David Dante Troutt

Who’s Not Your Friend? The Sarah Palin Narratives

[Please see the blog epilogue at the end of this essay]

If Sarah Palin’s sudden and remarkable popularity that boosted John McCain’s presidential hopes continues for more than another week, it will be because of the power of narratives to alter reality and affirm voter preferences. Narratives are no small thing—merely the way we tend to perceive the world—yet they are frequently taken for granted, except by Republican campaign strategists. This time, Democrats demonstrated some brilliance in this vein when Barack Obama began his campaign for president many years ago by framing and repeating the compelling narrative of his life in an elegant memoir. In short, he sold story. In fact, he sold a profound story when Hillary Clinton did not, which is primarily what distinguishes them. And now we have Palin’s.

I am ready to admit that I struggle with hers and not just because I am a Democrat and a supporter of Obama. The first clear fact emerging from her appeal is that we are, as so many social scientists have been telling us for years, a deeply divided country. I am not supposed to like Palin because I am black, a feminist, live in a large Northeastern city and worked very, very hard in school to reverse my childhood lack of class privilege. I am the Other American to whom she refuses to speak. Yet, because she could well become my president too, I am compelled to try to understand how her narrative works so well on others. › Continue reading