WHY YOUNG D.C. PUNDITS LOATHE BASE-PANDERING:

“Style is character,” Joan Didion famously declared in her essay on Georgia O’Keeffe.

A lot of people share this opinion, whether they realize it, or not. And this, I think, partially explains the dichotomy between the ruling class and the hoi polloi. It’s often not about ideology, but instead, about style.

For example, I think elites were as much repelled by the way Sarah Palin spoke — and by her refusal to genuflect at the altar of political correctness – as they were about any of the policies she supported.

I notice this particularly among libertarians. In truth, as a governor Sarah Palin was remarkably gay-friendly and generally quite libertarian. But they tended to lump her in with Mike Huckabee.