Beside Themselves

The political and cultural left is beside itself in fury because Gov. Sarah Palin's life story is a living rebuke of every myth that they have spun about women in the last four decades. She is wildly successful in her field, but is also a mother of five children. Planned Parenthood is not essential for the successful career woman. She keeps her Down syndrome baby because a disability does not disqualify you from being loved. The Planned Parenthood solution is not necessary. She and her husband support her seventeen-year-old's decision to carry her child to term and marry. Again, the Planned Parenthood solution is not essential.

The political left is also beside itself because Gov. Palin shows that optimistic, forward-looking populism is conservative. She's got a down home, small town blue collar family that is not tied to the mentality of entitlement. The elitist left specializes in the populism of resentment, envy, rage, ethnic competition, and self-pity, which is a personal and social dead end. Conservative populism, on the other hand, seeks to reform the system so that the individual can control his own destiny, flourish, and fulfill his dreams--so that the individual is set free to move up in the world. That's why the crown jewel of conservative populism is school vouchers, which empower parents as decision-makers over the public school monopoly which keeps so many inner city kids locked into a self-perpetuating cycle of self-pity, rage, and resentment.

Yes, the left is furious because John McCain has given us the gift of a conservative reform ticket. Even Washington Post writer David Broder, dean of mainstream media political punditry, noted that Obama's convention speech was a stale repetition of a platitudinous laundry list of tired liberal promises dragged out every four years (see link). The reform ticket is conservative. That's what has turned this election upside down. For further perspective in the midst of all the garbage in the media over Palin, see Catholic Bob Novak's latest at this link.