Sarah Palin
OK, here's something that was bothering me about Sarah Palin a few days ago. Among multiple factors, I recognize a certain component of class snobbery in some of my reactions to her, in my tendency originally to belittle her before she started to seem really dangerous. She sort of activates every negative stereotype I had of hillbillies from trailer parks, and that was part of what I laughed at. And now that I really feel threatened by her, I think she encourages the part of me that wants to say, "I AM the liberal elite, dammit, and we SHOULD rule the country, not you scum." I like to think I'm with the less welathy against the rich, but here is someone who, while obviously not poor, seems to come from a genuinely working-class background, and is making me think undemocratic thoughts.