Austin: I really want to know what you think of Palin now, after having a few weeks of introspection (and marital contentment) tucked under your belt. Still enthused? Having second thoughts?
September 25th, 2008 § 7
Austin: I really want to know what you think of Palin now, after having a few weeks of introspection (and marital contentment) tucked under your belt. Still enthused? Having second thoughts?
You didn’t ask me, but I’ll answer anyway.
I’m not enthused (never have been), but I still support her and McCain. Like the non-idealist I am and ever hope to be.
Frank, the day you’re a non-idealist is the day that I’ll shave every square inch of hair off my body.
I can’t see how anybody but an idealist would support McCain and Palin these days. I think you’re an idealist about being a non-idealist, which is like shopping at Hot Topic to be countercultural.
Which, to be fair, is something I did all the time in high school. Their t-shirts are quite witty.
Chris, your argument is awful. So awful I’m not even going to give you an answer.
Davey, you know I’m a non-idealist. It’s why I say “damn” and “hell” in my stories.
I’ll try to make it less awful.
You say you’re a non-idealist, and I’m assuming you’re not using the specific philosophical category. In that case, you prefer to think of yourself as elevating practical considerations over and above intellectual principles that don’t necessarily conform to reality.
At this point, McCain has ruined all of his credibility in my mind by choosing Palin. She is clearly not prepared for the veiled hostility of the media; how is it possible that she’s prepared to be VP, or even POTUS? His move was political grandstanding, a largely symbolic choice that appealed superficially to women and the far right. But it was not a responsible choice.
The only reason to support Palin now is to support her for what she represents, and not who she actually is. We may make a principled decision to support her based on the fact that she is a Christian, but I cannot find a single practical and concrete reason to think she would be any better in the VP slot than I would be.
What would a non-idealist do when faced with a chimera candidate, a mere imagination of the political scene who is the perfect combination of several animals, but who also does not exist?
I’ll disagree with you by telling you why I’m willing to support McCain/Palin.
You know me; I’m not “for” Palin just because she’s a woman, or just because she happens to be a picture-perfect conservative. Not even because she’s a hockey mom (as enticing as that is).
I support them because I don’t want to support Obama/Biden. When I weigh the two of them together, I’d much rather have McCain/Palin. And I also believe that it’s more loving to my neighbors (local and federal) to vote for and support McCain/Palin over Obama/Biden — neither is perfect, neither is ideal, but one of them is preferable.
And what’s more, I don’t really care about what the media thinks, nor do I see any reason for deciding that, because Palin is hated by the media and easily skewered, she would make a poor VP. Pretty much everyone I know and respect would be in the same position. (For example: our own Pastor.)
[...] and Chris have weighed in on the Palin / Couric interview. Davey has also called me out because of my Palin enthusiasm. This is a response to all that… and more. This blog post [...]