Who are our rulers?

The blogger Stag Heath unleashes at contemporary America, declaring that it is ruled by a “lowerarchy,” which he sees personified in Barack Obama and Sarah Palin.

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James N. writes:

I agree, as I have said before, that there are many similarities between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama (and also between those two and George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton).

None of these persons would have been considered remotely qualified to be President before 1960. The fact that Mrs. Palin, Bush the younger and the young Clinton became state governors speaks to the same phenomenon whereby inexperience and appealing naivete are regarded as qualifications for high office.

What these politicians all share is that voters invest them with qualities they do not possess, based on lifestyle or identity cues. Many, many voters believed about all four of them that he/she “is one of us,” “cares about me,” etc, etc.

Where I part company with the strict anti-Palinites is that I accept, or at least grudgingly tolerate, that the terms of engagement have changed. Perhaps to beat a Clinton, you need a George W. Bush. Perhaps to beat an Obama, you need a Palin.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 09, 2010 03:03 PM | Send