Sarah Palin: Party like it's 1773!

By Michael J.W. Stickings 

Those who have read this blog before, or who know me at all, know that I'm a proud and dedicated liberal who supports the Democratic Party and whose politics are, for the most part, deeply progressive.

But you know what? Sometimes liberals (and those otherwise on the left) fuck up.

To wit, there has been much ado today over remarks Sarah Palin made at a Tea Party rally in Reno, Nevada yesterday. Specifically, she told the mob that they shouldn't "party like it's 1773" until conservatives take over Washington.

Party like it's... 1773?

On Twitter, a small handful of liberals, including Markos Moulitsas, made fun of Palin for apparently getting the date wrong. Even PBS's Gwen Ifill, Biden-Palin debate moderator, called Palin out:

Sarah Palin: party like its 1773! ummm,

Earlier today, she tried to explain herself:

Stand down everybody. I was quoting Sarah Palin from her Nevada speech yesterday.

Which isn't entirely convincing. What was the "ummm" for if not to suggest that Palin had gotten it wrong?

Whatever the case with Ifill, conservatives are all over this. (Check out the wild reaction at Memorandum.) As they point out, rightly, Palin did in fact mean 1773, not 1776, because the Boston Tea Party happened that year. And, yes, she was obviously referring, with her speech right in front of her, to that event and not to the signing of the Declaration of Independence three years later.

Yes, yes. Fine.

But a simple, knee-jerk mistake by a few liberals/progressives hardly constitutes mass ignorance. Michelle Malkin refers to "[m]oron leftists" and Allahpundit refers to "left-wing imbeciles," as well as to the supposed "[l]efty insta-meme" that the "[i]diot Sarah Palin doesn't know that the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776," but, again, so what? It's not like the mistake of a tiny minority should be held against everyone else, even if rightists like these try to tie us all together. Most of us know that the Boston Tea Party took place in 1773, or at least not in 1776 -- and, of course, most of us didn't jump all over Palin for supposedly speaking in error.

So. Big deal. Whatever. A few liberals fucked up. That's all.

Besides, Palin is often wrong and Markos is usually right. Indeed, earlier today, he tweeted, citing TPM, that Palin (via Twitter) mistakenly endorsed John Raese for Senate from Pennsylvania. Actually, he's running for Senate from West Virginia. Duh.

What's more, I would add that the rallying cry of partying like it's 1773 just doesn't make any sense. It's not things were so great in 1773 -- hence the tea party, which was an act of rebellion (not partying). If you want to party like it's 1776, or 1789, or whatever, that's fine, I suppose, but partying like the British are still your overlords and you have to dump a boatload of tea into Boston Harbor to make a grand political statement is ridiculous.

Just like Sarah Palin is ridiculous, and far worse, however much the mob may cheer and her various supporters and apologists on the right may rush to her defence and lash out at her critics at every opportunity.

I'm not excusing getting the whole "party like it's 1773" thing wrong -- we liberals need to hold ourselves to high standards, and that, unlike for the other side, means getting the facts right -- but, when it comes down to it, it's really just a tempest in a right-wing teapot that shouldn't obscure the fact that Palin is often appallingly wrong when she opens her mouth.

Let's move on.