Palin Choice is Move to the Right
Social Conservatism and the GOP in the U.S. Presidential Election
Oct 29, 2008
Social conservatism is much more than this. Social conservatives often see the world as a battleground between good and evil and politics as a struggle between decent people and those elitists who would take away their hard-won values and rights. Social conservatives have a loyalty to traditions and family values respected through time and not subject to government restraints.
What is Social Conservatism?
Social conservatism is defined as "a political or ideology that affirms the government's role in encouraging or enforcing traditional values or behaviors in the belief that these are what keep people civilized and decent." [Wikipedia] If Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, is truly a social conservative as she claims, then we have to have questions. Palin claims that her own personal beliefs do not impact her politics. Given the definition of social conservatism, can that possibly be true? After all, social conservatism is an ideology that affirms the government's role in enforcing those values.
Palin and the Issues
We know that Palin's belief on abortion is that it should not happen, not even in the case of rape or incest. Certainly, that screams for government intervention as even most anti-abortion advocates may make exceptions in these cases or when the life of the mother is at stake.
We know that Sarah Palin is a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) so, undoubtedly, she is an advocate of second amendment rights. Again, government's role in enforcing traditional values rears its head. Of course, Democratic politics also advocates second amendment rights as it advocates the Constitution.
Recently, the Associated Press reported that Palin's religion, from teenager through 2002, was Pentecostal, a conservative religion often associated with faith healing, speaking in tongues, and snake handling, as well as very traditional values. Since 2002, she has attended a community non-denominational church but has retained ties to Pentecostalism.
Palin as a Vice-Presidential Candidate
On all of these issues, Palin has said that these are her personal views but she won't be forcing them on anyone else. If she is the vice-president of our land, and if social conservatism is all about government's role in enforcing traditional values and principles in order to maintain civilized and decent behavior, then there is a disconnect here. Is this movement toward increased social conservatism the change the McCain-Palin ticket is talking about? If it is, then they should make it clear to millions of Americans who seem to think the Republican change is the same as the change the Obama campaign is proposing, when that really is not the case at all.
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