In a speech yesterday to U.S. troops departing for Iraq, Alaska Governor and GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin declared that the soldiers would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”
Even George W. Bush finally admitted that this justification for attacking Iraq was a fraud.
But apparently it is still sufficient to justify occupying and oppressing Iraqis. (Palin’s son was among the soldiers deploying).
Is Palin a liar or a fool?
In the same way that McCain’s convention acceptance speech made Bob Dole look good, Palin’s interview last night with ABC’s Charles Gibson made former VP Dan Quayle look like a rocket scientist.
Why have so many conservatives – and some libertarians – rushed so fast to idealize this career politician?
Jim,
Others have asked how can people still believe this lie after all these years? I can only conclude that most Americans really do want their “leaders” to lie to them as it absolves them from doing the hardest thing a human being can do– to think intelligently.
Is Palin a liar or a fool?
She is both.
And this is exactly why so many Libertarians are now supporting McCain/Palin.
George Bush, and even McCain to some extent, are moderate Centrists who’ve treaded lightly on the real threat from our Islamo-Fascist enemies.
There is no greater threat to the libertarian movement than Islamo-Fascism. These fuckers want to convert us or kill us!
They want to destroy our civil liberties: forcing our wives/girlfriends to wear ugly black burqas, outlawing booze and gambling, cutting off the genitals of our Gay friends, banning free speech that offends Muhammed, and jailing all our marijuana smoking buddies for life.
They need to be defeated.
Thankfully, LIBERTARIAN Sarah Palin recognizes this threat. Let’s hope she can influence McCain to take it seriously, as well.
Does anyone have any good numbers or other insights into how many libertarians are supporting Palin?
Not only are Rovublicans energized by the Palin pick, Democrats are running scared and ready to flagellate themselves for not putting their own Estrogen Warrior on the ticket. Maybe the gun toting Sunbeams for the Unitary Executive have decided that the perfect replacement for the dour Cheney is a maternal figure who can hug the paranoid and calm their fevered brow.
Republicans don’t want to rule in order to provide a political restraint on the negative effects of big government, they want to rule….simply to rule.
Many libertarians actually think she’s just “saying the things she says to get her party elected and then she’ll be a reformer like she is in Alaska”.
They say Alaska is a den of professional political chicanery. That may be but in comparison to Washington D.C., it’s amateur hour and they have quickly come to see that Governor Palin, (an obvious political professional….her worst attribute) is a perfect player to move up to the major leagues.
Dirk, I can always count on you when I am tottering on the edge of putting on the rose-colored glasses.
A “maternal” version of Cheney? Oh my.
Palin just gave the True Believers a great big wargasm.
The supposed Iraq-9/11 link is an article of faith for the True Believers, for which no evidence is asked. So McCain can rest assured that the True Believers are sewn up.
Likewise, the prospect of another war–maybe Iran, maybe Russia, maybe both, maybe more–seems to delight them. I’m not sure why. Perhaps the Doonesbury jibe about “hedgerow envy” is on the mark.
Hey, did you hear this one? What’s the difference between a crazed fanatical islamofascist hellbent on using violence to impose their will on all of us and Sarah Palin?
Lipstick! [rimshot] (audience laughs).
But seriously folks, who is this God that Governor Palin speaks of? Why would HE create islamofascists to threaten the libertarian movement? Especially considering the apostle Sarah is a “libertarian”.
Maybe her God is actually Satan, or Dondero?
Reminds me of a riddle.
Q – Why would a man buy a Sarah Palin school girl inflatable doll with no orifices?
A- Because he believes in abstinence.
Palin is so obviously authoritarian that I cannot imagine why anyone would think she is a libertarian. She strikes me as the type who mockingly refers to libertarians as “libertopians” or as libertines.
I guess some guys just go for that dominatrix thing. Well, they’re entitled to their fantasies, but they’re not entitled to foist them upon the rest of us.
Tom – that’s a great riddle.
Would be curious to track the sales of the Palin dolls to see if there is a Red State/Blue State difference in the trend in sales of the orifice/no orifice models.
For a long time, I’ve noted the existence of something my wife and I call “Republican hair” on GOP stalwarts. Like pornography, it’s something hard to define, but you know it when you see it. With the hatching of Sarah Palin from her lizard shell, we also can add to their list of physical identifiers the tendency to mispronounce nuclear as “nukuler.” I have to wonder if this habit is enforced by the Republican hierarchy on its members or if — like the caterpillar mustache of Saddam Hussein and those who used to surround him — it just seems to replicate itself onto everyone’s face. In addition, as I witness more and more interviews with the creature from Alaska, I note that her language approaches that of a nervous 10-year-old in much the same way as Dubya is known to have perfected for his knuckle-dragging squadron of cave-spawned followers from the Red States. Finally, Dondero’s comment above reminds me of something I used to tell the Republicans (by adding a final phrase to a shopworn notion) in Michigan before I fled that state when they tried to “include” me in their anti-liberal jokes: “Anyone who is not a socialist by age 20 has no heart; anyone who is not a conservative by age 30 has no brain; anyone who is not a libertarian by age 40 has no integrity.”
