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Why Republicans are excited about Sarah Palin

Submitted by Jon Henke on Thu, 09/04/2008 - 12:39
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There is a very fundamental misunderstanding why the Right is excited about Sarah Palin.  It's not about a culture war, identity politics or electoral calculation.   It is about the broken brand of the Republican Party.  Sarah Palin is exciting to the Right for two reasons...

  • Fixing the Republican Party - The Right is demoralized, dispirited - particularly with the directionless, corrupt and ineffectual Republican Party.  In the midst of this political angst, in walks Sarah Palin - a VP nominee who has made fighting, fixing and reforming Republicans a central aspect of her political career.   To the Right, she represents an exciting opportunity to fix the Republican Party itself.

  • A Fresh Start - After decades of a Republican Party that operated on the "it's his turn" principle, the Right was eager for something, somebody new.  Sarah Palin is a sharp break with the old brand.  It's not just that she's a woman, or that she's younger.  It's not about her identity, in particular; it is about the opportunity to change the identity of the Republican Party.

There is a very significant gulf between how the Right is reacting to Sarah Palin and how the Left and the Media are reacting to Sarah Palin.   The Right is excited, the Left is outraged, the media is nuts.   But the Left and the Media fundamentally misunderstand why the Right is excited.  It is comforting for them to assume bad faith on the part of their opponents, but the culture war, identity politics and electoral calculation charges miss the real angst and interests of the Right.

If the Right is correct about the two hopes expressed above, Sarah Palin could be an excellent pick - even a transformative pick. That possibility is why the Right is genuinely excited about Gov. Sarah Palin.

The question, then, is what Sarah Palin will do with the Republican Party if she has the opportunity to remake it.  Change is necessary, but where does the Republican Party go next?  That is a question that needs to be addressed.

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Comments

Calculation is part of it...

Submitted by Bryan Pick on Thu, 09/04/2008 - 14:49.

... but you've captured the overwhelming, central reasons for the Right's excitement about Palin, and those who don't understand it will operate at their peril.  For a movement desperately alienated from its own party, it's nice to recognize one of our own getting into the mix.  It doesn't take long: you see it and you know it.  You and I both saw a good deal of that in Fred Thompson, but the Fred who showed up to the convention stage this week never really appeared to the American public during the primary, so they didn't get a sense of what he was about.

Palin's background and bearing make it easier to get that message across to the American people.  When those on the Right see that message in that package, there is some recognition that it's good politics, and that adds to their excitement.  Like, we -- the real Right -- might just win this thing.

If the Democrats are smart, they will stop trying to attack her personally, stop trying to attack her identity, and go for the real foundations of her allure.  The most effective attacks, in my opinion, were questions of her fiscal responsibility and her record on earmarks, including the Bridge to Nowhere.  If they paint her as a typical spend-for-votes politican in maverick's clothing, they'll make it a lot harder to motivate the ground game and pull that lever in November.  On experience and on her personal life and identity, they (the Left and the sympathetic media) are on a very tight choke collar and most of them don't even know it.

Only a God can save us now

Submitted by elle loco on Thu, 09/04/2008 - 17:26.

 Very thoughtful stuff--which is why I come here. But you guys must realize that this is YOUR hail-Mary hope as much as McCain's. Palin is a still-opaque figure except in the two senses that we all have gotten about who she is: a hockey mom/pitbull with lipstick (one of the most winning, pithy, and astute self-characterizations in American political history), and a Christianist.

You are perhaps understandably a little tone-deaf to the truly vile flavor of her attacks on Obama, the Democrats, their patriotism, and all that Coulteresque stuff: Your whole faction is drunk on toxic bile and frustration about the debacle that is Bushism. (I posted here last month on the patriotism rut.)

But surely you can see that this Assemblies of God I'm-on-a-mission-from-God thing is...well, fraught with inherent problems for the GOP as having anything like a big-tent future. Good luck with the cross-waving crazies. Flag and cross, blut und boden. Good luck with that. 

