Posted on 07/10/2009 12:37:29 PM PDT by dr_who
Sarah Palin's announcement of her resignation as governor of Alaska may be the end of her political career or, as some speculate, the real beginning. What seems clear is that Palin is not conservatism's new hope but its dead end. In recent days, this has been amply confirmed by the arguments of Palin defenders, focused less on her presumed merits than on her presumed injuries at her enemies' hands.
Thus, Ross Douthat, the new conservative voice at the New York Times, hails Palin as Everywoman—living proof you can aspire to the White House without an Ivy League degree—and deplores her abuse by the political and media elites based on her "gender and social class." The message to other non-elite women with political ambitions, Douthat sums up, is: "Your children will go through the tabloid wringer. Your religion will be mocked and misrepresented. Your political record will be distorted, to better parody your family and your faith."
Yet Douthat admits that Palin's "missteps, scandals, dreadful interviews and self-pitying monologues" tarnished her role as a spunky common woman challenging the elites. But in that case, how much of the harsh treatment was due to prejudice and how much to Palin's own failings?
Yes, Palin has been the target of extremely vicious attacks (though the notion that no other politician has endured comparable nastiness would amuse Bill and Hillary Clinton). Her left-wing feminist foes have been especially rabid, mocking her in startlingly misogynistic language—"Republican blow-up doll" was one of the milder epithets—and denouncing "her pretense that she is a woman." The bizarre theory that Palin's youngest child, Trig, is really her grandson is still afloat in the gutters of the Internet.
And yes, this hostility has an element of snobbery. Former New Republic editor in chief Andrew Sullivan, currently a blogger with a bad case of Palin Derangement Syndrome, recently posted a catalogue of Palin's sins that included "white trash concupiscence."
Yet, such revolting extremes aside, some of the unpleasantness has been self-inflicted. Palin agreed to be John McCain's running mate knowing her teenage daughter was pregnant and single. (Of course, if Chelsea Clinton had been the expecting unwed mom, not one unkind word would have crossed the lips of Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter.) Nor was she particularly eager to shield Bristol Palin from the spotlight.
And then there's the matter of Palin's fitness for the second-highest office in the land. I say this as someone who initially hoped she would be an inspiring standard-bearer for conservative/libertarian feminism, a model of a woman who had it all and was a winner, not a victim.
It's not just the "liberal elites" that found Palin clueless; so did many in her own camp. Indeed, Douthat concedes she has to "bone up on the issues" if she is to have a political future. Those who believe Palin held her own debating Joe Biden forget that the McCain camp had requested a less-challenging format for that debate, with follow-up questions limited.
Palin critics on the right—George Will, Peggy Noonan, David Frum—have been slammed by the Palinistas as "haters," elitists threatened by a political star without proper intellectual credentials. Yet these same conservatives have been devout admirers of Ronald Reagan, hardly a product of the Ivy League.
Some of Palin's followers see her as the second coming of Reagan. But Reagan, despised as a "dunce" by his liberal detractors, had extensively read, written, and talked about the key issues of his day. While not an intellectual, he was a man of ideas. Palin is not known to harbor those. Her appeal is described in terms of "speaking from the heart" and exemplifying the virtues of faith and family—which is ironic, given the usual conservative derision of emotion-based liberal politics. Shortly after Palin's nomination, former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson suggested that her choice to bear a child with Down's Syndrome rather than have an abortion was an adequate substitute for a political philosophy.
If Palin does have a philosophy, it is the flip side of the class-and-culture warfare of which she has been a target. In fact, it was Palin who fired many of the volleys in this war—extolling the moral superiority of small towns and rural areas and calling them "pro-American parts of the country," mocking people who had traveled abroad as spoiled kids with rich parents.
While eschewing "victim feminism," Palin has enthusiastically embraced "victim conservatism": the grievances of cultural traditionalists who feel trampled and disdained by the more educated and influential (and often, more affluent) segments of American society. Like the "oppressed groups" of the left, these traditionalists have some valid complaints but channel them into a destructive ideology of polarization and resentment.
