My mother told me long ago, "when you point a finger at someone else, you are pointing three back at yourself." The Republican playbook runs the 'finger-pointing, name-calling' game and wins with it time and again. The names work for the simple reason that there is truth behind them. Not the truth of the accusation. The truth is in the accuser.
And so it is that the shockingly joyful response to Sarah Palin's snide speech reveals the flaws of the party members and un-self aware independents who cheer her. Palin points a finger for them, and they join in enthusiastically, because they are three times more guilty than the Democrats of every single accusation she makes. Yet the jiu-jitsu of projection allows them to believe they are happily innocent in their righteous hatred of their enemies.
I don't blame Sarah Palin. I blame every Republican and Independent who votes for people like her. They are the ones who refuse to take the schoolyard truth from their own hands and see where most of the fingers are pointing.
When my niece was a toddler, if you asked her who licked the frosting off the cake or drew with crayons on the wall, she would reply, "I can't know that." My niece grew up and now takes responsibility for her errors, even the ones made in good faith. She has become an adult. The Palin cheering crowds are emotional toddlers willing trade their country and mine for their own illusion of innocence.
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