Wednesday, February 4, 2009

What Palin means

Yuval Levin:
[B]y November 4, the day of the election, Sarah Palin had been transformed into one of the most divisive figures in recent American history. There was almost no middle ground between those who had come to adore her and those who believed she
represented just about every dark and dangerous element of contemporary American politics. In choosing Palin, McCain had hoped to shake up the race; but the fault lines exposed by the Palin earthquake were not the ones he had thought they might be. He had wanted to run against the Washington status quo as a reformer with an independent streak. He believed he was picking a fellow reformist politician with a history of taking on the leadership of her own party, and that Palin would prove acceptable to the Republican base because of her social conservatism. Instead, Palin became an instant cultural and political magnet, attracting some and repelling others and dragging a helpless McCain into a culture war for which he had little stomach. Indeed, the overheated response to Palin's presence on the national stage, from both friend and foe, was oddly disconnected from Palin's actual actions, statements, and record. It was a turn of events no one could have anticipated, and one that has much to teach us about American political life in our day. . . .
(Via Conservatives4Palin.)

UPDATE: From Allahpundit's Quote of the Day:
[T]hese members of the intellectual elite . . . see lower-middle-class populists like Palin and their supporters as profoundly ill-suited for governance, because they lack the accoutrements required for its employment -- especially in foreign policy, which, even more than domestic affairs, is thought to be an intellectual exercise.
Exactly. Foreign policy is, and always has been, more of an elite enterprise. Harvard, Yale, Princeton -- the striped-pants crowd, the well-bred wussies at Foggy Bottom, who cannot imagine that the Ordinary American's basic instincts about foreign policy are as valid as the elite's sophisticated, nuanced understanding.

Algier Hiss was part of that elite. Richard Nixon was not. Dean Acheson was part of that elite. Joe McCarthy was not. It isn't just left-right, it's up-down. If a yokel governor from Alaska is as fit to conduct U.S. foreign policy as a graduate of Georgetown School of International Affairs, you see, then the value of the elite's credentials is undermined. Sarah Palin's very existence as a national candidate was a challenge to their prerogative, and they had to counter-attack to validate their authority. "We are in charge, and not you."

And what gets me is their arrogance in thinking that we're too stupid to comprehend all this -- that we don't understand their motives.

4 comments:

  1. Palin was pilloried for her bacic American, sensible views. Her media persecution was directly proportional to the threat she represented to the Beltway status quo. It was a sad day for America that many went along with the "elites." Now we are left with a rank rookie poseur whose first executive postion is POTUS. Palin has been so thoroughly excoriated that she may never recover politically. It's tragic.

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  2. Yes, but from the start the MSM has virulently "Clintonized" Palin; that is, anything she says or does is pure evil, not just confused or wrong. Remember how Bill gained popularity during the impeachment hearings? Palin will become mythic in the eyes of real Americans the more scum they throw at her.

    I just hope she's smart enough to sidestep their entire enterprise. She has the name recognition. Let her build her 2012 campaign through the net. She's got my vote.

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  3. I'm still beside myself that Allah was able to do a Palin post without any snark..

    It was a Quote of the Day though, normally devoid of commentary. I'm putting a '*' after it..

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  4. Thanks for putting this on the site, R. S.! I blogged on it as well and yes-you got an HT! What I want to know is since when did the United States become such a nation of elite-worshipers? In three weeks, we are seeing what wonders the left-wing elites are. Not really that good I am afraid. Oh well, Hope and Change, baby! Hope and Change

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