Why did new Mayor Palin fire the police chief and librarian of Wassila?
Palin said in letters she wanted a change because she believed the two did not fully support her administration…. Palin refused Friday to detail her complaint … saying only that “You know in your heart when someone is supportive of you.”
“Wasilla librarian keeps job,” Sitka Daily Sentinel 2/3/97*
Political loyalty above all else! Look into your heart! If that doesn’t sound like four more years of the same, I don’t know what does.
*Looks like the librarian stayed but the police chief went.
18 comments
August 30, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Jason B
“You know in your heart when someone is supportive of you.”
What a bunch of sentimentalist garbage. No wonder the right-wingnuts love her.
August 30, 2008 at 4:16 pm
urbino
I believe I read that she insisted on the resignation of every city official, as a demonstration of loyalty.
Look into your heart!
Thank you, John Turturro.
August 30, 2008 at 4:32 pm
JPool
She wasn’t gonna die … in small town Alaska … like some dumb animal.
August 30, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Charlieford
The whole thing just gives me the willies. I need a vacation from the planet.
August 30, 2008 at 10:24 pm
andrew
Isn’t this title a bit unkind to Machiavelli and his views on republicanism?
August 30, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Vance Maverick
The reference is to something said by John DiIulio. I take him to be using the word like “Machiavel”, i.e., the old sense of “vicious schemer”, with little specific reference to the actual writer.
August 30, 2008 at 10:46 pm
andrew
Yeah, I know the popular usage of Machiavel(li) – albeit not that particular attribution – but that just puts the bit of unkindness back on to others.
August 31, 2008 at 6:04 am
Ben Alpers
“You know in your heart when someone is supportive of you.”
Wasn’t that the basis, for the last seven-and-a-half years, of U.S. policy toward Russia?
August 31, 2008 at 6:59 am
awc
Having myself stressed the competence-patronage theme, I’m not sure it should be the main line of attack. It’s obviously appealing to people like us who can identify John DiIulio, but it risks veering into sexist territory. We’ve all seen it already in the various comment sections.
It might be better to paint her as a petty tyrant. Palin demands loyalty. She fires people who disagree. She wants to control your penis-vagina-uterus. In other words, show how her character connects with her ideology. She’s Tracy Flick. She’s Dolores Umbridge. She’s the bad boss who leads the office in “voluntary” Christian prayers every morning, then berates you for breaking the copier.
In other words, if people must play with gender stereotypes, they should focus on ones that provoke broad antipathy.
August 31, 2008 at 7:37 am
eric
It might be better to paint her as a petty tyrant
Don’t you think this post, and the previous ones about sacking the entire bureaucracy, do that? That’s the point of invoking the Mayberry Machiavelli meme. There’s nothing sexist about saying you’re another GWB.
August 31, 2008 at 8:54 am
awc
Your post does, absolutely, but your headline doesn’t. The term “Mayberry Machiavelli” invokes two problems with this administration: 1) its elevation of loyalty over competence, and 2) its contempt for policy, as opposed to politics.
Palin is probably an example of both. But we don’t really know whether the folks she fired were capable. We don’t know whether she’s incompetent. We’re just taking her critics’ word for it. And attacks on her ability will appear as sexism and elitism if she does well in debates.
Now, consider the Umbridge-phony Christian slam. No amount of charm can counteract it because it presumes artifice. “She acts nice, but she’ll fire your ass if you dissent from her dogma.” And it’s a type of person both genders despise.
August 31, 2008 at 10:01 am
Ben Alpers
Apparently the citizens of Wasilla started a recall effort in response to these firings.
August 31, 2008 at 2:17 pm
KRK
In other words, if people must play with gender stereotypes, they should focus on ones that provoke broad antipathy.
Sexist!!
August 31, 2008 at 2:36 pm
awc
What’s the matter with being sexy? Ohhh, sex-IST, sex-IST.
I almost slipped Nigel Tufnel into the acknowledgments of my book, but chickened out the in the end. I wonder if anyone would have noticed.
September 1, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Kim
Drunk with power
September 2, 2008 at 7:13 am
Vigilante
Not a change. Not a Maverick. Not a reformer. Same ‘ol same ‘ol autocratic GOP-ism
September 2, 2008 at 10:28 am
Please stop concern trolling. « The Edge of the American West
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September 3, 2008 at 6:12 am
Sarah Palin’s “executive experience” round-up. « The Edge of the American West
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