MAUREEN AND SALLY AND SARAH
Why is Maureen Dowd unhappy? Is the AARP getting too pushy with their membership drive? Why does she hold so much personal venom for Sarah Palin? Dowd’s column of July 7 ( “Dear Diary”) is an orgy of self indulgence that many a competent editor would throw back in her face demanding…”give me something relevant”. It may be that Dowd is coasting on her Pulitzer Prize or she is just plain lazy. Why, with such an opportunity to communicate, albeit to a rapidly shrinking audience, would Dowd choose to submit, for publication, such vapid tripe as this?
“C’mon”, you say, “…it’s only Op-Ed…it doesn’t have to mean anything, it’s entertainment.” Well that is obvious, but it should require at least some effort of thought and reason. Dowd’s public mumblings, like those of a nasty schoolgirl, betrays a jealousy and envy of a younger, prettier, more popular girl who is getting all the attention, and that is sad. But as with the classmates of the obsessive coed, the readers of Dowd’s drone can only roll their eyes and feel a twinge of embarrassment for her.
There has been much speculation about aging, liberal-elite woman - among them Sally Quinn - and their strange preoccupation with Sarah Palin. Theories range from women who can’t come to terms with growing older, to women who’s lives never lived up to their expectations, to a consuming fear of irrelevance. It has been noted that Sarah Palin seems to have it all, children, a career, popularity, enthusiasm and….a loyal husband. Her likability has struck a chord with the people which serves to make the unhappy, unfulfilled want to denigrate her and what she has. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, it was the Cosmo girls who were supposed to reach nirvana and have it all, not some commoner. But that fading generation finds itself stuck in a rapidly filling cul-de-sac with no chance of backing out to retry another route and that realization elicits an anger seeking a target…and that target is Sarah Palin.
Get over it Maureen and Sally, stop featuring your lack of grace, your frustration and anger and try writing something that matters or better yet…. retire.
Semper Fi
CW