Feminism: turns out, when you actually listen, she’s more than eye candy
The NYT actually looks at Palin’s ideas: So here is something I never thought I would write: a column about Sarah Palin’s ideas.
Among them:
She made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a “permanent political class,” drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called “corporate crony capitalism.” Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private).
The latter, I’ve been yammering about for years. We’re run by bureaucrats.
September 9th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Sarah Palin may (may) turn out to be the next Barry Goldwater: The person who leads the ideas of the party, but never leads the party itself.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
IN that case as a Barry Goldwater she’s good on the ears – and a lot easier on the eyes.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Oh, just wait. It’s only beginning.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
I don’t think she’s interested at all in the Republican party.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
It’s too bad you have to log-in to the NYT…
September 9th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
“vast, remote, unaccountable institutions” are a feature of big government. It is simply impossible to have any real control over the 2 million plus federal employees we have now.
A guest on Stossel’s show talked about members of Congress pulling the control levers of government and realizing they were no longer attached to anything. The system is simply too big to control.
September 9th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
“when you actually listen, she’s more than eye candy”
That’s a pathetic way to look at any woman IMHO. I was always interested in what she had to say from the very beginning. Nice of you to catch up.
September 9th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Hey!! Waaaaait one second…wasn’t it you, Unc, who was on VC a few weeks ago saying how Sarah Palin was so stupid?
Care to retract that statement?
September 9th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
This, combined with one of her other bullet points about respecting the tenth amendment, is why I keep telling people that she probably has the *best* shot of the GOP field (even though she’s not declared, yet). I suspect those dissing her chances or saying she *shouldn’t* run (where the *hell* did that come from…I don’t remember hearing that about any other candidate in my adult voting history) are those who don’t *want* her to run because they know she can win. And they’d rather have us be stuck with the same 2008 mistake of RomNcain or Huntsiani.
You could almost hear every declared GOP candidate cringe when she presented the idea of getting rid of the corporate income tax altogether…and with it, ALL the special deals. (I.e.: you stand or fall on your own.) I’ll bet they all cringed thinking, “Dammit, why didn’t I think of that?”
With a plan like she presented in Iowa, how can ‘indepedents’ NOT support her?
Frankly, I could care less if she runs (and I agree with LakeBound that the eye candy comment was pathetic) … IF that is, we get clear committal answers from the entire GOP field of what they think of her plan. Heck, you don’t even have be committed to implementing it all in four years. Just be honest and explain why you do or do not support that plan.
And, yeah…what Breda said. You ain’t seen nothin’, yet.
September 9th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
I know. But that’s pretty much how the press portrays her. Some sort of spectacle and not a politician.
Breda, I don’t think she’s stupid. But she’s said a lot of stupid things. I mean, she’s no Obama but still.
September 9th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
“…I don’t think she’s stupid. But she’s said a lot of stupid things.”
I don’t know if you already have, but it would nice to see some evidence backing that up. Uncut audio or video, or what she’s actually written. I can think of only one questionable comment, but I won’t even reference because *I* don’t have the audio/video/written evidence from her herself.
September 9th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Like Ron Paul, she will move the debate in her direction. In his case, because his candidacy has given him airtime. In hers, because she is smart and charismatic.
We need more people like both of them. We need smart, principled people who are willing to take politically scary positions so more median politicians aren’t afraid to step into the water of liberty.
September 9th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Nothing against Mrs. Palin, but I’d hate for her to pull a Ross Perot and suck away enough votes to give Barry 4 more years. Of course, the same thing happened in 2000, when Nader’s 1 million plus votes Doomed Algore (Thank You Ralph!).
September 9th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Bubblehead Les: Agreed that that would be a mistake. I do hope (and I do think) that she is more politically savvy than that and that she will run under the GOP banner. Perot and Nader ran under third parties. I suspect that if she enters the race as a GOP candidate and doesn’t win the primary, she will bow out (of the election, but certainly not the public political sphere).
September 9th, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Hmmm, it sounds a lot like she’s been reading Ron Paul. In the long run, I don’t really care if he gets credit or not, so as long as people en masse start “getting” it. Maybe it just takes a prettier face than his for people to start paying attention.
September 9th, 2011 at 3:28 pm
@Smince – she has had the same politics since she ran for Wasilla City Council. Ron Paul doesn’t deserve any credit for Sarah Palin.
September 9th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
@breda – like I said, I don’t care. It’s certainly not a new set of ideas, but the more that repeat them, the merrier.
September 9th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Again, what Breda said. The author of the NYTimes article had a few details wrong, in my opinion, but his last sentence couldn’t be more wrong. Her principles haven’t changed. Now that she’s unshackled by the McCain disaster and possibly on the verge of a campaign of her own (well. *already* on a campaign, just not necessarily for her own place in office), it’s getting harder not hear what she actually *says*.