Such a zeal can energize the base—but also fatally split it and alienate the unconverted.
Most likely, Palin will be back. But if conservatives expect her to be their warrior princess in shining armor, they are courting defeat.
Cathy Young is a Reason contributing editor and a columnist at RealClearPolitics. She blogs at cathyyoung.wordpress.com. This article originally appeared at RealClearPolitics.
It’s not that I “haven’t decided yet.”
But we have no idea who is going to be running.
It’s way too early to back a horse when we don’t know who’s in the race.
I doubt Sarah Palin will be a contender.
The only person we can be relatively sure will be running is Mitt Romney, because he’s pretty much indicated an interest in running again.
If Newt Gingrich gets in the race, I will certainly give him serious consideration for my support. But again, that will depend on how well he does against the competition in the debate.
You asking who I’m supporting for the Republican nomination is akin to me asking your who you are supporting for the your favorite NFL team’s 2012 first round draft pick.
The problem with this whole Sarah Palin as Beltway Outsider meme is that by 2012, she won’t be. She resigned her post in Alaska so she could move to the lower 48 and get closer to the Beltway action.
"I do not like thee, Sarah Palin, The reason why I cannot tell; But this I know, and know full well, I do not like thee, Sarah Palin"
You've said this before. If you've got proof she intends to move to the lower 48, post it. I'm getting just a little tired of your dissembling statements.
Hint: Leftists love Romney.
This is what Rush Limbaugh has said.
“If she has any desire for a future, be it in politics, in media, or whatever, she’s going to have to do it in the Lower 48, she cannot do it in Alaska, it’s not gonna get it done.”
Fair enough on the waiting-to-see thing. But as far as the outsider thing I disagree. I think given her non-Ivy league education etc. she will always be an outsider or at least as much of one as anyone could ever be on the national stage. It’s a fair argument to say “how much of an outsider can a governor be?” but what I’m suggesting is the glaring relativity of her outsider-ness. Look at the major candidates for pres over the last 30 years. She is pretty darn unique amongst them.
Bottom line is we can say all we want but if she runs in 2012 she’s going to be a freight train that will be hard to stop, especially during the primaries.
Look at the first primaries. Iowa, NH, SC. NH not so much of a lock for her theoretically but the other two she will be wildly popular in and that momentum is hard to stop.
I admit that anything could happen. She could totally foul it all up or not even run. But what is known is that she is popular among conservatives and outshines all of the GOP candidates currently on the field.
Barry Goldwater Jr was on Cavuto’s show today. He is a big Palin fan. Said she was what the conservative movement was about.
These poor women are jealous. All they have is a pen and no following.
Sad for them.
Figures, another piece of contorted logic to fit your own scheme. Palin has made no statement about moving to the lower 48 and you know it.
What a piece of work you are.
But Sarah, hasn't proved those people that don't like her WRONG!!! Oh how I wish she would. I don't care how she says it, but say it and sound coherent. I like Bush for godsake and he sounded like an idiot, but I felt there was something there there. I'm not getting it with her yet. I'm willing to be proven wrong, but if she runs against Zero in 2012, prepare for another four years.
if she runs in 2012 she’s going to be a freight train that will be hard to stop, especially during the primaries.That's what I'm afraid of... that She could be hard to stop in the primaries, but easy for 0bama to roll in the general election. Just like her mentor John McCain.
hey, I agree wit this writer, am not a lesbian, and I'm pretty damned cute so watch what you say about people who disagree with you. Plus...I love a good man! Thank-you.
Palin has political advisors?
That is such a frickin sexist comment. Just because someone isn't on the Palin bandwagon, they're jealous???? So if you're not on the Romney bandwagon are you jealous? I mean, he is very good looking and makes a lot of money. You must be jealous of him if you don't support him. See what I"m saying? If we can't have logical discourse we're so doomed in this party.
