This is a small portion of something much larger, waylaid by some hard drive trouble I had a few months back. I thought I’d excerpt this because of all the Palin-in-media news lately, and because it’s my own Christian birthday and Piper’s real birthday. (Blessings on her day!) Much more still to come in one form or another – this week.
THE STANDARD BEARER FROM ALASKA, 2014
A while back, Sarah Palin wisely turned down Mark Burnett’s generous offer of a TV talk show — because her personality, appeal and “call” are unsuited for the format. Since the time Andrew Breitbart famously compared Palin to Oprah Winfrey, there was a lingering idea that Palin could be the rightwing Oprah on TV talkshows.
BUT BREITBART WAS ONLY 1/2 RIGHT
But Brietbart, rest his soul, was only half right about Palin being Oprah. Yes, she’s as big of an icon as Winfrey, but no — this is not the right type of show to frame Sarah Palin’s influence and talent. I’ll attempt to deconstruct Oprah’s talk show success later, but first it’s important to try to analyze why Governor Palin is wrong for this (though others might be completely right for it…)
PALIN’S REAL JOB
Sarah Palin truly is a standard bearer for classic Christian Americana within the media politik. Her job “in the spirit” is to strengthen and encourage others as she takes a stand for worthy — if not eternal – causes, something that cannot be done within trend-driven TV talk shows as we know them.
DILUTING HER BRAND BY OVEREXPOSURE
For Sarah Palin, throwing herself into the commercialized obsequiousness of issue-oriented TV talk shows would destroy her brand and effectiveness. The five-day-a-week multiple-issue structure would diminish her God-given talents by causing her to be overexposed, spread too thin over a variety of issues.
FRAMING THE IMPORTANCE DUE HER CAUSE
As a standard bearer of the spirit, there’s a need to frame Sarah Palin’s talent with the importance due her cause. This “framing device” is about timing; it’s about pacing media cycles. International leaders like Palin can’t “take their stand” every day, simply because it’s necessary to feed the commercialized media beast with manufactured and inconsequential “issues”.
Think about all the Establishment types who withhold themselves from the day-to-day media fray and only sporadically dip into it, and only then when heavily scripted. (They probably have memorized the Proverb that says “even the fool when he is silent appears wise” LOL)
http://biblehub.com/proverbs/17-28.htm
This timing and pacing problem applies to social media, and Sarah Palin knows it. She knows too much tweeting on each and every meme-of-the-day would eventually ruin her brand by dilution in our increasingly politicized and phony social media fray.
THE TEA PARTY WILL ROGERS
Much of the time, Palin functions as a Tea Party Will Rogers, more than capable of proffering a worthy opinion on pretty much any subject. But it’s not wise to see her “taking stands” on every issue in the world, as she would have to do in a TV talk show. Taking a stand on every issue makes every issue she takes a stand on less important. It would make her opinion commonplace and therefore disposable.
SORRY, IT’S HER ETERNAL POSITIONING
In stark contrast to the secular elites who host TV talk shows – Palin’s power is that she truly represents the people as the ordinary housewife turned extraordinary conservative leader. Standing for the people means she “stands in” for them; she “re-presents” Reagan and Lincoln’s vision of America.
(In the Reagan years, the Establishment commandeered the fight by triangulating conservative Christians and calling them “the Moral Majority” and then pitting them against liberal atheists while moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans won by dividing these “extremes.” Meanwhile the religious or Luciferian agendas of these UN Establishment elites were never divulged or discussed, though the death of JudeoChristianity is their goal).
Call her a standard bearer of the spirit in the Christian sense — or the Platonic sense if Judeo-Christianity is too much for you – but that is Sarah Palin’s eternal positioning. She strengthens and encourages Judeo-Christian Americans as she takes her stand.
THE GLAD GLAD-HANDER
Reflexively, Palin is strengthened and encouraged when she’s with people in a public setting. She’s said so often enough. It isn’t work when Palin “works the crowd”; she’s always glad to be “glad-handing.” Though her enemies don’t understand her spiritual positioning — to their detriment — Palin isn’t “living for the applause” ala the narcissistic Hollywood cliché. It’s actually a much more profound understanding.
Her love of the hoi polloi (or Katie Couric’s “great unwashed”) has to do with Palin’s recognition of herself in their midst.
It is through public interaction that Sarah Palin understands her spiritual identity.
FINDING HER SPIRITUAL I.D. ON THE ROPE LINE
Governor Palin “feels who she is” when she meets and greets or speaks in public. As Palin has described her son Trig as needing to look at his hands as a touchstone, as a grounding device, as a foundation of reality that permits him to venture into grassy unknowns – public encounters are a touchstone for Sarah Palin.
Palin recognizes who she is when she’s with a crowd. It’s a spiritual need for her, and it makes her crowds love her all the more because they have a mutual need for her to stand for them. These are the logistics of how Sarah Palin “re-presents” Christian America: she is encouraged and strengthened as she encourages and strengthens others; it’s part of her call in God as a moral leader, as a standard-bearer.
Palin loses herself and her sense of her leadership if she had to muck through trivial, trendy or inconsequential issues, but is strengthened if she’s associated with worthy causes she believes in.
Her decision to not take up Mark Burnett on his TV talk show offer was dead right.
AMAZING AMERICA = PALIN COUNTRY
But all this is why her upcoming show might be the perfect vehicle right now.
Despite the critics, reality shows have not diminished the Governor’s brand, but have extended it — because these shows thrive on interactive immediacy, her forte.
BEING REALLY REAL ON REALITY TV
Though reality TV is of course just as artificial as any other TV format, it suits Sarah Palin because her love for people is “really real” and immediate.
Just by being Sarah Palin, the Governor “strengthens that which remains” of our Christian Americana when she campaigns, be it a book tour or politically. This is most likely the spiritual subtext for the new series. AMAZING AMERICA is a perfect showcase for Sarah Palin right now because of her evangelistic call, and part of this subtext for this upcoming show is that these people whom Palin will highlight are “part of” Palin herself.
OF COURSE, THERE’S AN OPENING FOR HER ENEMIES
And one of the pitfalls of doing a show about people’s personal stories like “Amazing America” or other shows to be discussed – is that most likely, Palin wants to “take a stand” about the lives of the people she meets on the show. There is a potential weak spot in this.
Sarah Palin is not Huel Howser, she is a world leader. Should these people later on diss her or disavow what was presented within Palin’s show could be a way Palin’s political enemies try to sabotage her. Sarah Palin cannot “go surety for a stranger” (ala Proverbs 6) and take a stand on other people’s testimonies or life achievements if she does not know them intimately.
She can present them, she can frame their life-stories, but she can’t stake her own reputation upon theirs. She can’t guarantee or warranty their morality or character, their upright and forthright lifestyles or achievements. This probably will be spelled out in the show, so if it turns out someone Palin highlights in her show has done something immoral or somehow misrepresented themselves, there won’t be room for Palin’s political enemies to make hay out of it.
(excerpted)