Fighting Back

In recent days Sarah Palin has been speaking out against the trolls in the blogosphere and the MSM who have been promoting all manner of nasty rumors about her and her family [here]. And of course she has been ridiculed and castigated for doing so. She has been branded a whiner and establishment Republicans have taken to the airwaves and print with advice to simply ignore the slanders. After all, that is the conventional wisdom -- ignore liberal slanders and the mad dogs of the left blogosphere. Be quiet, decent, hope that people notice that you are a better person than those who attack you.

But there is a price to be paid for such high-mindedness, and the Republicans have suffered dearly for not confronting the ankle-biters. Jay Nordlinger notes that completely inaccurate and unfair evaluations regarding President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Governor Palin, because they have not been effectively rebutted, have taken root in the public mind.

It seems to me that the Left has won: utterly and decisively. What I mean is, the Saturday Night Live, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher mentality has prevailed. They decide what a person’s image is, and those images stick. They are the ones who say that Cheney’s a monster, W.’s stupid, and Palin’s a bimbo. And the country, apparently, follows.

....

A country that believes that Cheney’s a monster, W.’s stupid, and Palin’s a bimbo is a country with its head up its . . .

Read the whole thing here.

Liberals control the major entertainment media, the schools, the news and music industries, and they decide how people and institutions are branded. In large part that is because Republicans feel that it is beneath their dignity to respond to the slime.

Such a dismissive attitude is inappropriate in today's media-saturated age when politicians become celebrities and vice versa. Gresham's law applies to information as well as coinage. Image management has become absolutely essential to success. Obama knows that. So does Sarah. It is good to see that she is beginning to fight back. Let us hope that others on the right begin to do so too.