For the second round of the conservative blogger debate series, yours truly and Don from Conservative Hideout 2.0 and Present Discontent are discussing the conservative starlet Sarah Palin.  Russ at That’s Right and the Classic Liberal are moderating, so expect the unexpected in terms of the questions they may come up with.  Here’s question number one…

Here’s a piece of Don’s answer….

Check out his full remarks here…. and here

———-

—-

I feel I must state at the onset that I wholeheartedly object to the first question offered in this “debate” with every ounce of my being.  I cannot – even for a second – consider the alternate reality that would have to present itself and suck me in for Sarah Palin to actually have an impact on our nation’s economic future, so I am admittedly struggling to formulate a response to Don’s post and want to beat Russ with an Old Hickory switch for even offering up this miserable question.

For those of you unfortunate enough to find yourself enamored with the Alaskan maverick, I must tell you from the “get-go” that I see your conservative rockstar as nothing more than an uber-popular political talking head.  I think her reach extends to her audience and her audience alone…. and her impact is minimal at best and will remain as such until she slowly fades into the background of the political theater never to be seen or heard from ever again.  I do not discount her popularity or even her following.  I simply see her career evolution taking her in the direction of a Glenn Beck (or dare I say Oprah Winfrey) rather than that of a Ronald Reagan or even a GW.  The very idea of Palin (at any point in the future) having an impact on the nation’s economy in my mind is tantamount to thinking cheerleaders have an impact on the outcomes of football games.  She can no more impact our nation’s economy than can Beck, Hannity, Coulter, or my seven year old nephew for that matter; but in the spirit of this “debate” I will forge ahead nonetheless and play along.

So I guess the premise has to go something like this… At some point in the future, Sarah Palin becomes something or someone capable of impacting the economic future of this great country… (See.. I’m really struggling with this.  I mean is someone going to make her head of the Fed for Christ’s sake – because I know we’re not talking President??  Are we?)

I guess what we’re really trying to get at here is the meat of Sarah Palin’s economic pronouncements / policies…both recently and while she served as mayor of Wasilla and Governor of Alaska.  I think I can muster up the strength to discuss the points offered by Don, but I fail to see where much “debate” will come from this either – so prepare yourself for a bit of a ramble from me on this one.  As I have stated many, many, many times on this site… I DO NOT DISAGREE WITH SARAH PALIN on the vast majority of issues.  In fact, my disdain for Gov Palin comes from the very fact that she’s the queen of offering up exactly what I want to hear.  She’s read the token conservative playbook cover to cover, and I firmly believe she places head to pillow every evening memorizing talking points with the hope of dropping a noteworthy post via Facebook before her morning moose hunt.

I do admit that its not fair to criticize Sarah Palin for giving me exactly what I want, but ask any of my former girlfriends and they will certainly tell you that giving me what I want (in G.I. Joe terms) is only half the battle – and who ever said I had to be fair in the first place?  I simply need more… I need to know that you know why I want what I want – and that’s where Sarah Palin loses me.  She knows I want lower taxes, smaller government, etc, etc…  so she force feeds it to me day after day.  If she is the great communicator and conduit for relating to “everyday” Americans as everyone tells me that she is, shouldn’t she be the one to begin explaining to the American People how we as conservatives have come to those positions – or more importantly how we’re going to put talk into action?  If she is the common man’s woMAN of choice, why hasn’t she realized that the vast majority of her followers couldn’t connect the Tenth Amendment with States’ Rights if they were sitting with a copy of the Bill of Rights in their Right hand and the Declaration in their left because people like Sarah Palin have gone so long without referencing the two openly and honestly that they’ve all but become an afterthought.  Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that its approaching the point of impossibility to assume that anyone can sift through the token conservative Republican model rhetoric and ramblings to understand that ideas like “universal health care,” job creation, and bank bailouts are counter to the intentions of our Founders on the most fundamental of levels – and that even engaging in the dialog about these topics without having a constitutional discussion discredits, disgraces, and attempts to destroy the very documents our Forefathers created.  They aren’t simply Democratic creations Republicans must oppose, they are threats to our very system of government.

Why can’t a political figure so in touch with the needs, wants, and interests of her right-wing supporters (she did have that bowl of names in Wasilla – which when viewed through the who gives a shit looking glass sounds a great deal like President Obama’s Ten Letters he reads every night) understand that the red meat doesn’t carry the day 365 in Washington.  Being conservative is about a great deal more than being able to recite the Mount Vernon Statement or whatever list of campaign issues Republicans are rallying around for the day, week, month.  If she is the great hope of “common folks” everywhere and not just another Great White Hype, why isn’t she at the forefront of framing these debates in a more reflective light – one that pays homage – not lip-service to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?  One that begins to remind Americans that Republicans and conservatives support those laundry list issues because of our adherence to Founding principles?

