Talking to Ourselves

Danny Finkelstein has a superb column in today's Times on Sarah Palin and the Republican Party. He writes: "[Palin] has worked out that she can have an entire career, a public voice and a good income entirely by pleasing the Republican base."

Danny Finkelstein, one of the intellectual architects of the revival of conservatism in the UK, has a superb column in today's Times on Sarah Palin and the Republican Party:

There is no more eloquent statement of modern Republicanism than resigning office with time still on the clock. Mrs. Palin has chosen to talk about power, rather than exercise it. She would rather write a book and give lectures about being a governor than actually be a governor. And her party has made the same choice...

One of Mrs. Palin’s constant refrains when asked about giving up her office is that she didn’t want to practise “politics as usual”. Well, she can certainly be acquitted of that. And there is nothing wrong with unusual in politics from time to time. But for a party that seeks to govern to speak so openly of its dislike of governing, of the people who govern and of the place from which they govern, isn’t entirely serious.

Mrs. Palin need not worry too much about this, because she has worked out that she can have an entire career, a public voice and a good income entirely by pleasing the Republican base. More broadly, her party has concluded that it can have a fine life just pleasing itself.