Don’t you just love when some media wanker takes poll data, slaughters a goat or two, and divines from the steaming entrails the intent of the American people?
The GOP intra-party debate over Palin has become a proxy for the larger question of her party’s future, and conservative chieftains like Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land fear that attacks on Palin are at times veiled swipes at the party base.
“It would be a mistake to say that social conservatives have all their hopes and dreams vested in Sarah Palin,” Land said, but he added Palin “does have the one thing you can’t coach, charisma,” and continues to have “star power” with conservatives.
She has less, though, among moderates even in her own party. Among moderate and liberal Republicans, Palin dropped about 20 points, falling behind Romney as the group’s preferred 2012 nominee.
Um, ew.
I, Liberty Girl, am about as center-right as you can get…without actually being forced to vote for Ron Paul. I would call myself a Libertarian but the party itself is chock-full of whackjobs, and that’s just a challenge I don’t need, so I go with the little “l” designation instead. Small government, nay, EENSY government! As Mister Liberty Girl says, “I want the government to keep the streets in repair, pick up my garbage, and punish bad guys. THAT’S IT.” And I completely agree with him. Let’s get government out of the business of subsidising the poor and nannying us all to death, shall we?
That said, Palin is the most palatable option on the table for 2012, DESPITE her religious proclivities. And honestly, who is the last politician to get something changed due to their god-y-ness? John Ashcroft and the Large Bronze Boobies of DOOOOM?? Now you know they let him get away with that just to keep the old coot happy. Like that song…that fuckin’ song…
Palin is not going to take office and immediately reverse Roe v. Wade, regardless of the wet dreams of the evangelical Right. Politicians may have their pet causes and apparent raison d’êtres but when it comes down to it, most of them are just interested in staying ELECTED, which means pleasing the majority of the constituency. That will also, of course, apply to Palin. And that’s one reason – despite the vitriol on this site to the contrary – that The Messiah does not particularly keep me up at night.
I speak harshly of the 52s, those forebrain-stunted thumb donors, but the natural optimist in me (HA!) believes most of them are not completely divorced from reality, they just got a little excited to be Part of HistoryTM in the election of a sort-of black man. We conservatives will resist the garden-variety socialist tendencies and should anything epically stupid come down the pike, well, I hope the 52s will have absorbed some fucking common sense from us naysayers by that time.
UPDATE: A reader emails:
Dear Ms. Girl (Or may I call you “Liberty?”)You mention “center-right without voting for Paul.” That prompts a thought on how we describe the political universe.
Authors often use two axes, one for personal and the second for economic liberty. So for example Singapore is high economic but perhaps lower personal freedom. (I attach an example without comment on the specific placements.)
Seems there needs to be a third axis, something like “common sense / theoretical” to describe the overlay of differences among populist, formal economists, blue-collar Democrats etc…
See, an issue like free-trade may have sound theory, and work in practice, but it also seems counter-intuitive to workers and goes against folk-wisdom thinking. Likewise we see rifts between the “gotta do something” bailouts and “left-em fail” libertarians. THIS debate is not about economic or personal liberty, so much as it is about our sources of knowledge, and how much we’ll trust “reason” over “experience.”
You can call me “Libby.” (Never was a man, though.)
Maybe the third axis should be “what’s important to you,” which can amount to the same thing you suggest, I suppose. Despite my exhortation to not be a One-Issue Voter, I freely admit that national security is WAY up there on my priority list, which might make me rather more hawkish than the average libertarian.
Personally, I’m not going to worry much about defining charts and graphs until the ID cards/tattoos are mandated. Then I’m going to SHOOT something.