Palin's Gamble in Seward's Folly

CNN has published this article chronicling the conservative reaction to the impending resignation of Alaska Governor and rising GOP starlet Sarah Palin:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/05/palin.reaction/index.html

I have many liberal friends who have been thanking the Heavens that Palin is "out" of politics, and are hoping that she's just going to fade away. This belies the malignant idealism that dominates their thoughts in general, and a cold realist would see this for what it is: she's freeing herself for a bull-rush into national politics, and will most likely run for President in 2012 against the incumbent Obama.

But what I'm not saying to my liberal friends is that this is a good thing for the GOP, or that I support her in this. When she ran on McCain's ticket, she was part of what finally turned me off to his campaign. What she represents is a fresh, young face slapped on a dying wing of the Republican party. And I'm not even buying into the smears perpetrated during the 2008 campaign that she's some sort of illiterate theocrat, looking for any opportunity to ban devil books while machine-gunning innocent little puppy dogs from a helicopter. That's a crock, and we all know it, as much as some of my unsavvy liberal friends like to parrot it back to me.

Her resignation announcement can be a double edged sword in this case. What she could be doing is throwing fuel on the fire for her critics: when just in the past month they have suggested that she's been neglecting her affairs of state in favor of potential national ambitions, now she could be construed as outright abandoning them. Some conservatives think it's a dumb move, since by resigning she's losing potential executive experience for a future campaign, among other reasons (although, with 18 months left of what she's decided will be her last term, there's not too much to lose in the big picture). My parents are fond of their own theory that she has pulled a Nixon, and a major scandal is about to break. Whatever her national ambitions are, I doubt they'll succeed.

Her problem is that she is at least close to being a neo-conservative, and she's also privy to the same sorts of political flaws that plagued most of the other major candidates. When she said that Obama was "paling around with terrorists," it was just as ridiculous as anything said about her. Bill Ayers, while a socialist, former self-declared revolutionary, and all around jackass, isn't exactly Carlos the Jackal. The Weather Underground, while loony, only killed two people, and those were two of their own during a botched bomb-making session. Other than that, the Weathermen didn't kill, let alone wound another human being (that just wouldn't groove). What Palin said made it sound like Obama was inviting Ayman al-Zawahiri over for tea and scones, which is exactly what many true-believers probably thought when she made that statement.

She thought it would work, and now we have President Obama to deal with. A man with the most dangerous quality for the nation's highest office: an honest mission to do some good. One of the most terrifying types of politicians are those who don't seem to realize the damage they might be doing, and Palin's contributions to the McCain campaign led indirectly to this. Roveian political campaigns are out, for now, and so are the neo-conservatives in the Republican Party.

The real future of the party are the old school Republicans; the ones from the 1960s - the Goldwaters, now embodied by the libertarian rightist movement led by Ron Paul. Paul's ideas appeal to young people, and believe you me: I know a lot of new Republicans who registered just to be part of Ron Paul's 2008 campaign. One friend of mine, dreadlocks down to his shoulderblades, bit the bullet and became a Republican so he could participate.

Unfortunately, constitutionalists are not at the forefront of the Republican party, and currently it's the same old hackneyed politicians who run the show. What the Republicans need to supply are statesmen. And if a 2012 Palin campaign takes off and makes it to the top of the 2012 platform, the result won't be the ushering in of this needed generation of statesmen; it will just be the death throes of neo-conservative domination of the GOP, after which real republicans (small "r" a purposeful one) will need to swoop in and take the helm.