For most readers, this is not news: Sarah Palin endorsed Doug Hoffman candidate in New York’s 23rd district congressional race. What is also not news to many is that Hoffman is not GOP, but in the Conservative party. Many believe this is an effort to send a message to a conservative base for Palin’s 2012 that she is conservative first, GOP second.
While I have been a loud and outspoken critic of Mrs. Palin, I applaud her here. Not for selecting someone from the Conservative Party. Not for putting her ducks in a row for her campaign run. But for stepping outside of party, because of issues.
Whether you agree with the issues Sarah Palin supports, she – like most people with any awareness of politics – has strong feelings on hers. She directly opposes the GOP nominee’s views and where her support was asked, she granted it to someone who shared views of her own, despite party backlash. In this case, good for her!
Now, I see this as sort of a challenge. Will other powerful figures in politics step forward and endorse candidates based on values, and not party? I challenge President Obama to back a Green Party (or other non-Democratic Party) in an upcoming election where that person represents most closely his own value. I challenge Senator McCain, Joe Biden, and the rest of Washington heavyweights to do the same.
Beyond this, I’d like to challenge you. Let’s be serious: An overwhelming majority of GOP/Dem voters vote along party lines, as do members of the Libertarian, Green, Conservative, Constitutional, etc. parties. Argue all you want, but I bet if we pulled out your ballot, and you’re in one of the aforementioned parties, you’d be no different if your party was an option. So, I’m challenging you to do what Sarah Palin did, and support the issues. After all, isn’t that what voters in the free world are supposed to do? Vote the issue, not the party? I’m guessing you won’t, as I’ve heard all of the talk, but prove me wrong please, and do the smart thing…
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: 23rd, Centrist, Collins, Congress, Conservative, Democrat, GOP, Hoffman, Indepependent, liberal, moderate, New York, Palin, Politics, republican, Sarah, Scozzafava, Third, united states
[...] again, if I need to restate my distaste of the two main parties (see here, here, or here) I run the risk of being horribly redundant to earlier articles. My knee-jerk reaction was, [...]
Yes, if that is what’s happened, I will take your word for it and agree that Sarah Palin has at last apparently made a decision based on consience rather than political expediancy.
However, in my opinion she would do far better to prepare for 2012 (if that’s what she’s doing) by travelling the world and trying desperately to understand how it works (or doesn’t), which would allow her to speak with a great deal more conviction and from far greater knowledge than the sound bite generalities she managed as VP candidate.
Unlike Sarah Palin’s apparent view (and that of quite a few fringe Americans – even some mainstream ones) the world, indeed the universe, does not revolve around America and what it wants and its influence may well decline sharply in the current economic climate too.
As to voting for a party rather than an issue, I couldn’t agree more – in an ideal world at least. But it’s not an ideal world and mostly the situation is far worse than that anyway. In the UK it’s called “tactical voting” but it’s very much the same in the US – people don’t vote for a party, let alone an issue – they frequently vote for whatever party seems most likely to BEAT THE ONE THEY HATE THE MOST!
That’s sad but true – a huge chunk of the electorate is actually voting AGAINST a particular party rather than FOR anyone!
That says a whole lot about what most people think of our current political parties, doesn’t it?
The GOP candidate, whose name I cannot pronounce, may echo the values of her district…..we have this where I live…we elect Dems that are super conserv…personally I will agree with you on Palin, if she is truly standing by her ideals and not playing some polittcal game for advantage…..there is the problem for me…a lot of voters vote for personality or party or whatever and values or ideals if you prefer take a back seat….
I can’t really see anyone else doing this right now. Definitely not Obama, nor Biden. Possibly McCain. Political parties are like a stereotypical fraternity now. You don’t leave, don’t talk to rival fraternities and don’t think for yourself. Adopt the fraternity mindset and reap the social benefits.
But that is more on a macro-level. I guess they do differentiate themselves at the micro-level. The problem there is we only see this in the lack of progress on macro type issues like health care. Each party is in pretty tight unison about the talking points, but the details are a lightning rod stunting progress.
Kudos to Palin, and a noble challenge. Do they still have the party option on ballots – I don’t remember looking last time I voted?