Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Paglia

This Camille Paglia piece, commenting on everything from Obama, Palin, and the media, is worth the read. Just one paragraph, for the taste:

"I like Sarah Palin, and I’ve heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don’t see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn’t speak the King’s English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World."

Discussions - 10 Comments

Off topic, again:

Some humble pie for those who supported the bailout.

What percentage of 700 billion is two trillion??? It is funny that they refuse to say where it went. Wow, how can anyone believe that this is not a theft. https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ahdVHk_Ccoeg

Yeah, we don't even have a clue how much money has been blown. The Senate added over 100 Billion to the 700B one, and then there's Bear Stearns, Lehman, AIG, other mysterious expenses, and the forthcoming Automotive give-a-way.

Big government is banging away like a bull in a china shop and continues to screw the financial markets with whiplash policy changes. Unfortunately the financial crisis ended on NLT a while back, so I was trying to change the subject.

Clint . . . I'm not quite ready to eat crow but, as in most things, I think we agree more than we disagree (you just don't see it yet). Here's an interesting site that I stumbled upon trying to figure out what I can about this whole mess. I think you may like it too--and maybe, since your crystal ball is so much clearer than mine, you will get more from it than I have done.

And I think we should apologize to Prof. Schramm for hijacking this thread! The Paglia piece is quite good and, as is characteristic of her writing, quite manly. It's hard not to like, or at least respect, a manly feminist. In the working out of the two extreme poles of her nature, she almost always ALMOST gets it right.

Julie, relax I wasn't trying to pick a fight with anyone specific. It is important to point out to conservatives the results, or lack thereof of large scale government intervention. I imagine that you and I do agree on this issue. I'm just trying to fire up conservatives not to make excuses for the next bailout: i.e. prudence. I posted Tom Coburn's defense of the bailout a while ago to show the considered argument in favor of it. I think the results have shown it a failure. Please don't eat crow; conservatives all deserve steak.

After being shamed into reading Dr. Schramm's posted article, I don't have much to say. Paglia's discussion of Obama is warm and hopeful (not in a bad way, I myself as a far-right conservative have a few hopes for Obama, although I must say his leaks about forthcoming executive orders are quickly dampening them).

More to the point of the post: Palin. Why would I trust a career teacher to look at someone and judge smarts? It sounds like Bush crap about looking into Putin's eyes and seeing a good man (apparently he didn't see that a man with a strange affinity for tigers, or cold wars, or terrorists). So, I tend to think that Paglia might have missed a few things in Palin's eyes, just like conservatives have for the past two months about Mrs. Palin. How many conservatives like her Alaska policy of raising oil taxes and then giving each Alaskan a monthly gas card? Finally the legislature said no Palin we don't need government to hold people's hand every month at the gas pump, so let's just give them a lump sum payment and let them spend it how they want.

Palin = for big government? Yay! Whether she is smart, I don't know. She didn't convince me of it in two months; and hopefully she won't have another opportunity to convince me.

Here Clint. This will persuade you that you misunderstand Palin.

I think Paglia is largely responding to the FoxNews-established straw man of "what liberals think of Palin." Who knows what her intelligence is, but one can put aside her odd inability to name her favorite books and magazines, to speak clearly outside of a speech context, her obvious lack of knowledge about the Bush Doctrine, and her scandals in Alaska, and just see her as a social conservative who tried to put a folksy (and pretty) face on more of the same Bush-style policies. She (and her maverick sidekick McCain) clearly represented a continuation of policies (by and large) of the Bush administration, the one that this blog was largely cheering on until at least 2006. Perhaps she could run for prez in 2012, and her VP running-mate could be another folksy heartland hero, someone else who "doesn't speak King's English" (and doesn't care to!) - Joad Cressbeckler !!! - think about it!

Kate, I'm tired of personal ramblings on Palin. Please address her policies in Alaska (and how they relate to her plan for America) if you want to persuade me that she is a worthy candidate.

Clint, honestly, I do not think Palin has a plan for America. How the heck do you "plan for America" anyway? Neither do I think she is a worthy candidate, yet, but given the options, she might actually be one. I just hate the presumption that she is stupid, based on - what? As governor of Alaska she has had, and still has, a lot to learn about governance. Making mistakes is part of the learning process, at least for the rest of us, perhaps not for some of you guys. Some guys, who EVERYONE KNOWS are perfect for the office of president turn out not to be so great once in office. Maybe she is something, maybe she isn't, but when even political enemies who have met her say she is really something, then putative allies who have not met her might not know what they are talking about.

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