I can’t help noticing that the leading superstars of the uber-conservative Tea Party movement share something. They’re hot women. Of course, of course, there are also men and non-hot women, but none of them seem to have moved to the front of the line in terms of being marquee names. “Hmmm,” I think to myself. I wonder what this is about. It’s always rewarding to see women succeed the way Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Nikki Haley have, but exponentially more disappointing when we see that these women really do seem to be there just because they look good, and not because they offer actual solutions or legitimate claims to public office. So I ponder a bit. Amidst the head-shaking, face-palming, shudder-inducing humiliation heaped upon women by the Brainless Beauty Queens who never met a camera they didn’t like, something else is going on. I admit here that I know relatively little about Nikki Haley and have only heard of a few bad moves, so for current purposes I will exempt her from the BBQs, pending further information.
What is it that makes women like Bachmann and Palin so very fundable, so endorsable, so interviewable, and yet so utterly embarrassing and so violently out of touch with what one of them termed “real America” (albeit without quite explaining what “real America” is)? I hear from them the singular voice of those who have benefitted from the system as-is. They are pretty, white, middle- to upper-class, not too educated to be threatening, but educated enough to think themselves qualified for anything. They are the product of the “of course you can do it, honey!” world where they have never been challenged as members and beneficiaries of society. Their confidence may be based on the kind of shallow achievements that pass for measures of personal success in the privileged status quo, but it is real confidence nonetheless. They are convinced they are superior because they’ve mastered the kiddie pool.
And therein lies the rub. They have been successful at blocks and Go Fish, so they believe unquestionably in their own abilities. But they don’t have the wherewithal to know or explore or understand how little they actually know or understand. And no one has ever bothered to do more than pat them on their coiffed little heads cuz they’re so cute. The voice they share is “it works for me and my husband thinks I’m super, so it must be a good system.” These women have never faced the kinds of social barriers and challenges that inform the best of us.
I think this is why their voices carry so far and get so much response. To them, everything is simple, black-and-white, ‘cause-the-Bible-tells-me-so objective truth. There is something deeply appealing about that to voters who are consumed by daily life, unable or unwilling to invest the time and energy it takes to wheedle a nugget of unsatisfying truth from the enormous and complex issues we face in government. The absolute certainty with which these women speak can be convincing, and is certainly better suited for news trailers and sound bites than the reality of the circumstances. But this does a great disservice not only to the BBQs, but to all of their followers who find refuge in the oversimplifications. They are denied the depth and breadth of information that is necessary to truly understand.
The BBQs will never understand this because neither has ever been a poor black child with a drug-addicted mother and a father in jail. None has ever been poor white trash living in a run-down trailer park where hope goes to die. None has ever had check the bank account before heading to the emergency room or asked “is it really bad enough to justify the copay”? None has had to live in a forgotten ghetto under the smokestacks or in public housing. None has had to swallow her pride and admit that she can’t feed her child without help. None has had to watch her dreams pass her by because the resources weren’t there or the opportunities went to someone prettier, better dressed, better socially placed, better educated.
Similarly the invocation of God is a personal arrogance in many ways. It’s a way of saying “there must be a God because I’m a good girl and I got married and have a nice house and lots of babies, so see? Good people get rewarded and bad people get punished.” Really? So there are no good poor people or bad rich people? Your scrubbed and polished cookie-cutter suburbs harbor no wife-beaters, animal abusers, cheaters, liars, embezzlers, tax cheats, or (gasp!) liberals? But nevertheless, the perspective that they’re blessed because they’re better than other people persists. Even if they don’t realize that’s the thought process, it is. Bachmann was even waiting for word from Above about whether to run or not and whom to hire. I never realized God ran an HR firm.
What I hear is the carefully cultivated (by the others who similarly benefit from the status quo) outrage of one who has reaped the benefits and been fully shielded from the costs. Sure – your life might have been rosy even if that’s not the narrative you’re selling right now, but you have no idea how many people’s lives have been destroyed by the systems you so obliviously benefit from. So the crying about the unfair tax system, abortion rights, Planned Parenthood, the evil EPA, and other such conservative outcries really are no more than “keep things as they are, because they work for me, and all you have to do is be as good as me and they’ll work for you too.”
And maybe that’s the truest, most fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives are those for whom the system works (or who have come to believe that it does). Liberals see a system that works excessively well for some at unacceptable cost to others. I don’t believe in the idea of a fully level playing field. I don’t believe that everyone can achieve the same thing to the same degree if given the same opportunities. There are people who simply lack the capacity to be certain things that have been defined as ‘success.’ There are also, obviously, people who have the capacity but just don’t use it. And there are lots and lots of people who DO have the capacity to succeed but life and society get in the way.
The support these women never see in the background of their “going rogue”ness and their carefully cultivated outsider self-image is the full support of The System. The old guard of power, money, and status. All the people and institutions they think they are rebelling against are the scaffolding upon which their positions are built. And the status quo supports them because they give a much better face to The System than someone like Newt Gingrich or Jim DeMint. So the saddest part of all of this is that these women are basically social patsies. They’re put face-forward to defend the status quo and handed a rebel-sounding script, sent out into the paparazzi and left to embarrass themselves (and us) with their utter lack of knowledge, understanding, or self-awareness.
So – to the privileged BBQs who will never see this, and would never understand it if they did, I say: I feel sorry for you. I feel sorry that you have missed so much rich and rewarding life by staying in your safe little bubbles where people pat you on the head and promise you that you’re just the smartest little thing. Where you can derisively blame the “lamestream media” for making you look bad and believe that those who criticize you are inherently flawed or stupid or mean or whatever THEIR problem is. Because you will never see that they send you out to be the smartest little thing in the backyard while the grownups talk. You are being manipulated by your own ignorance, and the shame you bring to women is deep and intense. You can’t see the advantages you’ve had, so you can’t see how little you understand or how tied you are to the inequities of the system. You don’t understand real struggle or the ugly, desperate reasons people make the choices they make. Even I don’t understand real struggle, but I understand more than you do because of that. Because I can say “I don’t know your life, tell me.” And that’s something you can’t do. Because to know how hopeless the world can look, how little opportunity there really is for the vast majority of Americans, and how limitless even those few opportunities seem to people of other nations, you would have to question the status quo. And since it worked for you, questioning it would undo your whole perspective. And sadly, I fear that the primary reason why that would be so devastating to you is your ego. And ego is never a good reason to fail so miserably to understand those you claim to represent (or claim you should), nor is it a good judge of public policy. It certainly won’t help you acquire the humility and empathy necessary to see that your success is not the product of your own superness, but of the advantages you received through no fault or act of your own.
