Germania

Borepatch has a nice post up, with much better history than I've got behind me, pushing further the Roman vs. Celtic/German meme that I've been pushing since Devin pointed me at Szabo. Of course, Borepatch manages to connect it to Palin and her lack of boob-job:

Why is the Left in full give-me-back-my-Legions garment rending fury? It's not a rational response, they're reacting to Palin as a symbol. She embodies a force that contradicts their world view.

The Roman model is top-down, and has appealed for centuries to the Intellectual Elites who see themselves as potential Imperators, or at least Equites, fit by birth or by Class to instruct the Lower Orders. Palin is through and through representative of the Germanic/Celtic bottom-up system, where talent and determination is more important than Class membership. Coming from nowhere, the Left simply cannot conceive that she could successfully lead opposition to the "Civilized World".