Mythic Absolution, Newburyport, Politics  In thinking about the
“mythic” power of politicians, and what they represent to our
collective American unconscious (see previous posts), I began to
wonder about what other myths our top ticket candidates might
embody.  Bill Moyers (yes, wise men and women tend to make the
top of my list) back in January 2008, addressed the myth of
Barack Obama taking away white guilt of racism. (Myth not being
something that would be either true or false, but a story or a
person that represents a world view.)  You can read the
transcript of that fascinating segment here.  For whites to be
absolved of a history of racism has a very powerful mythic
quality about it.  And then I started thinking about what other
myths does Palin personify. One of those myths could be that,
even a woman with a large family, could successfully work, i.e.
be a governor or a vice president. (Just as a btw, our very own
former governor Jane Swift, as I recall, had trouble
demonstrating that this particular m