Last week Sarah Palin sat down with Oprah as part of her media blitz. I, along with millions of others, tuned in and listened with rapt attention. My conclusion? This is a very dangerous woman with the power to twist truth and the vanity to think that she is doing it for the good of others and not for herself. She is shrewd, narcissistic and is into myth making as much as Hitler was.
Like Hitler she is a larger than life figure who weaves flattering national fantasies that bear very little resemblance to reality. She has charisma and speaking ability and she launches a powerful appeal to those who feel angry, fearful, and misunderstood, using paranoia and half truths to make her case.
I could almost see the torch light parades forming as I watched her romance the TV camera and Oprah's audience. She painted herself as the underdog and innocent victim--a role many Americans identify with, especially those who have lost homes, jobs, and health insurance or who never had much to begin with. They see her as their champion and her simplistic notions and twisted truths as an answer.
Palin vs. Hitler
Hitler rose to power in a period when Germans felt frightened and taken adantage of-- when economic conditions were terrible and the Weimar Republic was just not working. When people feel threatened and powerless, they are ripe for exploitation and that is what I see Sarah Palin in the process of doing. She is exploiting people for her own ego gratification and I don't think it is a mere political career that she wants. I think she is looking for more-- much more.
I see in her the megalomania of the true narcissist. America today has much in common with Germany in the 1930's. People are disenchanted with their leaders and are looking for answers. There was a world wide financial crisis then too. The notion of American exceptionalism that Palin embraces so heartily echos Hitler's notion of the master race and the special role of the German people. I can hear those American militias in the heartland now, cleaning their weapons and talking about the evils of socialism, Obama, Liberals and gun control. Scary, very divisive stuff.
We are part of a world community that cannot afford to let nationalism, isolationism, xenophobia and ignorance triumph. Let us hope that " Going Rogue" is not Palin's " Mein Kampf"