I’m glad we agree she could be hard to stop in the primaries. Ok, we’re half way to total agreement. Now add to the equation the possibility that Obama will have much less support next time around. Obama outspent McCain by a lot, he had 8 years of anti-Bush to run on and AMerica got caught up in voting for the first black pres.
All that and he didn’t win by that much considering McCain was Bob Dole II.
So, it’s 2012, Obama’s change mantra proved false and now there is a very exciting GOP candidate running. Looks pretty plausible. Go Sarah.
Quite frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn. If you are on the Palin bandwagon fine, if you aren’t, fine.
I don’t believe I mentioned Romney, did I...uh...that was you.
These women are still jealous of Palin.
This thread, and all the others, prove one thing. Sarah Palin is able to generate more buzz than all the other potential presidential candidates for 2012 combined. She elicits passion, something that makes most of the other candidates look a lot like Tommy Thompson. Remember him? He ran for president.
McCain picked Palin because she fit the ‘maverick’ image he loves so much. The hockey mom from Wasilla was able to manage the oil companies, her own parties corrupt officials and her DNC opposition in Alaska. She beat an incumbent governor and a former governor. She has probably been underestimated since she first ran for the PTA.
Obama will be weak. The shine is coming off and the warm fuzzy glow is fading. His raw socialism is being exposed despite the best attempts of his lapdogs to hide it. Pelosi and Reid could be backbenchers in 18 months. Obama won in 2008 because he was a novelty act running against a stuffed suit. Jindal could beat him. Barbour could beat him. Palin could beat him. The trick is to nominate the best person for the country, not for the election.
No other potential candidate for 2012 has gone through the scrutiny that Palin has. Let's see who's still standing when the media starts looking at them. Remember, they loved McCain until he locked up the nomination. Then they turned on him and chewed him up. Obviously, they don't think Palin is another McCain. Let's see which beloved Rino the media starts fawning over before the primaries. And let's see who they still hate. Never mind. I know the answer to the last one.
10 million votes is a lot.
It is more votes than separated Carter and Reagan.
It is more votes than separated Dukakis and Bush, Sr.
Bob Dole was running against a sitting president. Bob Dole was also a former losing VP candidate. So Sarah Palin would be like Bob Dole if she ran against 0bama. Or like Walter Mondale.
She already has a history of losing to 0bama, just like Mondale already had a history of losing to Reagan in 1984.
Everything lines up to indicate an historic landslide defeat for the Republicans if they try a Palin-0bama rematch.
Whatever unpopularity 0bama may have going into the 2012 election will be swpt away in the campaign against the wrong Republican candidate. Just as was the case for Bill Clinton in 1996, or Nixon in 1972.
An unpopular president will become popular again when campaigning against a poorly chosen opponent. 0bama will be able to define and dominate a race against Palin as he runs circles around her. Someone like Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, would be able to hold 0bama’s feet to the fire, and keep him there.
Palin can’t campaign effectively. Perhaps there are enough Republicans out there who don’t care to give her the nomination, but they would be leaving the Republican party flailing helplessly in the general election against 0bama, just as Palin and her mentor John McCain did once already.
I've been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan to emerge and lead our party and our nation. I insisted that we'd never see his like again because he was one of a kind.
I was wrong!
Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he's a she.
And what a she!
In one blockbuster of a speech, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resurrected my Dad's indomitable spirit and sent it soaring above the convention center, shooting shock waves through the cynical media's assigned spaces and electrifying the huge audience with the kind of inspiring rhetoric we haven't heard since my Dad left the scene.
This was Ronald Reagan at his best — the same Ronald Reagan who made the address known now solely as “The Speech,” which during the Goldwater campaign set the tone and the agenda for the rebirth of the traditional conservative movement that later sent him to the White House for eight years and revived the moribund GOP.
And she hasn't changed her tune. Actually she's got it down pat. Be prepared for years of the same type of speeches.
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