Interesting viewpoint looking at this whole thing from another perspective.
I guess this just backs up some earlier musing of mine about who, exactly, is panicking, if anyone.
It may turn out that Palin is a lot more like Obama than conservatives believe, if her sudden popularity causes her supporters to (as conservatives think Obama supporters have, at some point) relax and get cocky.
Nah, I think this is the typical feeding frenzy applicable to your average ‘missing white girl’ news story. Runaway Bride, Baby in Well… the newshawks go crazy, broadway style. It’s fun!
I’m not “scared” by McCain or Palin, but I’ll tell you what makes me want to panic. It’s the way the Right has swooned over this barely qualified, mediocre local politician because, presumably, of the example her lifestyle supposedly sets. The fact that this moose-murdering Fundamentalist Christian, with her painfully “regular guy” husband who enjoys riding on small, ear-splitting, gasoline-powered vehicles through the majestic Alaska wilderness demonstrates how beholden this country still is to the mindset of pioneers and cowboys. I despair that we will ever move beyond it as a country, and form a new image of ourselves more suited to the present.
The pioneer mindset is closely related to that which accepts no limits to growth or the number of people this country can physically accommodate. The pioneer mindset was beneficial in the 19th century when the West was being populated (although not to the original inhabitants, obviously). Having a half-dozen kids who would grow up and homestead their own spreads was just what the country needed. Now, however, it’s proving to be an ecological nightmare. The average American still insists, apparently, on a single family home on as large a parcel of land as possible, and is culturally antagonistic to the idea of city life, especially when they start to have children. This has led to low, spread-out suburbs–and more recently, to low, spread-out business centers–that ensure plenty of driving on a daily basis between work, grocery stores, schools, and all the places kids need to be driven to for their organized activities. This is the structural basis of the fact that we consume so much petroleum in this country.
And I can’t quite conceive why we still put such an exaltedly positive spin on ‘small-town values’. Living in a small town doesn’t automatically make you more virtuous, or more suited to high office. It’s just a place like any other, but I don’t think it particularly qualifies one to address the issues of big cities where millions of us do live.
I’m just saying that the evangelical base will accept nobody else in 2012. A McCain loss will energize them for their pound of flesh in 2012 and I pity anyone to the left of Attila the Hun that runs against her in the primaries.
Well, these people exist, they’re large in number, they’re not going anywhere, and you had better find a way to make them trust you if you want to win an election. America is a gigantic country and it still has a substantial amount of open country, and the more mockery is laid upon the people who live that lifestyle - hunting, fishing, off-roading, dirt bike riding, snowmobiling, truck-driving, whatever - the more they are just going to resent you. Making those folks feel like they’re being looked down on is a surefire way to fuck up your chances of getting elected - or being successful in business, and a lot of other things.
…but it’s not just a question of where to put people or houses physically. Most of what’s left, outside Alaska, is desert or near desert. There are issues of sustainability, environmental impacts, and particularly the availability of water, which is already a critical issue in the West. We’re already sucking the Colorado dry as it is, so do we still need several million additional people coming to live in the suburbs of Las Vegas and Phoenix?
It isn’t just who they are or where they do it. I hate leaf blowers too and think they should be banned. I don’t think dirtbikes and offroading should be banned. In fact, the promotion of outdoor sports can contribute to the preservation of wilderness, and I’m always one to point that out to those who express their disgust for sport hunting. Hunters were among the first conservationists, e.g. Teddy Roosevelt wanted to shoot moose or lions, or whatever depending on the continent, but he realized that the wilderness had to thrive to allow hunting to continue over the long term.
But I would like to see the image of this country around the world become a little more environmentally sensitive. We should be setting an example, not continuing merrily on with the highest per-capita rate of fuel consumption in the world.
When she was first nominated, the first instinct by many on the left was to attack. And they did so quickly, without much foresight, or much research.
Which is exactly what the right did. Quickly, without much foresight, and without much research, they fell in love with her.
So we had the honeymoon phase, with lefties attacking and righties praising and a quagmire of bad feelings.
Now, the honeymoon’s over. It’s time to discuss things seriously.