Ellington

People on the East and West Coasts tend to think of themselves as superior to everyone else. I am part of this imaginary “master race”, as are most of us at the UW. We are given to imagining ourselves as more sophisticated, more tolerant, more world-wise and, essentially, above the ignorance of the hillbillies that inhabit the rest of the country.

Many coastal inhabitants wish they could get rid of such people and become the United Municipalities of Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and New York — minus those Bush-voting hicks on Staten Island.

This is not a political attitude, it is a cultural one, and one that afflicts people of all political persuasions in varying degrees.

These biases came through briefly for us conservatives in our treatment of Mike Huckabee during the primaries. Though what was really bothering us was his harebrained economic populism, some of us were sometimes prone to mocking his Southern Baptist mannerisms and those of his supporters instead of really articulating our concerns. We should have challenged Huckabee on the issues instead.

For the other side, there was Sarah Palin, the most abused person in the 2008 election. Here was a woman who once ran a business — more than can be said for Obama, McCain or Biden — got into municipal politics, took on and beat a corrupt governor from her own party in the primaries, won a tough general election battle and ran a superb administration for two years afterwards.

Her husband, Todd Palin, is the very model of a modern stay at home dad. Somehow, Sarah Palin has subverted the supposed work-life balancing act to have everything — a high-powered job, a supportive husband, a nice house and a thriving family.

Being skeptical of the “culture of life,” I shared the general liberal bewilderment at the reproductive choices made by the Palins and vague irritation at her extension of those beliefs to the political sphere. In their shoes, I would’ve been for abortions. But the issue is one that sane people can reasonably disagree on, extremist histrionics notwithstanding.

In part, the amount of political venom thrown at Sarah Palin also came about because she poses a threat to radical feminism, with its culture of victimhood and its orthodoxy on unrelated political issues. By being a successful, powerful woman who shares none of those values, she has once again highlighted the fact that women don’t need far-left ideology to take their place as the equals of men.

Then, above all things, there is the matter of her origin. She’s from Alaska, that far-flung outpost of the heartland. The McCain campaign had a good quarterback but made the wrong plays; it overemphasized Palin’s humble origins and personal traits while failing to capitalize on her successful record as a corruption-fighter and governor. This unfortunate dumbing-down played into the stereotypes fostered by regionalist bias — she doesn’t talk like us, likes guns, doesn’t agree with our politics and comes from a rural background; ergo, she’s a stupid redneck. More than anything else, this gut hatred of a certain segment of our country drove the anti-Palin hysteria.

Even so, it’s time to pat ourselves on the back for a moment; we coastal snobs, conservative and liberal, have at least managed to largely overcome our innate racial and gender prejudices. However, given the political baggage that the overly simplistic and wantonly polarizing “colored state” dichotomy has created, we’re going to have a tough time overcoming our regional biases.

Reach columnist Russ Wung at opinion@dailyuw.com.