Joe_Stocks
Back from the Dead
Hello everybody,
As I got my latest Newsweek issue with Sarah Palin on the cover and I expected the usual hit piece on her. Jon Meacham was predictable in comparing Palin to the 'extremist' Goldwater that even Nixon distanced himself from (if, for a second, Meacham thinks Nixon was a conservative then he is more clueless that I previously thought).
Evan Thomas's piece was even more predictable as he attempted to paint Obama as trying to be bipartisan and centrist as compared to the right-wing extremism of Palin.
But then I saw the next Palin article was by Christopher Hitchens. This, I thought it, would be a good article. Even if I didn't agree with Hitchens on every issue I believed he offered some fresh and rather unoriginal political analysis.
But I was sorely disappointed. Here is the money quote:
I had to reread this over a couple of times. I would have thought that Hitchens would know that conservatism isn't about using the government to give out goodies to political supporters. This is actually why a lot of people join the conservative side; they are disgusted at how the politicians use the government to reward their generous supporters.
Now, to a lot of people on this forum government is God and to reject the benevolent hand of Big Brother is become a heretic. But Hitchens seems to believe that conservatives are devotees in the same Leviathan that has destroyed countless lives.
I found it quite astonishing that Hitchens had misread Palin's appeal so much. Her appeal does indeed make no sense looked at through the prism of big government liberalism. But her appeal comes from the exact opposite perspective. It is from the perspective that the vast majority of people don't need to rely on government and that government most often screws things up (current financial situation) than provides actual solutions.
As I got my latest Newsweek issue with Sarah Palin on the cover and I expected the usual hit piece on her. Jon Meacham was predictable in comparing Palin to the 'extremist' Goldwater that even Nixon distanced himself from (if, for a second, Meacham thinks Nixon was a conservative then he is more clueless that I previously thought).
Evan Thomas's piece was even more predictable as he attempted to paint Obama as trying to be bipartisan and centrist as compared to the right-wing extremism of Palin.
But then I saw the next Palin article was by Christopher Hitchens. This, I thought it, would be a good article. Even if I didn't agree with Hitchens on every issue I believed he offered some fresh and rather unoriginal political analysis.
But I was sorely disappointed. Here is the money quote:
I had to reread this over a couple of times. I would have thought that Hitchens would know that conservatism isn't about using the government to give out goodies to political supporters. This is actually why a lot of people join the conservative side; they are disgusted at how the politicians use the government to reward their generous supporters.
Now, to a lot of people on this forum government is God and to reject the benevolent hand of Big Brother is become a heretic. But Hitchens seems to believe that conservatives are devotees in the same Leviathan that has destroyed countless lives.
I found it quite astonishing that Hitchens had misread Palin's appeal so much. Her appeal does indeed make no sense looked at through the prism of big government liberalism. But her appeal comes from the exact opposite perspective. It is from the perspective that the vast majority of people don't need to rely on government and that government most often screws things up (current financial situation) than provides actual solutions.