More raving nonsense from a leftist hate-monger...

Submitted by Big Ben 4 liberty on Thu, 09/04/2008 - 20:57.

face it you hate conservatives and most especially conservative Christains whom you label "Christianists".   There is nothing wrong with Sarh Palin publically expressing her faith anymore than religious leftists going postively orgasmic over the Obamessiah's lastest scheme to increase government power in the name of Divine Providence.

Perhaps you are understandably a little tone-deaf on your own blatant hypocrisy of criticizing Palin for daring to criticize your political savior while ignoring the obviously vile and persoanl attacks against Mrs. Palin and her family.  In fact I can't think of a single conservative commentator who has dared to anything negative of Obama's children, yet your side thinks its just fine to drag Bristol Palin and her personal pro-life decision to have her baby through the mud.

All hat, no cattle

Submitted by glasnost on Thu, 09/04/2008 - 20:03.

I shouldn't be commenting at all these days, but what the heck, and you're easier on the nerves than the Q&O other half.

So, assuming for sake of argument that I buy your premise here, Jon - I don't in real life - perhaps that's why you and Reihan Salam are excited, but I'm sure that's not why Kathryn Jean Lopez is excited, and most of the professional Republicans are closer to her than you -

but assuming I buy that Republicans are excited about Palin because they think she represents Republican reform -

I would think that among the more observant ones, like you - the excitement would have died out in days, once you examined her record.

I'll now recite a list of things you already know - she was for the Bridge to Nowhere, campaigned for governor on it, ran a 527 group for Ted Stevens, secured 30$ million in earmarks for a town of 7000 people. Now, for a Democrat those things aren't indefensible, but according to Republican ideas of "reform" - indiscriminate domestic spending cuts - these are the opposite of reform.

Yeah, she quit a board and filed an ethics complaint, against a political enemy. It seems the complaint was legit, and though I doubt the purity of her motives I'll give her due credit - but that's hardly a master strategic plan for reform. At best, it demonstrated a localized concern for obvious ethical violations right in front of her. Once.

That's a pretty thin reed. So where, John, is this powerful and detailed vision for reform that Sarah Palin is supposed to push through? I haven't heard her say anything that even vaguely resembling anything like a detailed plan. I have no idea exactly what specific behaviors or protocols she wants to reform.

Do you? If so, why don't you write about it? I would be impressed, admit I misjudged, and praise your knowledge.

If you don't have any, I judge that you've been suckered by the audacity of hope.

 

Perhaps if liberals understood christian faith better....

Submitted by Ironman on Thu, 09/04/2008 - 20:22.

they'd understand that we always welcome converts

 

 

You'll never get me up in one of those

Submitted by elle loco on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 09:04.

 Big Ben, Ironman: I don't hate anybody--not for WHAT they are, anyway, though WHO they are makes for a more interesting question. God is love--and s/he doesn't take political sides. Does that ring a bell? Or have you guys just weighed anchor and sailed away from this great republic and its hallowed founding traditions? 

Thank you for that observation

Submitted by Big Ben 4 liberty on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 10:00.

But that doesn't mean any of HIS followers aren't allowed to participate in the secular political process for the advancement of what they sincerely believe to be in HIS best interests.

No doubt

Submitted by elle loco on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 11:05.

 But it has to play in Peoria....

I think you misread

Submitted by Ironman on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 18:05.

my use of a religious metaphor here.  Hell, most of my campaign activity last cycle was on behalf of a pro-choice jewish Democrat;=== but since the nutroots targeted him for elimination, my buddies and I had his back. And I've pointed out that Baptists ministers are not always warmly regarded in the Frost Belt.  

What I have a problem with is that one party is accused of being "Jesusland". I'm surprised that doesn;t bother the social justice supporters more, but . I understand liberals only just well enough to get some of them beat up this way.   

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