My Eulogy:
The Genius of Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
As White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders failed the public. Sanders didn’t just defend the president from the effects of his own statements; she offered herself as a kind of prosaic presence whose function it was to act like anything Trump did, no matter how shocking, was no big deal. She exemplified the stolid approval Trump wanted for everything from family separations to tax cuts for the rich. As her tenure ends, we can now see how much her reliance on reassuring phrases like “make a determination”—and unblinkingly calling lies differences of opinion and hush payments not worth discussing—provided a kind of muted laugh track to the terrible show being forced upon America. Rather than laugh at unfunny jokes, she loyally normalized despicable conduct.
In an era characterized by “White House in chaos” headlines, her repressive calm served an essential function. “Sanders possesses a unique talent that, heretofore, has not quite been considered a talent: She can deaden a room,” Jason Schwartz wrote at Politico. As a public servant, Sanders was abysmal. As a public speaker, she was subpar. But as the first line of Trump’s defense, she was absolutely indispensable. Her departure also means one less woman playing a particular role on the front lines of the Trump-is-normal campaign. Kellyanne Conway was the first to deploy a particular form of unflappable femininity in the service of making Trump’s feelings and actions palatable to the public.
Trump seems to need this. His masculinist fantasy of himself is structurally dimorphic; it requires an approving female presence to authorize and excuse and interpret.
The Genius of Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
As White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders failed the public. Sanders didn’t just defend the president from the effects of his own statements; she offered herself as a kind of prosaic presence whose function it was to act like anything Trump did, no matter how shocking, was no big deal. She exemplified the stolid approval Trump wanted for everything from family separations to tax cuts for the rich. As her tenure ends, we can now see how much her reliance on reassuring phrases like “make a determination”—and unblinkingly calling lies differences of opinion and hush payments not worth discussing—provided a kind of muted laugh track to the terrible show being forced upon America. Rather than laugh at unfunny jokes, she loyally normalized despicable conduct.
In an era characterized by “White House in chaos” headlines, her repressive calm served an essential function. “Sanders possesses a unique talent that, heretofore, has not quite been considered a talent: She can deaden a room,” Jason Schwartz wrote at Politico. As a public servant, Sanders was abysmal. As a public speaker, she was subpar. But as the first line of Trump’s defense, she was absolutely indispensable. Her departure also means one less woman playing a particular role on the front lines of the Trump-is-normal campaign. Kellyanne Conway was the first to deploy a particular form of unflappable femininity in the service of making Trump’s feelings and actions palatable to the public.
Trump seems to need this. His masculinist fantasy of himself is structurally dimorphic; it requires an approving female presence to authorize and excuse and interpret.
