I come to praise Palin, not bury her
Posted on September 4, 2008
Sometime during this past weekend, if one tunes into the popular media at all, one would have been overwhelmed by the voices suggesting that John McCain would have to “dump” Governor Palin as his running mate. It’s not going to happen. Despite a massive effort at her destruction, she will not be buried. And after last night’s acceptance speech, she’s earned even a bit of praise from our mainstream media. A bit.
The theme of this post is torch-passing and identifying points in political history at which one can clearly make out the line separating the before and after arrival of a special political figure.
John Kennedy declared that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans” in 1961. I was not alive when President Kennedy said those words, but there is ample evidence, and I have no reason to doubt, that that man and those words did much to shape the lives of many people. And now I think of my older son, a senior in high school, who is uncommonly interested in politics for someone of his age, and wonder what the election of 2008 will mean to him.
Pondering that, something occurred to me today. It was 20 years between Kennedy’s election and Reagan’s. It’s been 20 years between Reagan leaving office and the present. My older son has grown up listening to me speak of Ronald Reagan. I’ve had him listen to the audio book “Reagan in His Own Words” (it is as illuminating as it is inspiring — I recommend it), and I’ve spoken to him about what Reagan means to me many times. My son, I think, appreciates Reagan, but it occurs to me that he can’t possibly relate to that President in the manner that I do, with not only appreciation but great affection.
Reagan was inaugurated when I was thirteen years old. When I was fourteen, I decided that I wanted to attend West Point and become a soldier. Those two events are not unrelated. I wrote to Reagan once as a teenager and got a reply in the mail from the White House. I did go to West Point, and I did become a soldier. I watched him with my own eyes give a speech over lunch at the USMA mess hall. Even today in my civilian life it is clear that Ronald Reagan directly affected the course of my life, and that is a good thing. I can identify a time when many of my views on my country and my role in it were activated, and that time was the years of the Reagan presidency.
But my son, so interested in his country and its politics, hasn’t had his own Ronald Reagan. He won’t, literally, since God only made one of him (and because it invites off-point refutation of any direct comparison between Reagan and anyone else).
However I now believe that my son might have a similar influence, a point at which there really was something new and exciting happening on the national stage that will shape his generation, a point at which he will always remember there was a time before this phenomenon, and a time after it. I don’t mean to be unkind when I say that John McCain is not who embodies that phenomenon, but I now have a new perspective on McCain’s critical role in this turning of American history. Before I go any further, let me acknowledge that to many Americans that exciting new phenomenon is Barack Obama, and I have no intention of using this particular space to argue against that. To the extent that one buys his media image, it is at least understandable.
Enough of that. I’m talking here to conservatives, who have quite frankly been completely leaderless for some time. What candidates could instill optimism and confidence in a conservative teenager or someone in her early twenties? Have any candidates done so in his or her conscious memory? Think about the elections that someone about to become an adult will remember. 1996, 2000, 2004 and now this one. Some likable and honorable candidates (and a President) to be sure, but not what I perceive to be a game-changing conservative.
But now there is Governor Palin. I would put money on the idea that she will be the first woman president, even if McCain/Palin doesn’t win this year’s election. She is not a brand new figure to me who emerged last Friday, I’ve heard of her for over a year, and have been really interested in her for about seven months now. And McCain’s role in the elevation of this special political figure is to be appreciated for many reasons.
There was a time, not long ago at all, that some on the right — Peggy Noonan comes to mind — suggested that McCain’s chances of winning would be greatly enhanced if he pledged to only serve one term. With an inspiring and special vice-president, however, there is no good reason to make such a pledge. I can see, however, that McCain, the old warrior, is thinking of his country; he’s thinking of his children and grandchildren.
I had not supported McCain before last Friday. I’d said for months that I’d support him on only one condition, that he add Sarah Palin to his ticket. Well blow me down. He kept his end of our bargain, and I’ll keep mine. I support him and with a full heart, for here is what I see as the absolute worst-case scenario: John McCain, the old serviceman, will govern with some solid principles. Earmarks will go way down. Russia will not be as likely to engage in opportunistic and expansionist invasions as they would under either a lame-duck Bush or a Democrat administration. Iran will know that the election in America hasn’t given them some kind of window for unchecked bad behavior, and so on. McCain will watch over things, and his reputation and personality will be most of the reason that the world will be more ordered and peaceful than it would be if the other guy held the Oval Office. And incidentally, Europe and much of the Middle East will be quietly grateful for that.
McCain knows, as I do, that Sarah Palin may very well be President in either four or eight years, and that’s why I have a new perspective on him. He’s planning ahead for us, and has elevated to the national stage the woman who will embody my son’s generation’s turning point — their before-and-after perspective on their nation. At least for conservative youth, that’s what she is, and I think she’s here to stay.
Weekend media reports of Palin’s demise were wildly exaggerated. Today, the day after her speech, I come to praise her, not bury her. Let the torch be passed to a new generation of Americans.
» Filed Under Elections, History, Liberal Media/Bias, News, Patriotism, Sarah Palin, military
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2 Responses to “I come to praise Palin, not bury her”
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Gov. Palin had been on my RADAR for about six months. The only way I could see myself supporting him was through a solid runningmate–having learned the lessons of having no heir-apparent to the Presidency.
In one-fell-swoop, Sen. McCain has reunited our party and given us hope not only for his Presidency, but that of his running-mate’s far down the road.
You’re right to compare the energy of the movement to that of Reagan’s and Kennedy’s. If this holds up, and I fully expect it to, it’ll be a sight to behold. Movie scriptwriters couldn’t even come up with a plot like what we’re witnessing if they tried.
I was 26 and deployed aboard USS Ranger to the Indian Ocean/Arabian Sea. In 72 I voted for mCGovern, raised by Democrats, Ok. Young and Stupid? Yes I was. Due to a foul up on my part and the USPS, I got my absentee ballot late in 1976. The family was for carter. I still hadn’t made up my mind. In 1980 I voted for John Anderson as did a large number of us out there on the other side of the world. Then Reagan started to make sure those of us on Active and Reserve Service. That is where it changed. Before, no one really cared for who we were and what we did. Was it fallout from Vietnam? I do believe it was. The “New” Democratic Party began about this time. And it was obvious, they couldn’t stand anyone in uniform. Thus began my change, into a conservative. And folks, I am still there. Reagan made an impact.