Kathleen Parker, the conservative columnist who wrote last week that Sarah Palin is out of her league and that if BS were currency, Palin could rescue Wall Street by herself, has gotten “vicious, threatening” mail because of her view.
Writing in today’s Washington Post about the reactions to that column, Parker says,
Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a dumpster, but since she didn’t, I should “off” myself.
To those who accused her of not being a “true” conservative, she replies,
But what is a true conservative? One who doesn’t think or question and who marches in lock step with The Party? The emotional pitch of many comments suggests an overinvestment in Palin as “one of us.”
Pointing out, correctly, that both sides are partisan and we have become a partisan nation, Parker offers this observation:
Anyone who dares express an opinion that runs counter to the party line will be silenced. That doesn’t sound American to me, but Stalin would approve.Readers have every right to reject my opinion. But when we decide that a person is a traitor and should die for having an opinion different from one’s own, we cross into territory that puts all freedoms at risk.
Everyone, she says, is to blame. I agree.
Compared with most European nations, ours is still an adolescent but that does not mean we need to remain mired in our national adolescence. It’s past time to move beyond political puberty but unfortunately for us — and the rest of the world — it won’t happen this election cycle. And we are all the losers for that.
1 comment
October 2, 2008 at 7:14 pm
bluesmokeofparadise
I read Parker’s follow-up article and almost posted on it.
I still may.
I have wondered what Bill Buckley would think of our Precious Snowflake (that’s a good one!); we know that some of the better conservatives like George Will, David Brooks, and Parker have abandoned ship already. The right wing nut jobs of the party, who like to portray themselves as populists, but who are in fact anarchists, are saying things like, “the intellectual elites of the party don’t like Palin, a small minority of Republicans.”
Wow. That pretty much sums it up.
The best cure for our national adolescence is education; unfortunately, we’ve so shortchanged ourselves for so long that disease is pretty widespread.
Outstanding entry. Thank you.