Few people in this world make me tremble in fear. One is hard-line Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; another would be the ever provocative North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. But now, there is a new person to add to my list; one that is a lot closer to home. That is former U.S. vice-presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin.
Now Sarah Palin, you may say, is not in a position of power to influence anything on a global scale, unlike the two previously mentioned leaders who pose a constant threat to the security of the western world. But my fear comes out of her potential influence.
Recent polls in the States show that 49 per cent of voters do not wish to vote for Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential election, and will actively seek an alternative. We must consider that the alternative could be Sarah Palin.
True, she would make history by becoming the first female American president, and sure some of her policies may seem tempting to many Americans, specifically resonating with those who are a part of the so-called “Tea Party movement,” that stunned Democrats and Republicans alike in the recent mid-term elections.
My fear of Sarah Palin lies in the way that she can speak to the masses and move them towards fanatical conservatism; and she does this without knowing half the facts. Further, she presents herself as a down-home common woman, despite the fact that she is a prestigious multi-millionaire.
Palin has made some very serious gaffes in front of the media, including a recent mistake regarding the Korean crisis that has been much discussed in the news: Palin stated that “we need to stand by our North Korean allies.” These gaffes are not new to Palin who when running for vice-president and asked by a reporter which dailies she reads regularly, her response being “all of them.” Despite the obvious lack of understanding of American and international politics, she has become a political tour-de-force.
Since resigning as governor of Alaska in July 2009, 13 months before her term was to end, she has come out with two best-selling books (Going Rogue: An American Life in November 2009 and America by Heart in November 2010), joined Fox News Channel for a multi-year contract as a political commentator, and hosts her own show on TLC, called Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Further, her daughter has achieved fame with a recent appearance on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. She has become, for lack of better expression, a complete media-whore. But, whatever you do, don’t criticize her in the media; else a “pit bull wearing lipstick” will be all over you.
So, assuming Sarah Palin becomes the next president of the United States what could her presidency actually look like?
For starters, I think the strength of the American military would be incredibly compromised and continually challenged by America’s foes, if only out of the total lack of knowledge Palin has shown towards international relations, and her extreme hard-line stance that overshadows her abilities to be diplomatic in the face of danger. Second, I feel a lot of the liberal advances in the United States that occurred over the past two decades would be reversed — we would see Obama’s health care plan scrapped; we would see abortion rights challenged; gay rights reversed; taxes and social programs cut; and fiscal deficits increased. The latter has already been proven by her track record in Alaska where she spent $6.6 billion dollars in an annual operating budget — the largest in state history — and at the same time cut $237 million is social programs and infrastructure.
Further, remember the enormous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this past summer? Under a Sarah Palin administration it would very likely happen again. Republicans have been well known to be sympathetic to the big oil companies, and a Palin presidency would go along with several high-risk projects in the interest of getting more oil for the American people, despite a current call to find alternatives for fossil-fuels.
One last point that I want to make is Sarah Palin and the Republican Party’s dislike for further nuclear arms treaties with Russia. At a time where America should making peace with the world, these representatives of the United States want to maintain American exceptionalism — a very untenable position to now hold.
So I guess my primary point of contention is this: the notion of Sarah Palin as US president. She does not know enough about international relations to be an effective diplomat. A Palin presidency would further alienate America’s foes, and may lead them to the brink of conventional, if not nuclear, war. Unfortunately, it looks as though she might be on her way to the White House. If that turns out to be the case, let’s just hope we are still around to see the end of her term.
