BROOKS: Palin is ‘Fatal Cancer to the Republican Party’
08 October 2008 5:00 pm by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
–bumped–
Republicans are absolutely despondent.
From no less than David
Brooks:
[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the republican party.
When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill
Buckley. And Buckley famously said he’d rather be ruled by the first 2,000
names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But he didn’t
think those were the only two options. He thought it was important to have
people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning.
And his whole life was based on that, and that was also true for a lot of
the other conservatives in the Reagan era. Reagan had an immense faith in
the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition,
which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And
I’m afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices. I think President Bush has
those prejudices. …
Now, it’s obvious Governor Palin, for all her speaking and communications skills,
hasn’t a clue about anything policy oriented, but let’s be honest here. Republican
theory is becoming the death of the Republican Party. They have no solutions
for foreign policy, thinking that a new form of occupational democracy can be
spread across the world. Republicans have no answers for our economy, because
they don’t understand that our U.S. military structure and national security
prowess is paid for by… say it with me: taxes. That our national security
depends on investing in this nation, its infrastructure, but also its people. Not to mention that the very core of Christianity and the religiosity they wear on their sleeves depends on each of us being our brother’s keeper and that pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps can’t be done if you have no boots.
The reason Sarah Palin exists is because Republicans have no ideas they can
any longer sell. Personality is all. If you don’t believe me just see Rush,
Sean Hannity and the entire Republican heirarchy, including John McCain and
Sarah Palin. McCain admitting he finished at the bottom of his class and also doesn’t know much about the economy. We should thank our lucky stars that the “maverick” is only that in words, because if McCain had actually stood up as a maverick against the bailout we’d be looking at very different poll numbers today.
In fact, in 2008, our entire political ladder depends on the ability to seduce
the voters.
Unfortunately, Democrats have fallen into the small information trap as well, with the majority
of our best and brightest caving to a bailout bill that is not the solution,
because they had no ideas and no clue what to do, but were afraid to get blamed for the consequences if they waited to find out.
But take heart, at least the
other guys are worse.
But if you want to know why so many voters are skeptical, the answers are obvious. It’s the politicians who don’t respect the voters, thinking they’ll be penalized by them for knowing, for being too intellectual, too egg head. That’s been the outcome of so many Democratic presidential nominees. But post Bush smart just might become the new sexy. Unless, of course, you’re the Republican base, where winning at all cost and being dimwitted on policy is still in.
