Better: To Ask God

Sarah Palin, who sought her own personal God’s advice on how to manage government funds, is much better than a politician who relies on a religious guru or on public surveys.

It’s pretty easy to ridicule Sarah Palin — and often justified. Since she entered the public eye as John McCain’s running mate and future vice president, she has demonstrated ignorance, hypocrisy and an inordinate lack of inhibition. The story of why McCain ever chose her as a running mate against Obama in the first place is too long to detail here. Nevertheless, she has us questioning our conventional thinking about the functioning of government offices that are supposed to characterize the American political and diplomatic system.

The most recent round of ridicule surrounding Palin involved “Sarah Leaks,” which published her emails from the past few years, especially emails sent in March of 2008. In these emails, she wrote that she prayed to the Lord that he guide her in outlining the state budget: “God will have to show me what to do on the people’s budget,” she wrote, “because I don’t yet know the right path. … He will show me, though.”

Those familiar with the recent history of the past decade should be immediately reminded of similar words emanating from George W. Bush, who said that he consults with God in matters of political policy and even hinted that divine guidance had a part in his decision to invade Iraq.

It seems that behind all this ridicule is a simple supposition that things like deciding on a budget or creating foreign policy are completely logical; a mathematical equation led to its logical, objective conclusion. In politics, however, what can we say? It is the exact opposite. At its best, it’s supposed to be the execution of ideology, which then becomes official policy through elections, and is derived through subjective world views, no less — but is, perhaps, more than a supposedly rational analysis of a situation.

The war in Iraq is a war of deception that began with lies, and its conclusion has yet to be written. However, the Kennedy administration, which prided itself on having “the best and brightest minds” and featured the executive of one of the biggest American companies at the time (Defense Minister McNamara), as well as other prominent leaders like the Rockefeller Foundation president (Secretary of State Rusk) and the dean of Harvard (National Security Adviser Bundy) led the United States down an ostensibly straight and rational path, that turned out to be lies, to one of the great failures in American history: Vietnam.

Palin was born into a world in which you can simply pick up one of hundreds of books analyzing the circumstances surrounding it. It’s the combination of a world vision, fears and human instinct that Bush called “divine orders.”

The Faith of a Politician

How are critical budget decisions determined, if from not from “priorities,” which isn’t much different than expressing one’s worldview? It’s clear that political decisions need to pass the strict test of reality and work in harmony with sources, the current global situation and statistical forecasts.

But ultimately, what will determine where a politician will place “the extra coin,” if not his faith? The problem with Israeli politics, to me, is a lack of ideology, not pocket change. If we actually had a real ideology in the Ministry of Defense or in the Ministry of Education, perhaps the military would fix its budget, and student achievement levels would be totally different.

Palin, the one who asks her god what to do with state funds, is good by me, if so many politicians rely on religious gurus or others, or on opinion polls. She doesn’t say, as Eli Yishai does, “We will do as our great rabbi says.”

She doesn’t jump to act, based on every poll result, and she determines policy on her own, as quite a few prime ministers have done. She takes upon herself full responsibility, even if her ideology rests on religious conviction, which I personally do not subscribe to.

I do not believe in divine providence or whether she cares if Alaska residents find investment in education or repaving the roads more important. But I am a strong believer in politicians who have a worldview, make decisions themselves and test them in the prism of reality, and, only then, put them into action. And there is nothing wrong with calling this “asking God.”