Larry – I have been accused of many things in my life, but “Republican hair” is not one of them.
The Palin phenomenon is fascinating – I misjudged how this would play with the American public.
I reckon they are hungrier for a savior than I realized.
Yup. And they are shopping in the bargain basement and getting a plastic Geezus! Yikes!
PS: Do you think that Eric Dondero is a bona fide blogger, a comedian, or …?
Dunno.
I think the same person is active on the Reason website and other places.
How many libetarians are supporting McCain/Palin?
We’ve chronicled this in a three-part series over at Libertarian Republican blog.
It’s been amazing the outpouring of support for Palin from across the libertarian spectrum, folks as diverse as Lew Rockwellians and Ron Paulists, all the way to “market liberals” like the guys at Cato to Radical Libertarians like Vin Suprozynwicz and Alan Boch.
I don’t think in the entire history of the libertarian political movement has one single individual been able to unite the libertarian movement behind her, like Palin, with the sole exception of Goldwater in 1964 (and maybe Ed Clark in 1980?).
Is this Jim guy a bonafide Blogger, or just an on-line comedian? He’s certainly not a libertarian.
This “Jim” guy says Sarah Palin is no libertarian. Well, the Libertarian Party of Alaska seems to disagree. Their top leadership, including State LP Chairman Jason Dowell, enthusiastically backed her in 2006 for Governor. Even their candidate for Governor Billy Toien backed her.
Dowell also just issued a press release congratulaing her upon being selected for VP by McCain.
But then again “Jim” thinks he knows more about libertarianism than Libertarians in the State of Alaska.
Hmmn, “Jim” questions my libertarianism. Perhaps he’s not aware of my resume:
Libertarian National Committee mbr. 1986/87
Libertarian candidate for State House 1986
Sec. Libertarian Party of Florida 1986/87
Delegate to Two Libertarian Party National Conventions
Travel Aide, Ron Paul, Libertarian for President 1987/88
Founder, Republican Liberty Caucus
Personal Aide, 1976 Libertarian Presidential candidate Roger MacBride 1991-95
Campaign Coordinator, Ron Paul for Congress 2005/06
Senior Aide, US Congressman Ron Paul, 1997-2003
Professional Petitioner, Libertarian Party – Bob Barr for President, for 7 states: Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Ohio, New Hampshire, CT, Rhode Island and Maine. Most signatures collected nationwide than any other Petitioner for Barr for 2008 campaign.
Dondero appears to be doing the Silly Walk of the Monty Python crew. Now he is defining libertarianism by the verdict of the Alaska LP — not by its founding principles. As I said at antiwar.com today: “Since Sarah Palin has recanted of her libertarianism by embracing the statism of war (i.e. welfare to corporations), her past is, indeed, irrelevant–unless one wishes to use it as an object lesson in betrayal of principle. Dondero seems willing to sell-out any principle if only it can be traded for some wisp of fame or association with the “rich and famous.” When it was a gold-backed philosophy, libertarianism used to depend upon its adherence to Rothbard’s nonaggression axiom and the self-ownership principle. Now that it has been traded in for the half-hearted observance of the Paulians and–much, much, worse–the avowed statism of the Creature from Alaska, it is apparently as free-floating as the dollar and, in that guise, just as worthless. For the past decade, the intellectual aspect of the LP has been suborned by the knuckle-draggers of the right, and Dondero is at the front of that mob, drooling from his lips and clutching his pitchfork–perhaps the only two things a fake libertarian can do simultaneously. Ciao.”
I remember that during the ’90s some libertarians supported Republican politicians, under “lesser of two evils” and “foot in the door” banners . How did that work out for our liberties? That’s right, we got dry-humped.
As for the Alaska LP, I could really care less what they think. Perhaps they hope to gain by association, although history suggests that the Republicans will disdainfully slap them aside. In any case that is of no interest to me. The Alaska LP will be of no help to me (or anyone else) if they’re wrong, so I will decide for myself how libertarian Palin is.
So, what libertarian actions will she take if elected? And why should we believe that she will actually do anything that she promises to do?
It would appear that Alaska Libertarians…as demonstrated by the epic and hilarious madness of Mr. Dondero are quite similar to the Sagebrush Rebellion “Libertarians” of the Mtn West who rail on about the government but are professionals of high caliber when milking the teat of the Fed Earmark Cow.
Dirk, yep – they don’t make anti-government folks like they used to.