Where are the anti-Palincons?

Another Palin-critical conservative, whose article I linked a couple of weeks ago but in a comment rather than on the main page, is Heather Mac Donald at City Journal. Here is her article:

Sarah Palin (R-Diversity)
Republicans betray their principles by playing identity politics

It will not have escaped readers’ attention that the writers who are on the same side of this issue as myself are all women: Heather Mac Donald, Elizabeth Wright, Kay Hymowitz, Carol Iannone. Where are the conservative male writers who clearly and consistently oppose the Palin nomination? I bring this question up because a reader contacted me this afternoon and pointed out that I am the only one he can think of.

Update: There is David Frum. I had heard that he had been criticizing the nomination and taking a lot of heat from his readers over it, but I hadn’t looked it up. That discussion is no longer on the main page of the David Frum Diary. I don’t know if his arguments had to do with the impact of her nomination on conservatism, or just with the experience issue. There are many Palin links in Frum’s archive, but it will take some searching to find the actual entries where he was getting criticism and responding. [Note: see below a reader questioning my listing of Frum as a conservative.]

Paul Gottfried at Taki’s Magazine also has criticized the Palin nomination—not because of its effect on social conservatism (which has been the main focus at VFR), but because she will be McCain’s vice president and will be supporting his policies. It’s a key point and a self-evident point, but one that many conservatives seem to have blocked out under the pressure of powerful emotions.

Gottfried also mentions McCain’s splendid looking 96-year-old mother as an index that McCain might well serve two terms, with the conservatives’ heroine Sarah serving as his loyal lieutenant all that time. The irony is that anyone who likes Palin and sees her as a conservative hope should want her not to be McCain’s VP, which will destroy her as a conservative (assuming she is one), but to develop her own political career on her own, conservative (assuming she is conservative) terms.

- end of initial entry -

Gintas writes:

You write:

“Where are the conservative male writers who clearly and consistently oppose the Palin nomination?”

Just for reference, here are a few article at Chronicles:

Thomas Fleming: Very Negative on Palin

Aaron Wolf: Negative on Palin, Very Negative on the Conservative Reaction

Scott Richert: Very Negative on Palin

Tom Piatak: Somewhat Negative on Palin, Positive in Some Ways

Srdja Trifkovic: Possibly Positive on Palin, certainly not gushingly Enthused

LA replies:

Thanks for this. But we’re looking for conservative critics of Palin. Based on this and this, is it correct to describe Chronicles as a conservative magazine?

September 15

James P. writes:

You write:

“Where are the conservative male writers who clearly and consistently oppose the Palin nomination? I bring this question up because a reader contacted me this afternoon and pointed out that I am the only one he can think of. Update: There is David Frum.”

Your site contains many cogent posts on the general idiocy and non-conservativeness of David Frum—how he is indifferent to the cultural and demographic destruction of America and the West, how he is seeking to liberalize conservatism, how he is wrong on immigration and wrong on Islam, how he blindly supports Bush’s non-conservative policies, etc. etc. From a brief search of your site, I am hard-pressed to find any positive comments about Frum, and all your negative comments are right on target. With that in mind, what is the likelihood that someone so intellectually unreliable as Frum is correct about Palin? A stopped clock is right once a day; is it at last time for Frum to be right about something? From another angle—if you’re looking for conservative critics of Palin, is Frum a conservative? Based on the evidence of your site, the answer must be no, so the search for conservative critics must continue.

LA replies:

You’re probably right. As I said, I have not actually seen Frum’s posts on this, and a search through his many archive links would be needed to find them. But I’m such a fair minded guy that I was being open to the suggestion that he fits the bill.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 14, 2008 04:04 PM | Send