small town values
by Ryan Schuette
Published: September 10, 2008
Last week the Republican Party formally nominated the oldest man to ever seek the presidency and, as a twist in this election narrative that reminds one of Sunday comics cliffhangers, the first woman to run on this side of politics.
And a wise choice for a cliffhanger by Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (AZ-R) she makes. With her credentials as an anti-abortionist, family woman and Republican who bucked corrupt members of her party in Alaskan politics, Gov. Sarah Palin (AK-R) has revitalized social conservatives for a running mate who made the most vocal of them cringe.
Like any good vice-presidential candidate, she balances the national ticket by making it more palatable to disinterested voters - in this case, small-town values conservatives.
I call them small-town values conservatives even though many of them live in suburbs and cities. Predominantly white and Christian in an increasingly pluralistic society, they represent the “guns and religion” crowd Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (IL-D) risked alienating. They initiate statewide referenda to ban gay marriage, vote for judges (where possible) to restrict abortion rights, and favor the last resort in foreign policy, the costly muscle of American militarism.
Whereas it started to trend Libertarian with the likes of McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the resurgence of these party faithful makes possible a sharp new rightward turn in the Republican Party. Reagan led them, Rove manipulated them, Bush lost them and McCain wanted to abandon them in his 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns. But in Palin - a self-professed small-town gal who gets the religion and guns - they could find their land of milk and honey.
She’s not the only one the guns-and-religion crowd idolizes. The most talked-about conservative outside the beltway is another diversity candidate and abortion foe, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who opposes the practice without exception in addition to embryonic stem cell research.
But abortion and religion aren’t everything - and with more people of different races, values and religions beginning to participate in politics, small-town values conservatives need to see beyond the culture wars and existential threats like terrorism to maintain relevance. A trillion-dollar deficit, climate change, the widening income gap, a deflated dollar abroad, two foreign wars and the worn-thin condition of the military demand it.
Still - at least for the moment - these small-town values conservatives have found a savior in a little-known governor from Alaska. Here’s to hoping these Palinites will see more in national priorities than themselves.
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September 11th, 2008 at 11:26 am
More important than her issues is the simple fact that she looks good and makes McCain look good. Politics today has nothing to do with Federalist Paprers-type issues. It’s purely a game of marketing. And the fact is that a good looking, aggressive, female as a running mate makes a stale, old, white guy look a whole lot more appealing. And that is 100 times more important than any positin Palin takes on any issue.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:39 am
I have to agree. The Republican’s just might win. And it will be entirely due to the fact that Palin’s hot.