COMMENTARY | The Palin family has become a kind of catalyst for vile behavior by evil people. Most people, even if they think things as are being said about Sarah Palin and her family, know better than to articulate them.
But there is something about the Palins that causes people of low character to just loose all restraint and say things that most people do not even imagine thinking.
There was the case of Stephen Hanks, a Hollywood talent agent, who found himself in a bar where Bristol Palin, former Gov. Palin’s oldest daughter, was filming her reality show. Hanks decided to heckle Bristol Palin, using language that cannot be repeated, whereupon she walked over to him and calmly confronted him. She got even more vile abuse for her efforts.
Mind, Hanks’ sick behavior would start bar fights in certain establishments and might have, in this case, had a male friend or relative of Bristol Palin’s had been present. But Ms. Palin showed a calm demeanor that would have impressed Gandhi.
Of course, Bill Maher never fails to disappoint in his continued obsession with former Gov. Palin. His suggestion about what she would do with Rick Perry were he black is based on the now disproven allegations of another twisted human being, Joe McGinniss, who knowingly printed allegations in a book that had no proof to back them up.
It seems that there are no consequences to slandering a woman, especially if the woman is a conservative (say what Hanks and Maher said about Palin about Hillary Clinton or Michele Obama, and it would be a different story.) While men who behave in such a way are held up to public condemnation, they tend not to suffer for their misbehavior, either personally or professionally.
I am reminded of a scene in the 1938 film “Jezebel,” set in the ante bellum south, in which the quinisential southern gentleman, Buck Cantrell, admonishes another man for actually mentioning a lady’s name in a bar. It was clear that if the other man had not apologized at once, it would be pistols for two the next morning.
What wonders what Buck Cantrell would have had to say if he had been in the bar when Hanks had opened his mouth about Bristol Palin’s mom or the audience when Bill Maher had made that suggestion about the same lady.
Mind, we shouldn’t think about reviving the code duello, even though Zell Miller made an interesting suggestion along those lines to MSNBC ranter Chris Matthews for his mistreatment of Michelle Malkin.
One of the job descriptions of a politician is to catch abuse from people who disagree with one. But one should not have to be the recipient of vile, sexist, misogynist venom just because one is a woman and a conservative.
Perhaps, if one if an actor, one should not accept the services of Stephen Hanks as a talent agent. And does HBO really want its brand to be associated with a man who clearly hates women, especially right wing women? The suits at HBO really need to think about that.