Between A Rock And A Hard Place

The anti-intellectualism of America is still quite alive and kicking. The Republican party does its best to turn this sentiment into votes as it attacks Senator Obama, the Harvard Law School graduate, by calling him “out of touch” with the needs of the American people. Today’s political arena is much different than that of our Founders. Instead of directly engaging in politics, we see intellectuals taking a different route – aggressive avoidance. William Buckley once famously stated that he would rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston phone book than the entire Harvard faculty, and his idea seems to have stuck. So, as we see the Republican Party turn away from intellectual leadership – as well as an intellectual constituency – and turn to more radical, rural votes, we also see the development of Election 2008: Class Warfare.
Who would you rather have a beer with, George Bush or John Kerry? Just the simple fact that this question was a leader in influencing undecided voters in 2004 is testament to the notion that America is turning from the intellectual. Though both attended Ivy League universities – and are far from the “common man” – they tried to attract the “average voter” by presenting themselves as “normal citizens”.
Now this is not a bad thing. In fact, it is important that constituents trust their leaders. But, as the political constituency of the Republican Party continues to turn away from the cities and metropolitan areas, it is leaving behind a group of intellectual Republicans as it pursues the rural votes that it has depended on over the past eight years. This can be clearly seen in John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
When the “maverick” Senator got the nomination, the Bush Republicans began to lose faith in “their party”. So who else to nominate in order to excite these voters than Sarah Palin – a pro-life, anti-stem cell research, anti-gay marriage governor of Alaska. Of course!
But now, where does this leave Republicans like myself? California Republicans are a little different than most. We’re all about leaving the economy alone (even though that’s basically not an option anymore) and we are a lot more lax about social issues. I’m stuck because I don’t want to vote for Obama-Biden because taxing the rich is not the answer, but voting for McCain-Palin leaves me with less hope than I have in Obama.
So today, I think it’s one of the hardest elections for the intellectual Republicans out there. We understand it is time for change – but Obama wants us to pay for everyone else to get in on it and Palin wants us to finally believe that the dinosaurs died 4000 years ago.
We really are stuck between a rock and a hard place.