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Hymowitz on Red State hysteria
I’m less and less alone. Here is yet another Palin-critical conservative. Kay Hymowitz at City Journal (via Elizabeth Wright’s blog) casts a cold eye on the conservatives who have lost their minds over Sarah:
Still, whatever the appeal of red-state feminism, it should bring no comfort to anyone in favor of a more mature political culture. Red staters share with their blue-state counterparts a tendency to sentimentalize and trivialize politics. They heighten the salience of Lifetime Television-style personal stories and gossip. They reduce candidates to personalities, lifestyles, and gonads. Some blue staters got behind Clinton because she was a woman; red staters want to vote for Palin because she’s a mom. Both positions are misguided. Multitasking your kids’ homework and dinner is nothing like weighing contradictory advice from your advisors for a decision that will change world history, and estrogen levels do not correlate with experience, judgment, and wisdom. In the long run, the blurring of celebrity and politics hurts everyone, women and men.Yay! I’m delighted that she is saying this.
Mark A. writes:
Kudos to Hymowitz. I am afraid that the Palin nomination declares the death of what I would call rational conservatism. The Republican party is now an enormous auditorium of hyper-emotional men and women who resemble the congregation at a Jimmy Swaggart television broadcast from 1986. Lots of tears, moaning, wailing, and eyes glancing towards the heavens. The Republican party, by nominating both McCain and Palin, has now accepted virtually every left-wing program put forth since the end of the Second World War. Watching the “useful idiots” at the likes of National Review cheer on this madness is a sign that the Republican party is dead. I’m afraid the conservative wing of the party has been given the boot. We are going to have to rebuild another vehicle for our political needs. McCain and Palin and the rest of the party are huddled down in the bunker praying for one last victory. As Hitler called for non-existent divisions to storm Berlin and oust the Russians, the Republican party calls on a decreasingly existent demographic of white voters to help fight for the rights of minorities, Muslims, and others who are themselves urgently hoping for the end of white influence. The Republicans are selling the rope to the hangman. I am just one man speaking, but they no longer represent me. I am a Conservative. I am not a Republican.LA replies:
“… the Republican party calls on a decreasingly existent demographic of white voters to help fight for the rights of minorities, Muslims, and others who are themselves urgently hoping for the end of white influence.”Mark A. replies:
Thanks for the kind words. I recently saw an old clip of Jimmy Swaggart on television—it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 14, 2008 02:00 AM | Send Email entry |