Revolutionary Campaign

John McCain pulled his ace out of his sleeve. If elected, Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin will accompany him into the White House. However, in no way does the 44-year-old governor embody Republican conservatism.

On the heels of the Democrats’ revolution follows the Republicans’ revolution. The American Left had just nominated Barack Obama as its presidential candidate when John McCain presented Sarah Palin to the Right as his vice-presidential candidate. In view of his age, Alaska’s governor is not merely a beautiful addition to the campaign. She is a potential President. While agreeing confidently by McCain’s side during her introduction, Sarah Palin proclaimed that, “Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America, but it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.” This is not how conservatism sounds today or sounded in the past.

The old models are no longer correct. To be sure, Palin is uncompromisingly conservative when it comes to abortion and gay marriage, two issues where McCain’s liberal streak rubs some groups in his own party the wrong way. And she lives her values. When McCain introduced her, she presented her fifth child born a few months earlier. During a prenatal exam, her baby was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. Palin refused to have an abortion. Her oldest son is in the army and will go to Iraq in September. And Palin is a member of the National Rifle Association.

On the other hand, Palin freely admits to having smoked marijuana and to having many gay and lesbian friends. McCain praised her as a true anti-authoritarian symbolic figure. He said, “she’s fought oil companies and party bosses and do-nothing bureaucrats and anyone who puts their interests before the interests of the people she swore an oath to serve.”

The old ways and enemies do not fly anymore. The culture wars, which have crippled America for so long, no longer define this campaign. A female Republican promises to continue Hillary Clinton’s fight for women’s rights. And in probably the most significant passage in his speech accepting his party’s nomination for president, Barack Obama said, “one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and patriotism.” It would be successful to conduct this historic campaign in such a spirit, which would be a revolution in the very best sense.