RedNeckoBlogger

"Vanity" column by matt1234 on freerepublic.com ... Reposted here cause it's so damn right-on and worthy of its own blog! (In RedNeckoBlogger HO).

The best metaphor for the left’s latest attack on Sarah Palin might be the witch trials preceding the Enlightenment. Most of us believe that a modern society would never tolerate the kind of unfounded and unreasonable allegations brought during witch trials. That is probably true. However, recent events suggest that some of our countrymen not only purport to believe in witches but would also like to destroy them.

Prior to the Enlightenment, witchcraft charges typically followed a malady or tragedy in a community, causing its members to rashly seek a cause. The rashness of this search was frequently accompanied by hysteria and a wolfpack mentality. After Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot by a crazed, would-be assassin named Jared Loughner on January 8, 2011, leftwing politicians and pundits immediately began blaming Palin because of a map on the SarahPAC website. (On that map, Congresswoman Gifford’s district is marked by a symbol resembling a target, suggesting that Republicans should aim to retake her district.) One after the other leftwinger repeated the allegations with little or no hesitation.

The hallmark of witchcraft charges is their baseless nature with respect to facts and reason. For example, witches were often accused of attacking their victims by casting spells. Today, most of us know that spells cannot cause illness or calamity because there is no provable cause-and-effect. However, the accusers of Sarah Palin never bothered to consider cause-and-effect. Absolutely no evidence has emerged that Loughner was exposed to the map on the SarahPAC website. Hence, there is no known causation that links the map to Loughner’s actions. If Loughner had no knowledge of the map, how could it have motivated him to attack Giffords?

Persons accused of witchcraft were usually women or newcomers to the community. They often lived in outlying areas or outside the bounds of conventional society. As such, they were easy marks for the members of the civil establishment who typically leveled the formal charges. Consistent with these historical trends, Sarah Palin is unquestionably female; and, she is a relative newcomer to our national “community.” She also lives in a remote region and embraces “outmoded” methods of self-sufficiency such as hunting. So, the establishment media and body politic may consider her easy prey for baseless charges. Compared to other presidential prospects, Palin has relatively few connections to the elite in the media and government. The accusers seem to have assumed that few among the elite will stand in her defense, especially given the mounting charges.

Oftentimes, the accusers of witches did not actually believe the charges they made. Rather, the charges were leveled solely to satisfy a grudge or vendetta against the accused. In short, the charges were lies intended to harm. Sometimes, the charges were meant to hide or distract from crimes or problems in the community. After Congresswoman Giffords was shot, many in the leftwing establishment blamed Palin despite the obvious absurdity of the charge. Are we to conclude that all of these accusers really believed what they were saying? Or did they have ulterior motives? Is it a coincidence that these most recent allegations were made by the same people who have attacked Palin in the past?

In the past, witch trials were tolerated by the public largely due to their ignorance, fear and conformity. Many witch trials produced guilty verdicts because of the undemocratic and heavy-handed ways in which they were prosecuted. Here, the similarities with the past end. The Enlightenment arrived some time ago, and it has changed the way we think and behave. We are no longer governed chiefly by superstition and the blind acceptance of assertions by our social betters. If someone makes a claim, he is expected to produce facts to support it. We are free to choose our leaders, and our laws prevent them from cowing us into submission.

Some in the elite establishment may think us fools who will blindly dance to their tune. But if they expect us to dance around a burning witch, they had better think again.