September 9th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
“@Smince – she has had the same politics since she ran for Wasilla City Council. Ron Paul doesn’t deserve any credit for Sarah Palin.”
Thank you! And like Markofafreeman said, her principles are the same. The only difference here is that someone in the MSM actually bothered to listen to what she’s been saying, rub two brain cells together and go “hmm, that actually makes sense.”
Is Palin a little hokey sometimes? Sure. Is she perfectly articulate all the time? No., but I think both are endearing qualities. The media sure won’t portray them as such, but I think how much of middle America sees her is not how the MSM does.
That said, IF she runs the liberal MSM will do all they can to destroy her and her family. They have no integrity and it will be beyond nasty. Establishment Republicans and RINO’s will attack her from the other side. She won’t get the Obama treatment, that’s for sure.
September 9th, 2011 at 5:04 pm
As a democrat who shoots, I rarely agree with a lot of the political talk on most gun websites. But the description here seems dead-on to me.
September 9th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
The problem is that Palin seems to want to place that with something akin to mob rule; that is she’s not interested in increasing individual autonomy, she just is upset about who has the ability to coerce people into compliance.
Frankly, I prefer the beuracrats; they are at least somewhat predictable.
September 9th, 2011 at 8:32 pm
@Smince
“Hmmm, it sounds a lot like she’s been reading Ron Paul. In the long run, I don’t really care if he gets credit or not, so as long as people en masse start “getting” it. Maybe it just takes a prettier face than his for people to start paying attention.”
Actually no, its this book here she has been reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Capitalism-Capitalists-Unleashing-Opportunity/dp/0691121281
She was caught with it on camera.
September 9th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
So she’s a lefty now?
September 9th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
The tragedy of Palin, her rise was too soon for her own good.
Can you imagine how Palin’s personal political fortunes would be different today if McCain had not picked her for VP in 2008? And if say, a candidate Rick Perry picked her for VP in 2012 instead?
True enough the alternate history version Palin would not have had so much the Tea Party Palin influence we are familiar with today. But on the other hand the alternate Palin would be into a very successful second term as Governor of Alaska, since the leftoids would have ignored a relatively obscure Alaskan governor. All the energy the DNC/Press establishment used from 2008 on to destroy Palin would never have happened.
Alternate history Palin would likely serve a couple terms as VP and then go on to become President Palin in 2020. Ah well…
September 10th, 2011 at 1:47 am
Oh, dear Lord. This is tangentally related, but might be worthy of a new post, Unc. Go have a look at this article on Conservatives4Palin: http://conservatives4palin.com/2011/09/mr-brute-force-strikes-again.html
I engaged in a little back and forth with the author, Nicole Coulter, taking her to task for her criticism of Perry’s “Social Security is a Ponzi scheme” comment. She seems to actually be defending SS. But that’s not the half of it. Read both threads. Sort by oldest first, go to page five and scroll to near the end and look for “I haven’t read all the comments, and I can say that for the most part, this post is spot on.” That’s the start of the first thread. It’s immediately followed by the second thread.
To give you a taste, here’s the reason I’m bringing this up — from Nicole Coulter: ‘If Palin had said … “Yes it IS a Ponzi scheme” then maybe we could agree with Perry. But she did no such thing.’
Wow. Just wow. I sure as *hell* hope most of Palin’s supporters are not like Nicole. Otherwise, we’re in for another Ron Paul event: candidate is great in many ways; it’s the *followers* that we’ll have a problem with.
September 10th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
“Guav Says:
September 9th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
So she’s a lefty now?”
No, she’s a right winger with a strong libertarian streak.
September 11th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Name Redacted et al: Show me where she has “defined” herself as a Libertarian or any other belief system, for that matter.
The power of Palin, up to now, as been that she is a “free-range” conservative, and has borrowed this and that from different interest groups to make her conservative points.
That said, the vast unthinking voting blocks ALL want “establishment thinking”, and will never vote in sufficient numbers for a free-ranger to get him/her elected.
She’s NOT our salvation, good ideas not withstanding. Our salvation is to first beat Obama, then roll back his whacko Socialist program. After we’ve done those things, we can take time to worry about whether our conservatives should be free-range or not.
September 12th, 2011 at 1:03 am
@Rivrdog – if you think voting a GOP candidate into office is our “salvation”, you haven’t been paying attention. The tailspin leading to the current set of issues that everyone is screeching about right now has been progressing for decades at varying rates no matter which party occupied the oval office. IMHO the bubble is going to pop sooner or later, and our individual salvation is only going to be found in our Creator and the speed at which we can decentralize the systems and organizations we’ve been become entirely dependent upon for our very survival. Prosperity is being redefined as our ability to be self-sufficient within our households and communities. Palin is a perfect symbol of this shift. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed just this year that on conference calls my coworkers across the nation are bragging more about the harvests from their backyard vegetable gardens than the usual new cars or toys they got.