Joseph Hatch: Sarah Palin and the Bard

Joseph Hatch has written a thoughtful article today for the American Thinker about the disconnect between the beltway elites and the rest of the country. Here are some excerpts.

As I watched the mewling throngs of political talking heads trying to explain, demean, or dismiss the appeal of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue," I was reminded of a quote from a famous Elizabethan author named Ben Jonson. Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare and famous poet/author in his own right, used to look down from his luxury box at the Globe Theatre in London with derision when confronted with the cheers and roars of the common man as they watched Shakespeare's plays unfold. He sneered at the "foamy praise that drops from common jaws" as the groundlings would cheer the sword fights of Hamlet or the saucy behavior of Falstaff.

Now for those who don't know, the groundlings were the craftsmen and apprentices who occupied the "cheap seats" in the Globe Theatre where Shakespeare's play debuted almost 400 years ago. Basically they were the butchers, the bakers, and the candlestick makers.

[...]

The contempt for "Going Rogue" is as much an indictment of its readers as it is of the author.

I am not attempting to compare Governor Palin's literary skills to those of William Shakespeare, but she has grasped one of his most important tenets, "Brevity is the soul of wit." Succinct messaging, a crisp, clear delivery, and an occasional sword fight for good measure may pack the seats; but it takes a connective truth, a "moral to the story" bubbling underneath the spectacle, to keep fans in their seats and coming back for more.

[...]

Sarah Palin is not the first to be greeted with the derision and contempt of the cultural elite and she won't be the last. Middle America is to most politicians and commentators a necessary inconvenience at best, just like the groundlings of old. They are needed to pack the theatre, but once they are in the building they are expected to sit still and shut up.

We, as a conservative movement, have to focus on those who truly pack the theatre and attend the plays and not spend our time trying to get Ben Jonson to agree with our choice of playwright or how loud we choose to applaud.

Read the rest here.