So I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the direction I want to take my work, with SGP, this blog, and in my volunteer time. And originally, Palin was a large part of the reason I was excited about politics. However, her novelty has worn off for me. I do still like her and I will still support her when I can. That said, I do see some issues with her as a national candidate.
The biggest one is not a political one, in my eyes – it’s a cultural one. Our country is still a center right country. What that means is that, despite what the lefties and the media would have you believe, the majority of Americans, at their core, hold on to their traditional values. Nothing spelled this out more clearly than deep blue California passing Prop 8.
Now – Palin. Yes, her politics are the most conservative we’ve seen in a candidate in a long time (minus the gray area of her amnesty position). I think she’s smart, and I think she’s capable. NO one has stirred people up like she has, and that is not a power that should be overlooked. She is definitely an asset to the GOP, if they ever figure out how to use her gifts.
However, Palin herself ends up contradicting her own conservative values, solely because of who she is as a Christian wife, mother, and woman. I think the fact that she was the superior to her husband in pretty much every (education, status, provider, etc…) way didn’t sit well with a lot of people. As unfair and horrible as the media was to her, I don’t believe that they were completely out of line in wondering how she would juggle raising five children, including an infant, (which any mother will tell you is a full time job in and of itself) with, say, possibly being the Commander in Chief of the most powerful military in the world during war time. Something has to give – and her children would be the ones to suffer for it.
Let me clear something up for you. I’m pretty much the opposite of a feminist in a lot of ways.
Palin won conservatives over because of her stance on government reform, tax cuts, gun control, THEN the social con issues. A large portion of the country won’t listen to the first three, and that’s where the divide happens. I recently talked to some girls about the abortion issue, and how that’s where we end up losing a lot of the women voters. We can’t bank on her winning the indie and moderate vote based on their inner social conservative.
Now, I am in no way denying the Palin effect, or contesting her capability or intelligence. Obviously, I voted for her, and I think that her support system (IE Todd) was great, and that her family was solid. I am just pointing out the things I see as faults, and saying that the scope of the conservative movement is so much bigger than Palin. There are so many other things for us to focus on. If we focus all of our energy on Palin, we’re setting ourselves up for failure in both 2010 and 2012.
Indeed. It seems to me (and I’ve seen this mentioned) we ought to figure out why Palin captured the hearts of so many conservatives and run with the concepts rather than with a particular person. Stuff happens; who knows what the nation or the Palin family will be like in four years.
For me, the biggest draw was her authenticity; her words (as far as we outside her head can tell) matched her beliefs. Her ideology helped as well
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Interesting thoughts – and you obviously put some thought into the post. Of course, as a pro-lifer and conservative, I see lots of positives in her positions. . . I’ll be giving this train of thought some consideration.
Good post.
My primary problem with Sarah Palin comes from Alaska’s role in America. It, as a state, is one of the largest recipients of earmarks in the country. They pay people with federal tax dollars just to live there, not to mention obscene taxes on oil companies that drill there. The money from those taxes goes back to the citizens of Alaska in the form of tax rebates (redistribution, if you will).
I definitely think she revved up the base, but again, I don’t think she is the kind of Conservative our Country really needs.
Sarah Palin was the one bright spot in the 2008 Presidential campaign… After watching the actual conservatives get tossed to the curb by MSM and possibly 5% “spoilers”, We wound up with the one GOP candidate who hated Conservatives…
Sarah gave us just enough hope to bother showing up to vote. The McAmnesty Effect was still too strong to overcome…
Do you really think Sarah being the more accomplished of the two (husband/wife? is such an issue? I only ask because personally it isn’t that big of a deal.
Eh, for me it’s not such a big deal either, Kender, but my point was that there are a lot of conservative Christians that would argue that point. I’ve had that conversation many a time.
Wow….ok…maybe in the heartland it makes some guys feel inadequate.
I’m not in the heartland. I’m in a blue state.
Agree with you, Haley, that it IS an issue for a lot of people. Heck, here in Michigan the “mother” thing was an issue for our own freaking First Gentleman, Dan Granholm Mulhern (he took his wife’s maiden name and slapped it in front of his when they married… awww / blech).
He did a television interview during the Republican National Convention telling the entire state that it is irresponsible for the mother of small children to be involved in politics at all. That the family will suffer.
Now, we have to ignore the fact that his own wife first won statewide office when their children were barely out of diapers and that she’s been at the state Capitol during their entire childhoods… and that he has a nice, cozy, $300,000 a year taxpayer funded “office” because of her job, but if you can forget all of that then some folks might be inclined to agree with him.
