Posted by
David C. Innes on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 8:18:17 AM
History will praise this beautiful woman who became one of the most
thoughtful leaders of the American conservative movement. Now, what
single word in that statement alerts you that I am not talking about
Sarah Palin? In fact, I'm speaking of Peggy Noonan who recently wrote
an essay on Alaska governor that might just as well have been entitled,
"The Emperor Has No Depth" ("
A Farewell to Harms,"
Wall Street Journal, July 11-12, 2009).
She
went on the trail a sensation but demonstrated in the ensuing months
that she was not ready to go national and in fact never would be. She
was hungry, loved politics, had charm and energy, loved walking onto
the stage, waving and doing the stump speech. All good. But she was not
thoughtful....She never learned how the other sides think, or why.
In
television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She
was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and
sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she
didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and
seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity.
She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could
see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she
wasn't thoughtful enough.
The notion that she is
going to spend the next few years in research and reflection is naive
and an example of tragically pitiful wishful thinking. "But she is a
ponder-free zone," says Noonan. "She can memorize the names of the
presidents of Pakistan, but she is not going to be able to know how to
think about Pakistan."
Looking more broadly to the genuine
leadership needs of the Republican Party, Noonan states the truth for
out time: "This is a time for conservative leaders who know how to
think." This is not only true on account of the great international
dangers that surround us, but also because of the overwhelming surge of
charming statism that is flooding the nation and suffocating liberty.
William
Buckley died in February of last year, just months before John McCain
chose Sarah Palin as his running mate and everyone went ga-ga over her
cutely stated conservative affirmations. The liberals went apoplectic
with indignation and so we reveled in the wisdom of our nomination. But
not only is Palin "no Bill Buckley," she is a caricature of the sort of
conservative that Buckley managed to discredit within the GOP and
replace with principled people devoted to the timeless truths that
provide the indispensable intellectual foundation of the great American
political experiment.
That
is why, now that they have won the election and are vacuuming up power
and control from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, liberals are
lavishing attention on Sarah Palin with lots of flattering photographs,
and celebrating her as the great hope of the Republican Party. (
Time ran a
cover story,
calling her The Renegade.) But they're just baiting the elephant trap.
says Noonan, "She makes the party look stupid, a party of the easily
manipulated."
It is interesting that Sarah Palin is an
Evangelical Christian, a group that secular liberals consider stupid
and easily manipulated. If conservatives and Evangelicals are going to
be helpful to their country, we have to be more than right. We have to
be thoughtful. We have to got beyond talking points and zingers, and
return once again to a principled and persuasive understanding of the
nature and foundations of political, economic, and spiritual liberty.