It's Not About Populism

Dorothy Rabinowitz and George Will paid their NYC/DC Elitist Club dues this week by contributing their version of ‘whack Sarah Palin’. Their efforts will provide much needed solace to the Club, which wants desperately to place what’s going on in America within some well-understood historical cubbyhole that allows it to be dismissed without any real threat to their stature as elitists.

Rabinowitz’ piece practically whines, ‘hey, we elitists are people, too, and Ronald Reagan didn’t make me feel so uncomfortable’. And Will uses the technique of boldly proclaiming that Palin ‘is not going to be president and will not be the Republican nominee unless the party wants to lose at least 44 states’—in the effort to assure himself and other members of the Club that it shall be as I say. These pieces only serve to illustrate how elitist America, whether conservative or liberal—if ungrounded by a heartfelt faith in and humility toward a relevant and present God—simply does not grasp what is going on in America.

The primary tool for framing disdain and dismissal of Palin is ‘populism’. Whatever the dictionary definition, it’s clear enough from the writings of Rabinowitz and Will that populism represents some sort of fleeting excitability of the ignorant masses, triggered every now and then by charming or charismatic personalities. This flimsy phenomenon, as the narrative has it, has a very short shelf-life before it withers in the face of the great need for the truly serious and sophisticated (which, of course, they are) to reassert wisdom and order and control.

Sorry, Dottie and George. What’s going on is a little bigger than this.

America’s founding is grounded in Truth itself. That man is endowed by his Maker with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, conveys an immortal sentiment. But that immortal sentiment has been the subject of relentless and recurring attacks, never more so than in the current internal war with radical godless leftism. What attacks Truth isn’t truth; by definition, it is a lie. And a central element of today’s attack is the lie of elitism—the aggressive view that God is to be dismissed from any notion of relevance or practicality in human affairs; that godless men and women who receive a ‘proper’ secular education will provide true enlightenment and the real wisdom necessary for progress.

The lie of elitism gave birth to the complete and utter hoax of man-made global warming—i.e., the approved view that only so-called ‘scientists’ and their omniscient computer models (ever hear of the biblical concept of idolatry?) could really know and tell the masses what is happening and what the masses must do and not do for their own good.

The lie of elitism has absolutely crucified (sorry for borrowing a religious term) the common sense truth that no person and no entity, including something called a ‘government’, can borrow and borrow and borrow and spend and spend and spend, and have everything work out well in terms of economic growth, employment and financial stability.

The lie of elitism has turned morality upside down, as abortion, adultery, homosexuality, and pornography are allowed to desecrate the fundamental foundation of civilization: the family. The American people have caught up to these lies, and they are not just tired of those who tell them. They are angry.

Sarah Palin knows these are lies, and in her own way and on her own terms, she says so. She doesn’t play by any of the rules of the elitists; they know it, and she knows it. She doesn’t care what they think or say. And so Americans throughout this country are standing and cheering her on. This is not populism; it is not fleeting; it is not a product of ignorance. It is a collective celebration of the restoration of love and respect for truth, which is ever more seen as synonymous with love and respect for the America of the founding. And it’s not going away.

We’re not ready to proclaim her the next President of the United States; her endorsement decisions, as we've noted, raise some doubts about toughness and consistency. (We can’t name one prospective candidate for whom there are not doubts in one form or another). But we flat-out don’t believe any poll that suggests the majority of Americans think she is unqualified to be president. It’s trendy for everyone, right or left, who graduated from a college believed to rank higher than the University of Idaho, to make definitive pronouncements of their superiority and fair-minded objectivity by making definitive pronouncements that Palin is unqualified to be president.

Forget trendy talk. The media hates Palin, and they can produce polls that repeat what the media spins about her qualifications. But Americans have ceased paying attention to or being influenced by the state-controlled media (and elitist columnists) a long time ago. Sarah Palin is a towering figure of achievement and American authenticity compared to Barack Obama. She has been the object of the most vicious personal attacks witnessed by living Americans—and stood up to them with a level of personal courage that Dottie and George can’t even imagine. What exactly is the qualification she’s lacking?

But back to our core point: what’s going on in America is not populism. It is a fresh stirring of basic Judeo-Christian faith; it is a renewed awakening to the existence and value of Truth, or God—and the related discernment of lies; it is a re-recognition of America’s unique place in human history, and Americans’ unique responsibility to preserve and protect it. Sarah Palin could well ride it all to the White House; America could certainly do worse. But whether she does or doesn’t, the movement sweeping America is real, powerful, and it is going to change things radically, and for the good—even for Dottie and George.

Paul Gable

February 18, 2010