persona. She has consciously crafted these traits into a very distinctive persona, and even I will admit that she has a pretty nice package for the Sarah Palin brand (no pun intended). And, “like the famous brands that have become a part of our consciousness, self-branders have to go about enhancing their profile and increasing their visibility through marketing, marketing, marketing” (Davis 47).

Palin tries to work against an emphasis on institutional roles, and work towards being a link between Americans’ internal impulses, and her own. In other words, Sarah Palin is trying to move beyond the institutional role of “Republican,” and move towards connecting with six-pack Joe, or the “average” American. The definition here of “average” is totally ambiguous, and is instead supposed to encapsulate most people in the mid-west or red states. This average inner-self is not completely internalized: it is externalized in the need to connect with others on this very basis of dignified ordinary-ness. It seems as though the Republicans have been running an election on, “a new emphasis on the exploration of personal desires and immediate experience, on distancing oneself from institutional (i.e., external) norms and goals, on finding one’s unique inner voice, and on freely expressing one’s intimate feelings” (Davis 43).

Palin’s artificiality is more than just her being a commodity- she is a brand. Davis writes, “A brand became a carefully crafted image, a succinct encapsulation of a product’s pitch…According to branding expert Scott Bedbury, in an interview with the business magazine First Company, a ‘great brand’ is ‘an emotional connection point that transcends the product’” (Davis 44). Both Sarah Palin and John McCain repeatedly fail to provide a product, or substantive explanations to their intended plans, and continue to reach out on an emotional level to connect with Joe the plumber. This echoes Debord’s idea of the spectacle, in which the image becomes more valuable than the actual product. Even though Davis was writing well before anyone knew who Sarah Palin was, he seems to have some psychic ability about her techniques: “the new marketing scripts incorporate the language of self-determination and transformation, and build on the knowledge that being true to our unique inner selves is a powerful moral ideal” (Davis 45). Don’t get me wrong- I am aware that Republican and Democratic politicians alike try to appeal to voters on an emotional level because voting is not an entirely rational process, and people must simply like the candidate they choose to support. But Sarah Palin is on a whole different level because of her complete and total lack of substance.

It seems as though Palin’s marketing scripts have been so successful because they reach both ends of the spectrum of self-definition that Davis initially talks about (one end being an institutionalized self, defined by external experiences and the other being an internal, unsocialized impulse). On the one hand, the “ordinary-ness” of Palin’s constituency that she is trying to capitalize on is originally an internal identity that many people trace to their upbringing. Yet, being “average” depends on defining oneself in opposition to those who are not average, and is inherently a social definition. So, Palin has been able to personally identify with Middle America, reaching a part of their self-definition that desires to be acknowledged, and connected with others on a large scale. Davis says, “People need to ‘locate themselves in a larger experience,’ and they need social recognition for their identity projects’” (Davis 46). Sarah Palin has sold herself as the quintessential sign, or spectacle, of the Republican Party, which is striving to personally connect with Middle America as opposed to politically or intellectually connect on a substantial level. She is the brand of the Republican Party, and you can certainly wear her on your sleeve.