I think the answer is two-fold.  One.  I think she knows the current climate and I think she knows what sells.  Car salesmen in the 50’s weren’t running ads boasting fuel economy and Victoria’s Secret isn’t buying spots to talk about where their bras are manufactured (trust me on that one folks – ladies check out that label next time your slipping one on or gentleman next time your fumbling through taking one off – it ain’t Detroit).  Its just easier to put out there what people want according to the passions of the day, and to drive the point home by showing them exactly what they want to see and telling them what they want to hear.  Sarah Palin is a marketing genius in this regard.  She knows riled up right-wingers want to hear right-wing rhetoric and they want their daily does of red meat – and who can blame them after a year of this madness and eight years of “Compassionate Conservatism?”

Two.  I think Palin knows that if she goes that route she runs the risk of being torn apart by academics – both on the Left and on the Right.  Now this is not where I go David Brooks on you folks… I simply think many – like Palin – have allowed themselves to believe that historical and constitutional analysis of issues is just too complicated to explain on a case by case basis – and the reality is that it is anything but.  Christians use the Ten Commandments as a point of reference on a daily basis – and that “little” piece of literary brilliance tells them what they can’t do rather than what they can do as it is presented under the format laid out in the Bill of Rights.  Why isn’t that one easier to reference?

It should be, but for some reason, it is a foreign document to many like Sarah Palin.  They reference it when convenient for their talking points, but they rarely rely upon it.  Doing so would expose too many of the hypocrisies in their overall message.   That First Amendment is pretty tricky and has been broadly interpreted, but the pesky little Separation of Church and State business is a bit tough to sell for many on the Right when examined under strict interpretation.  Explaining the constitutional foundation for specific debates, issues, and controversies becomes somewhat complicated when doing so establishes a paper trail that can come back to haunt them on the “big issues” like abortion or gay marriage … and we all know Gov Palin only loosely adheres to that Free Speech nonsense – just ask Rahm / Rush…

So you ask… how does any of this relate to Palin’s impact on our economic future??? Right now, I see Palin as a one trick pony.  If she can trade in the talking points and bone up on the rarely-used practice of strict interpretation and start to flesh out a few of her talking points, I think she could have a tremendous impact on the economic future of this great nation because she could use her broad range of support to remind the American people that our Founding Fathers gave us the answers to the problems we now face – more than 200 years ago.  They created a model that guaranteed individual liberty and has allowed capitalism to flourish for more than two centuries.  If Palin can lead us back to those roots… even I will follow.

The only people in this great nation that can directly impact our nation’s economic future (positively) are the American people themselves.  They need to be reminded that our federal government was never intended to do even a fraction of what it does by personally granted mandate in the current hour – not blinded to that reality by bumper stickers and campaign slogans.  As I stated earlier, in theory I wholeheartedly support most of the initiatives and actions mentioned by Don in his post.  That said, my initial objections to this question were exacerbated by reading Don’s endorsement of her record and by extension her potential impact on the national economy because while I love “lower taxes,” selling off private jets, and dropping per diem expenses… that just not telling me much.  In fact, thats not holding much water with me at all because our current President promised a middle class tax cut, dropped his fleet of private helicopters, and his wife even put their kids on a diet – and I’m thinking that’s not working out for me too well.   Talking points are great folks, but I’m not buying stock in Palin Corp, and I’m not wagering the economic future of the great nation on the hope that she means what she says and an anecdote from a local citizen telling me she could make this nation more of a “community.”

The body of evidence is simply too small folks, and that is why without further explanation from Governor Palin, I cannot allow myself to drink the Kool-Aid and believe she has any role to play greater than what is already behind us.  Personally, I believe she is the fine conservative she says she is.  I make that statement purely on faith and accordingly it has little merit, but I do believe she means what she says.  I simplyfail to see how she is in any way, shape, form, or fashion capable of putting to work and bring to fruition any of what she allegedly believes in.  I think far too many have christened her the chosen one without even asking the question – does she want it even if she’s capable of doing it?  I think Palin is content playing political pundit; and as long as that is where she remains, I will support her, listen to her, pay money to hear her speak… but the second she becomes something else or something more… I’m going to need some answers.

———

—-

Make sure to check out Makes My Brain Itch, Classic Liberal, That’s Right, Fishersville Mike, and Mind Numbed Robot for commentary and the inevitable criticism of my position on Gov Palin…

____

Don’s Response is up… Check it out here.

Tags: blog, conservative, debate, economics, REPUBLICAN, Sarah Palin

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 3:18 pm and is filed under CONSERVATISM, REPUBLICAN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.