Dear observers,
Like others, I have a great deal of reading to do on Sarah Palin, McCain's surprising running mate selection. I'm noticing, though, that paleo-oriented conservative sources are already buzzing a little.
After The Nation rediscovered Palin's interest in Pat Buchanan (here), people to the right had a moment of alertness. Ross Douthat (here) said, "Hmmm - could McCain-Palin be the neocon-paleocon fusion ticket we've all been waiting for?" My friend Richard Spencer called Palin's support for Buchanan "very good news" (here) and said Buchanan had talked about Palin's membership in the Buchanan Brigades on Hardball.
I’m surprised at Richard--is he seeing something that I’m missing? Does he have a source for optimism that I haven’t tapped into? He might--I admit I’m much his junior when it comes to knowledge and analytical strength. But to me this looks like a moment of excitement that we’ll later be trying to play down if it goes on too long, like a high-pitched college romance or a fascination with war games.
Unless we move into a hitherto-unimagined historical phase, there will never be such thing as Douthat’s “paleocon-neocon ticket.” There is only one exception to this rule that I can imagine at present. If the term “paleoconservative” were vandalized as completely as the term “conservative” was decades ago, perhaps people calling themselves paleos would then join neocons in Republican power grabs. It’s hard to imagine why this would happen, though. Conservatives had money, resources, and standing as debating partners for the left, and this made their movement as attractive a prize to Zionist social democrats as ancient Rome was to barbarian armies. Paleoconservatives, by contrast, have nothing worth stealing. Maybe, though, it’s helpful for establishment conservatives to let float the idea that reconciliation between neos and paleos is possible and potentially significant, and that there are people pining for this to occur. There would be only one way to understand this narrative--not as a move to give greater voice to paleos, but as a tidying-up process, in which neocons and their helpmates further disenfranchise opponents on their right by pretending to band up with them. Perhaps, though, I’m being too cynical and derivative.
One also must consider that Palin’s gender is potentially as significant in the present race as her politics. Whatever the nature of her conservative stances, Palin is being asked to help McCain make the case that he, too, is on the good side of history. As the manager of a family seafood restaurant remarked to me this evening as he took in CNN’s political coverage, “No matter who wins--a black president or a woman vice president--we’re making progress.” McCain wants Palin to service his progressive narrative, and so far she appears happy to play her role. While this doesn’t automatically disqualify her from some measure of right-minded approval, to me it is a fact of nature more palpable than Palin’s past support for Buchanan.
And of course, not all of the sweepstakes are over. The short list of possible Republican vice presidents hasn’t been discarded. No doubt McCain is making pledges to keep channels of cooperation open. The idea of McCain choosing Lieberman as his Secretary of State became intuitively obvious to me the moment I read it in Tom Woods’ Facebook status.
On the other hand, I might be attempting too much political calculus in my head. Maybe it is that simple: McCain felt he had to make a gesture to what’s left of the Right, by placing someone in his camp to whom conservatives can relate. What this might mean in real terms, though, isn’t easy for me to figure.
Best,
Evan
Update: Richard Spencer, Paul Gottfried, and I all follow up at Taki's Magazine. Steve Sailer (here and here), VDARE.com (here and here), and View from the Right (here, here, and in a fiew other posts) are other people and outlets of the non-neocon Right that have been carrying on worthwhile discussions of McCain's new VP pick.
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