Alaska Dispatch

I am thankful that this is being looked into. I received an email back from the FCC regarding this matter.

This is a Liberal defense of Team Sarah

I am a Liberal, who voted for Obama, who nonetheless joined Team Sarah post-election. Why? Because Sarah Palin will be a major contender in the next election, and represents an important populist voice in this country. I was critical of much of Sarah’s candidacy; however, I joined Team Sarah specifically to expose myself to ‘positive’ things about Sarah that I know darn well will not be promoted by the MSM. I intend to be as knowledgeable and open-minded a voter as possible, come the next election.

I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but Team Sarah has treated me very well, in spite of an open declaration of my political identity. But then, I am not there to ‘mock’ or ‘be smug’ – I am there to learn, listen and be supportive where I find things I agree with. That’s what the site is all about – to support Sarah Palin, period. It’s their ‘living room’ and if someone joins simply to run counter to their mission, then TS has every right to boot them out the door. It’s called ‘freedom of association,’ folks. If anyone started a site with the mission of supporting Obama – and a bunch of conservative ‘trolls’ infiltrated it just to kick dirt in the members’ faces – the resultant complaints would be just as righteous.

Supposedly we Liberals, by self-definition, are tolerant, respectful and curious as to a wide variety of viewpoints. However, in practice, I find most Liberals as guilty of ‘intellectual fascism’ as their Conservative bretheren. I have had more critical posts of mine blocked by the Huffington Post than I have at Team Sarah.

I also find the content of the 23/6 link on the Huffington Post – featuring Palin’s head being burned in effigy on a Yule Fire over Christmas, and graphic ‘crotch shots’ of Jenna Bush – to be as repugnant and bigoted as some of the content attributed to Team Sarah members by liberal commentators.

The Amanda Coyne and Geoffrey Dunn articles slamming TS were a great example of liberal cherry-picking – journallistically shallow and intellectually lazy pot-shots intent on short-sheeting the TS site, giving no equal time to the more constructive substance to be found there.

Because I spread my time equally among a wide variety of websites, I can state unequivocally that ‘garbage’ and mindless, bigoted negativity is to be found on ALL partisan sites – one chat room no more enlightening, no less idiotic and immature than the other. Why Coyne and Dunn are happy to bash Team Sarah, yet take no swings at the odious content of 23/6 on HuffPo is beyond me.

I take great exception to allegations that the Team Sarah moderators have been anything less than heroic in ‘cleaning up the site.’ It has improved leaps and bounds in the last two months. There is a lot on the site that I disagree with – but I have great respect for what this relatively small group of moderators are doing. I am very clear in my own mind what difference exists between some contributions to the site, and the actual mission statement, which is to provide a serious minded, idealistic, thoughtful forum for the support of Sarah Palin.

If she considers herself to be an honest journalist, Amanda Coyne should prove herself capable of a ‘second epiphany,’ following the half-hearted one she described in her New Year’s column. She ought to try what I have done – enter the site a second time, with a new pair of glasses, looking for the ‘good’ that is to be found, not just dump-pick for garbage to be selectively and gleefully offered up as some sort of ‘street-cred’ to fellow close-minded Liberals – which, to my mind, is no more savory an offering than a dead mouse deposited proudly by the cat at the kitchen door.

I am ambivalent about Sarah Palin as a candidate for national office and agree with T. Mackenzie that it would be helpful to know more about her before making any decision with regards to future elections. However, I have visited the Team Sarah site a few times over the last few weeks and all I see is Obama bashing. That doesn't seem to be very helpful and enlightening, and frankly is a major turnoff.

That would be one substantive criticism I would also make regarding the TS site. However, the main point here is that one can as easily cherry-pick the contributions to HuffPo and other liberal sites and come up with the same sort of damning, mindless, bigoted material as was done to Team Sarah. But do we see any of my fellow Liberals sweeping their own house clean before they offer the broom to our Conservative neighbors? I don't. Many Liberals are caught in the same self-referential intellectual loop as they claim Conservatives are, yet they parade themselves as 'thinkers' and Conservatives as relative morons. I think this hurts our country, especially as we go forward in the spirit that Obama calls for.