–Nick
http://www.RightMichigan.com
Tabitha, respectfully, as a student of history and as one who grew up in the Reagan era, I can tell you that Sarah Louise Heath Palin is the read deal.
The crowd, the adulation, the inane and disparaging rhetoric from the MSM, RINOs, and Nut Roots, seeks to convey that…
I comprehend if you want another candidate, howerver, Palin is clearly the leader of the pack, especially after the margin she helped garner for Chambliss in Georgia. (see his own words and what Michael Reagan says about her)
I said I was supportive of her. The point I was making was that and is NOT perfect, and that we shouldn’t throw our support solely behind her. We need to be open to supporting other candidates. Like Bobby Jindal.
Also, just as an aside, I don’t see how throwing 100% of our support behind one candidate makes us any different than those who who throw everything they have into their Obama worship.
How could anyone who watched the Palin/Couric interviews think that she was a viable candidate? That made me embarrassed to be a republican.
Agreed-I really like Palin, but I am too jaded to put 100% of my support behind anyone right now. I will put my support behind driving the party, advancing ideals, and educating politicians. Then we’ll see who’s left standing. There are some candiates I like, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not comittted yet.
I don’t think it’s fair that a father could have 5 kids (including an infant) and run for prez, but a mom gets questioned over it. It’s admirable that her children could grow up with their mom making a difference in the world. Most of my business relationship skills I learned from my mom – who to me – was the best saleswoman in the world. I didn’t need her home baking cookies for me, I needed her showing me how to succeed in life (with or without a man).
A lot of people came out to support Sarah. My own wife was really lukewarm until Palin showed up and then she and our granddaughter went all out. She drew 12,000 people to a 4000-seat tennis stadium in California, on a September Saturday! There were millionaires and regular folk of all colors and they were geeked UP. I don’t know what “it” is but she has it. And I hope Bobby runs too. He’s very personable and bright and demonstarbly conservative. Competition is good.
coming from decidedly more shallow viewpoint, I’m just ‘tired’ of her and the celebrity-ness that surrounds her now. Sure, it was exciting to see what she did for the McCain campaign and I was super excited about her at first, but I think she embraced the sex-symbol status too readily and that gives me room to question her validity in other areas too easily.
I’d love to see another candidate with her values, etc. come forward come next election.
I guess I’m in the minority here but I do not think any of this would be an issue if she where a he. I don’t know what her plans are for 2012 but I will support her unless something drastically changes between now and then. I do think the MMM has done a wonderful job of tearing her down and trying to make her toxic. We need to stop letting the MMM decide who we will support, remember that John MCCain was their choice for us!!!
Just my $.02 worth…
In the end, what matters is solid conservative ideas, and a candidate strong enough to resist every attempt by the Beltway/MSM culture to dilute them. It worked for Reagan.
I love Sarah as a human and as a promoter of (mostly) conservative values. But I agree that she is not really a systemic conservative. Some of her intuititive reactions are really quite populist, not a bad thing, just not consistent with genuine conservatism.
I think she should read some hard-core conservative *scriptures.*
In the meantime, I think she can be very helpful to the conservativ cause as a high-ranking publicist, maybe as the RNC chairman in about 2011????
I do believe it is bigger than Gov. Palin, however I also believe the Palin impact had much to do with a woman who stood up for her beliefs and lives them out. People respect strong principles if they are lived out, even if they disagree with your positions. I also believe in many ways the campaign did her a disservice and the MSM was even worse. I do believe had she been a bit older it would have helped. Also while I am a reverse feminist to a degree I related to the Palins because my husband is a SAHD with our boys. Again it was her down to earth and living what she believes that caused the Palin effect IMHO.
1) i still think the family issue is unfair because you never bring it up against men. We need a term like swiftboating for it. i think it hides many peoples’ misogyny
2) i agree that we need to focus on issues, not cult of personality. flashy candidates don’t develop a long term ground game.
3) Jindal, Palin, Sanford. I’m ready for a new generation.
4) we might be ruined on corruption and spending. look how long the media has blamed Reagan for spending when he had Dem congresses. our drunken sailors have no moral superiority over theirs.
5) we need to keep the voter fraud issue alive. we need a turnkey system of voter fraud analysis to send down to the local BIG BRAIN stay at home dads. AND the lawyers to back it up.
