Sarah Palin: Why She Still Matters
It is hard to imagine that Sarah Palin has been in the national spotlight for less than one year. It seems that she has dominated the news cycle far more than any Governor of a small state or even a former vice presidential candidate could or should. To most of us on the left, the attention she has received is both comical and puzzling. Comical because from the very beginning it was readily apparent that she did not possess the experience or intellect to be a serious contender for any national office let alone that of President or Vice President of the United States. Puzzling because it is incomprehensible why the Republican Party would continue to tout her as a viable candidate despite her obvious lack of qualifications.
The truth of the matter is that her experience and intellect is not the issue. For the Far right it is her authenticity as a true conservative that is her most important qualification. Most Republicans who would aspire to Presidential politics have to sell themselves to the conservative base. They spend time and money touting their belief and loyalty in three major issues; God, Guns and Taxes. Candidates like Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani will always fight an uphill battle of skepticism within the party on whether or not they can be trusted to live up to the severe ideological demands of the faithful. With Sarah Palin, however, there are no doubts. She lives and breathes God, Guns and Taxes. Within the narrow confines of these three issues, she is a truly authentic conservative and that fact trumps every other consideration in the voters mind. Forget the economy, forget health care and forget the war on terror and her ability to handle or even fully comprehend these complicated issues.
This strict adherence to a litmus test seems ludicrous to most of us on the left and hopefully to those in the middle as well. We tend to see the world as a complicated place that demands leaders that are fully prepared to deal with those complicated issues. The Democratic primaries were all about that 3:00 am phone call and the proper timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. The Republican primaries, on the other hand, were an exercise on who could best claim the legacy of Ronald Reagan as their own. In other words, who best represented the true spiritual ideal of conservatism? For most far right conservatives, that question was answered unequivocally the day Sarah Palin entered the race as the Vice Presidential candidate. The same issues that drive Sarah Palin also drive the Republican Party. She will continue to dominate conservative politics precisely because she has a dogmatic and unimpeachable connection to the base of the Republican Party that is unmatched by any other potential candidate. And we shouldn’t be surprised if she becomes the Republican nominee in 2012. After all, the Republican Party already elected one village idiot this century just because he passed their litmus test. They are perfectly capable of doing it again.
Some people vote based on just one or two issues. If the Republican Party’s stand on God, guns, taxes, abortion, etc. matches their belief system, then they will vote accordingly.
I personally look at many issues which are currently on the table, and this small tent (think camping) philosophy makes me really wonder how I could vote Republican in future elections, even if I happen to agree with one or two of their issues.
The closed mindedness does not ring of secularism or the direction our country and the larger world are headed. I see the writing on the wall and it talks of many complicated issues which don’t always have one solution and which require critical thinking to look at all sides of an issue, not just the front (face value) or back (ass).