Palin Is The Perfect Conservative / Republican Pick

by Chris Bowers [courtesy of Open Left - Front Page]

Sarah Palin is a total wingnut:

"Pat Buchanan brought his conservative message of a smaller government and an America First foreign policy to Fairbanks and Wasilla on Friday as he continued a campaign swing through Alaska. Buchanan's strong message championing states rights resonated with the roughly 85 people gathered for an Interior Republican luncheon in Fairbanks. ... Among those sporting Buchanan buttons were Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and state Sen. Jerry Ward, R-Anchorage."

Palin is a total wingnut Buchannite, (check out what that means in practice), but ran today on feminist themes. She is running as a reformer, but she is under investigation for ethics violations. She favored the bridge to nowhere, but is now running on opposing it. She called Clinton a whiner only a few months ago, but is now invoking her name to cheers. She is the least experienced Vice-Presidential pick in decades, but was chosen by a man who is arguing that his opponent is too inexperienced. And that's not all:

The daughter of a science teacher who supports teaching creationism in schools. Someone from a state being hit hard by climate disruption who doesn't believe that humans cause global warming. Someone who claims to stand up to oil companies, but is instead a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Oil. Someone who claims to fight corruption today but conveniently forgets McCain's membership in the Keating Five. The mother of a special needs child that supports a presidential who voted against funding special education.

At first I thought Palin was a bizarre pick. However, the more I think about it, she was clearly the perfect Republican pick. It is incredibly cynical (women will vote for any woman), based on several layers of hypocrisy, and for good measure displays a cartoonish view of progressivism (in this case, affirmative action as unqualified tokenism). That is basically the entire conservative philosophy right there: a cynical view of people combined with a message that is hypocritical to its core, and topped off with a cartoonish view of the other side.

This pick isn't bizarre at all. It is conservatism and Republicanism in a nutshell.