To the growing field of conservative psychoanalysis exploring the question of what mental flaw must be present in liberals to make them not appreciate the intelligence and sound judgment of Sarah Palin, the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto has a new contribution. His thesis is that liberals dislike Palin because of the lady parts:
Why does their hatred of her burn so hot?
Ask them, and they'll most likely tell you: Because she's a moron. But that is obviously false. ...
We'd say this goes beyond mere jealousy. For many liberal women, Palin threatens their sexualidentity, which is bound up with their politics in a way that it is not for any other group (possibly excepting gays, though that is unrelated to today's topic).
Taranto's argument here is not entirely new, and it's less interesting than his corollary explanation of why a not-inconsiderable number of men seem to dislike Palin as well. Taranto argues that men who dislike Palin are either trying to impress women or are misogynists themselves:
What about male Palin-hatred? It seems to us that it is of decidedly secondary importance. Liberal men put down Palin as a cheap way to score points with the women in their lives, or they use her as an outlet for more-general misogynistic impulses that would otherwise be socially unacceptable to express.
Liberal women are the active, driving force behind hatred of Sarah Palin, while liberal men's behavior is passive and manipulative.
It's like a really bad undergraduate Women's Studies paper.