Cross-posted from the European Tribune
At the heart of the Neo-conservative dream has been the contention that the USA is now in command of the World and that it no longer has to play ball with the realities of power as represented by other major nations. Their mission is to create new realities, not to negotiate with the old. President Bush’s imperviousness to facts which contradict this vision has been well documented. His determination to wage war with enemies rather than negotiate with adversaries has been the defining feature of his Presidency.
And so we have McCain nominating Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential nominee. By any objective measure she is spectacularly unqualified to act as Commander-in-Chief on day one and
“strengthen us to confront the transcendent challenge of our time: the threat of radical Islamic terrorism” – John McCain 2008 – John McCain for President
So why is Sarah Palin the ideal pick for the neo-con project?
First, let us recall some words from one of the architects of the neo-con project:New Realities in the Media Age: A Conversation with Donald Rumsfeld [Rush Transcript; Federal News Service, Inc.] – Council on Foreign Relations
The U.S. government will have to develop an institutional capability to anticipate and act within the same news cycle. That will require instituting 24-hour press operation centers, elevating Internet operations and other channels of communication to the equal status with the traditional 20th Century press relations. It will result in much less reliance on the traditional print press, just as the publics of the U.S. and the world are relying less on newspapers as their principal source of information. And it will require attracting more experts in these areas from the private sector to government service. This also will likely mean embracing new institutions to engage people across the world.
In other words, there is a war on, and it is being fought through the media. And what you need, if you want to win that war is photogenic and telegenic personalities who embody the right values and project the right vision. The fact that they may have not the slightest qualifications for the Office, and only the flimsiest grasp of the facts is neither here no there.
You have to identify the enemy, define it in your terms, and then sell your product as the solution to the fears you have raised. Thus “the surge is working”, America is the leader of the free world, and Democrats don’t understand the nature of the threats that republicans have defined with their mastery of the MSM.
They are right about one thing. There is a war on. And Sarah Palin can be presented as innocent of all the victims so far created. What works in small town Alaska can be presented as the model and symbol for middle America as a whole. It’s the Democrats who are messing with the American dream by bringing in nasty realities like urban degeneration, energy dependency, economic recession and military defeatism.
You appeal to the values of small town America and let all imagine that the world is just an extension of that worldview. Then you blame the Democrats for spoiling the party. Attacking Sarah Palin will be like attacking your next door neighbour. She is the soccer mom, the local corruption reformer, the beauty queen.
Reduce the world to a scale that “ordinary” people can understand and experience in their daily lives. And then blame democrats for making it seem so horribly complicated.
And what happens if Sarah Palin actually becomes President? She will be the perfect front for the Neo-con project pulling the strings assiduously behind. Its the neo-American way.
