A Farewell To Tongues and Dog Whistles

I have tried to find some sense in Sarah Palin's words for months, most recently with respect to her "I Love This State So Much, I Quit" farewell speech. As I attempted to chart a logical proof of her soldiers-democracy-reporters riff, or to divine what was so "obvious" about her reasons for bailing that she need not explain, it occurred to me that Sarah Palin engages in a secular form of speaking in tongues. No one can understand what in hell she is trying to say. Her fellow true-believers nod approvingly, entranced. Everyone else politely rolls his eyes in dismissive exasperation.

True believers immerse in delusion, oblivious to their intersection with the reality-based world, so when she says "Some still are choosing not to hear why I made the decision to chart a new course to advance the state," she means it: She believes the problem is that we are choosing to disregard her words, when the truth is her dog-whistle style makes damned near every sound she emits unintelligible to most of her audience.

I hope her resignation directs the spotlight away from her family; raising five children seems enough to consume anyone's attention without having every step scrutinized by the media-audience combination that is about to inflict Octomom on the American television audience. I would not want to live in that fishbowl.

I hope Sarah Palin resurfaces periodically, however, bringing Tina Fey back to Saturday Night Live, where she belongs.