You’re right I don’t bring it up against men, because they aren’t mothers. It’s not misogyny. It’s biology.
I agree with the rest.
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I can’t say much for Palin. She’s a nice lady, but her far-right ideologies don’t fit in with our nation. I still think that our candidate hasn’t come in yet. We need someone like Lincoln. Or at least someone who’s fiscally conservative and socially liberal. And when people mention that its too liberal to let the federal government do anything, what they are actually saying, is that a United Nation is too liberal, and we don’t need that. Socially, I think that the federal government should work on those issues and have the same verdict in each of the 50 states, so that way we wouldn’t have people going to california or massachusets. It prevents riots, protests, and movements. Fiscally, each state should have its own budget and a list of what it needs to prosper economically. Instead of funding highways and airports to the max, why not take some funds out of the highways and airports and put them into our ever hungry-rail system, as an example, that would be a great idea to do instead of come up with more gold-filled sacks of money. If money could print iteself, or if money didn’t need gold to back itself up, we wouldn’t need taxes. Now, these days, the republican party sounds a lot like the old democratic party. Most people call me a RINO, or a Democrat anyways. I tell them that theyve got it all messed up. When I tell them about the presidents before Reagan, they all call them RINOs. Any president that has the values of Lincoln, the father of the GOP, is a RINO. Now, I understood that the republican party was all for separation of church and state. Lincoln mentioned that religion was a major part of our country’s culture, but it should never drive one to make a political move. Anyways, religion and politics don’t do well in the same bed under the covers. Palin is not a good candiate. She may be an outsider like Reagan, but she won’t cut the chase. No one likes conservatism. Remember, when Reagan’s approval rating went low? The only reason why it went up, was because he left office. I hope someone like Giuliani gets in. He’s about as liberal republican as you can get in the meantime. Another thing that really has to be considered. I don’t see Palin and her ideologies working in the Centre of the table. She’s just too far right, and it would kill the political scaling system. You need someone who’s fiscally conservative and socially liberal. For those against gay marriage because it will hurt your kids: For one, I am a gay teenager, and gays didn’t decide who I will or would become. I did, and you can’t hide Gays from society, and you can’t hide your kids from society. You can tell them that you don’t particularly like the idea, and its not something you’d want your kids to become, but I think also, that any gay couple is just as good as a straight couple when it comes to raising a kid. I was raised by my mom, and my dad went of to do drugs and alcohol. I never really had a mother anyways, I did everything myself. I pretty much “raised” myself to be a law abiding, kind, generous, consdierate teenager. My mother didn’t keep me away from drugs and alcohol, I did. My mother didn’t tell me that being gay was alright, or not alright. She let me decide what was best for me. And if parents would give their kids some slack and let them decide who they want to be and what they will be, maybe we can make some progress. I don’t think that values are what makes this country alive. Its the progressivism that does it. If we don’t move with the times, the GOP is going to become the next Whig party(in the essence of being replaced), or the old democratic party. I’m not a republican, I’m actually a Libertarian, on account of the fact that George Bush did nothing for us, and he decided to worry about others before putting his own people first. Security isn’t an excuse. Also, I supported Bob Barr in the last election. No wonder why Obama looked like a liberal to you, your all miles away to see what he really is doing. So unless you move closer to the centre with the rest of us, maybe, just maybe you won’t be gay-bashing, christians who hate everyone that isn’t white, rich, etc. I went to a Palin rally just to see who was there. And it was everything BUT diverse. Only, Rich, white people. Mainly men. I said to my mom, who supported McCain-Palin, I can’t believe you support the Democratic party
. I’d rather go for the Republican party. There is no remains of Lincoln in this party anymore… Its all Reagan, Reagan, Reagan. Reagan did not form our party. He changed it because he decided that he didn’t want to create his own party. You need another Rockefeller/Liberal republican. Its only the easiest way to get rid of the bad stain on the image. I hope you realise that…. If not, tootles to old Lincoln, I bet he’s tossing in his grave right now.
The people at Palin/Mccain rallys were divisive,violent,angry and scary. Go ahead and pick her in 2012. That will just ensure a easy victory for Obama. No Gay,Muslim,Minority,etc want’s to go to a rally for their candidate and hear people in the crowd talking bad about people who look like them. If you want to see instances of this. Just look on youtube. That was you guys biggest problem. Your party isn’t inclusive. You spend too much time dividing and not uniting…The fear mongering wont work anymore.
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