Also, I’m familiar with blonde, blue-eyed folks trotting out their alleged Native ancestry for personal and professional gain from my time living in Oklahoma, so someone with a bit of Inuit blood being trotted out as somehow “proof” of Palin’s multiculti cred holds no water with me.

Many of your general comments about cultural differences and people’s unique reactions to those differences are interesting and undeniably true but your specific comments regarding Palin are typical of a pattern used by Palin’s apologists:

1) Counter with an attack on Hawaii (Blaming phase): “….it was an unofficial day of harassing all white kids in public schools. By harassing I am being politically correct. If the animus were directed at more properly-termed minorities in the Mainland, it would be called a hate crime, and justifiably so”…..”Look, Hawaiians are a delightful people but there is a tremendous amount of snobbishness if you’re not a part of the native culture.”

2) Configure Palin as the innocent and often helpless, hapless victim (Protective phase): ” I don’t think this is one you can blame on a sheltered girl….”

3) Assign character traits to Palin which, quite frankly, the general public hasn’t seen substantial evidence for (Diversion phase): “….which she HONESTLY says was a question of finances, and the lure of the paradisical (sic) weather and doesn’t GUSSY THE REASON UP with politically correct visions of immersing herself in multi-culturalism.”……”To then say she doesn’t like minorities, having herself married one is over-reach.” (emphasis mine)

If I have seen the above 3-step defensive pattern once, I have seen it a thousand times. Does that mean that Palin has never been victimized or that she is never worth defending? Of course not…. but the general public out there who are NOT her besotted fans are cognizant of the fact that Palin has the very unfortunate habit of fabrication, even outright lying, as well as embellishment (aka “gussying up” the facts). As a consequence….who the heck really knows why Palin left Hawaii? Presumably her parents and close inner circle know why Palin left Hawaii…… which is why Chuck Heath’s statement was fodder for comment in this blog. Personally I don’t know and don’t really care why she left Hawaii except to the extent that this politician is a polarizing, destructive force in our country and who, in styling herself as a potential national leader, has opened herself up to public scrutiny, questioning, and, yes, even harsh criticism and cutting satire.

You’re right that “our nation is fast losing its ability to TALK to each other. There are many reasons why this has developed but in my opinion Ms. Palin deserves a great deal of credit for the current situation because of her 1) divisive demagoguery, 2) aggressive cultivation of feelings of anger, victimization, free-floating mistrust of the “other” in her fans, 3) and, most heinously, not only lending approval to but outright drumming up conspiracy theories about our government, our President, health care, climate change etc. ad nauseam. When conspiracy theories permeate the citizenery, the Rule of Law starts breaking down…..

Has anyone noticed that Todd’s family is NEVER mentioned? Someone on here ran into his father? in CA. I don’t think SP likes to broadcast the Yupik blood. Yeah, she trots out everyone now and then that Todd is part Yupik, but that’s only when it suits her. If they were that close, they would have been dragged into the campaign, too. Sounds to me the elder Palins have better sense, and perhaps have distanced themselves from the Wasilla hillbilly side of the family.

Who mentioned blame, and why is it relevant? Do you think that assigning Sarah’s response to being in the minority in Hawaii is something that requires pinning “blame” on what you call “this cultural atmosphere”? Is this another example of Sarah being victimized?? How would you account for the fact that there are many white students who seem to do just fine in the same “cultural atmosphere”?

Blame as in target her for derision for being unworldly. Her first real trip outside (not including her visits to her grandparents in Wash State) was to Hawaii. That is typical for an American girl of working middle-class origins. Nevertheless, people here and in other blogs seem horrified that she felt out of place, and didn’t gel instantly with the local populace, despite evidence that our own multi-racial, well-traveled president was discomfitted too.

The point is that everyone has an unique and unrepeatable reaction to cultures. It says something that she was willing to make the leap to Hawaii in the first place (which she honestly says was a question of finances, and the lure of the paradisical weather and doesn’t gussy the reason up with politically correct visions of immersing herself in multi-culturalism), but if it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out. To then say she doesn’t like minorities, having herself married one is over-reach.

Incidentally, Todd is from Dillingham, and I’m surprised the native Alaskans here don’t mention that his grandmother is a well-known and respected tribe Elder there.

Anyway, I hope I added something to the conversation at Mudflats today. Thanks for the convo.