Some paragraphs that stood out in Jonathan Raban review of books by and about Sarah Palin:
Alaska, the particular reality from which Palin hails, is so little known by most Americans that she was able to freely mythicize her state as the utopian last refuge of the “hard work ethic,” “unpretentious living,” and proud self-sufficiency. Her anti-tax rhetoric (private citizens spend their money more wisely than government does) and disdain for “federal dollars” were unembarrassed by the fact that Alaska tops the tables of both per capita federal expenditure, on which one in three jobs in the state depends, and congressional earmarks, or “pork.” So, too, she mythicized the straggling eyesore of Wasilla (described by a current councilwoman there as “like a big ugly strip mall from one end to the other”) as the bucolic small town of sentimental American memory. Listening to Palin talk about it, one was invited to inspect not the string of oceanic parking lots attached to Fred Meyer, Lowe's, Target, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot, or the town's reputation among state troopers as the crystal meth capital of Alaska, but, rather, the imaginary barber shop, drugstore soda fountain, antique church, and raised boardwalks, seen in the rosy light of an Indian summer evening.
…
Commonsense Conservatism hinges on the not-so-tacit assumption that the average, hardworking churchgoer, like the ladies at the booth, equipped with the fundamental, God-given ability to distinguish right from wrong, is in a better position to judge, on “principle,” the merits of an economic policy or the deployment of American troops abroad than “the 'experts'”—a term here unfailingly placed between derisive quotation marks. Desiccated expertise, of the kind possessed by economists, environmental scientists, and overinformed reporters from the lamestream media, clouds good judgment; Palin's life, by contrast, is presented as one of passion, sincerity, and principle. Going Rogue, in other words, is a four-hundred-page paean to virtuous ignorance.
That description of 'Commonsense Conservatism' is the best I've ever read – I'm saving it.
The “fundamental, God-given ability to distinguish right from wrong” is what gives these people absolute confidence in their willful disregard for any other point of view than their own and their blind confidence in their ability to pass judgement on every issue.
“… their blind confidence in their ability to pass judgement on every issue.”
That pretty well describes about 99.9% of people today, you and me included, my friend.
I fear for the US. When half the country doesn't believe in evolution and thinks “book-learnin” is a socialist plot to create death panels, Sarah's unstoppable. If the Democrats don't smarten up, get on top of the jobs crisis (stop pandering to the banks, drop health care reform – it can't be reformed it needs to be blown up and started from the bottom again and no one has the courage or stamina to take on both the banks and the health care insurance industry). Get on top of the jobs crisis or in 2012 Palin could just be president….
Ah yes – “absolute confidence in their willful disregard for any other point of view [and] blind confidence in their ability to pass judgment,” he said, absolutely confident in his willful disregard of the “commonsense conservative” point of view, blindly confident in his ability to pass judgment.
Liberals – and Canadians – will begin to understand the Palin phenomenon only when they are able to read comments like the above and recognize why millions of people would reject its speaker in favor of someone – even someone – like Sarah Palin. Writing books about how simple and stupid conservatives are won't get you there. Nor will treating an Ivy League degree like proof-positive of superior ability. Nor will writing columns in the New York Review of Books.