Nathanbedford, I only found your post last night. I used to come to FR daily, sometimes more than once per day, but now I drop by once a week, in large part because of some of the things you touch upon.
I, too, have issues with the supporters of Palin who can't seem to step back and see that they are the conservative versions of the Obama worshippers. The reason this is so alarming is because it goes to the root of the philosophical differences between the parties. See, we conservatives don't WANT or NEED someone to worship or even 'root for' but see politicians as necessary laborers in the machinery of government, no more and no less than those of us who have jobs in the real world.
In the past I could have gone on at much greater length in multiple posts about this, but I look around and it's pointless. People have taken the exact wrong lesson from the Obama worship--instead of saying "OK, that's silly and immature, THIS is how we should be dealing with our political class and our problems," so many on the right have said 'Hey, we want our own hero to shout about!"
We are letting the left dictate how we think of government and those in power, and it is insidiously playing into their philosophy. Instead of showing that we have elemental disagreements, we are just saying "We'll play the game your way, just with people we like." It's a losing game because merely by playing, we are surrendering our beliefs.
But people are more interested in pretending that a politician, even one as noble and correct as Palin is (you hit it on the head as to why her not killing her child infuriates the left), is their friend on a personal level. It's degrading to ourselves as mature people, and our politics as one that gets beyond the cult of personality. So why bother discussing it? If you don't act the role of cheerleader, you're a commie. How far we've fallen.
We are letting the left dictate how we think of government and those in power, and it is insidiously playing into their philosophy. Instead of showing that we have elemental disagreements, we are just saying "We'll play the game your way, just with people we like." It's a losing game because merely by playing, we are surrendering our beliefs. In this way we surrender our beliefs in the rule of law to the rule of men and our commitment to the rule of law rooted in a Constitution. The process is sometimes subtle when it is done by Justices like Ruth Ginsburg or blatant when done by mountebanks like Obama. It is tragic when we do it to ourselves.
These insights of yours are very important.
But people are more interested in pretending that a politician... is their friend on a personal level....It's degrading to ourselves as mature people...
This is how the process of rationalization, so advanced in the Democratic Party, can leach over into our side and become a cult rather than a political party. Besides, you are absolutely right, on a personal level it is degrading.
