Palin: The Most Extremist Candidate Since Goldwater

Sarah Palin is the most extremist major party candidate since Barry Goldwater, aligned with the most far right wing elements in American politics on issues ranging from denying that human activity has helped bring about global warming, to seeking to block protection of endangered species, to advocating the teaching of creationism in the public schools, to opposing abortion even in the case of rape and incest, to preventing teenagers from learning about contraception in school, to advocating drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve, to flirting with Alaska voting to secede from the Union, to proclaiming our troops in Iraq are on a mission from God.

Moderates, centrists and independents need to be made aware of these positions and consider whether they want to elect someone with such extremist views to the second highest political office in the land, a heartbeat away from the Presidency of a 72 year old cancer survivor.

Moreover, they should questions John McCain's judgment and claims to be a moderate and a maverick within the Republican Party when he caved in to pressure from the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party to choose someone with the thin resume and extremist views of Sarah Palin to stand second in line to the Presidency.

Palin's nomination marks a decision by McCain to try to turn the election from one about the economy to a replay of past elections about cultural issues and about which candidate represents real Americans. If Republicans can make the election about cultural imagery and who is more of a "real American"--focusing voters minds on the war hero and the hockey mom--they may well win. But when it comes to the specific issues of the culture wars, the religious right represents a minority of voters and their positions scare many moderates and independents. Democrats need to focus on Palin's extremism on the issues and McCain's endorsement of such extremism by choosing Palin to stand a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Here are some examples of of Palin's extremist ideology which the McCain campaign wants to hide and Democrats must expose:

* Palin does not believe in science.

** Palin does not believe that global warming is caused by human activity. In an interview for the September issue of the conservative magazine Newsmax, Palin said"A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made."

** Gov. Palin recently sued Bush's own Interior Secretary for determining, based on the scientific evidence, that the polar bear is an endangered species. Documents released through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Alaska's state biologist agrees with the science of Bush's Interior Department, not Palin. "She's either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading," according to Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Even the Bush administration can't deny the reality of global warming. The governor is aligning herself and the state of Alaska with the most discredited, fringe, extreme viewpoints by deny this."

** Palin believes that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public schools. "Teach both," she said in a forum while running for Governor. Palin's statement closely mirrors the language of "Teach the Controversy", the slogan of the intelligent design campaign, under which evolution's "unresolved issues" and the "scientific weakness of evolutionary theory" would be presented alongside intelligent design concepts in public schools. This despite the fact that in 2005, the Federal District Court ruled in Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, that teaching intelligent design in public school sciences course violates the establishment clause in the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution.

* Palin is part of the most extreme wing of the anti-abortion and abstinence only movement. This should particularly worry moderate suburban women.

** In response to a questionnaire from the far-right Eagle Forum, Palin responded that she opposes abortion even in the case of rape or incest. While a Gubernatorial candidate, Palin stated that if her then 14-year old daughter were raped, she would not permit her to have an abortion. This places Palin on the far right of the anti-abortion movement. Even many pro-life supporters agree that abortion should be permitted in these extreme circumstances, Sarah Palin disagrees. In fact, when a majority of the legislature in the heavily pro-life state of South Dakota recently put an abortion ban on the ballot which would band abortion even in cases of rape or incest, many pro-lifers opposed the ban and it was defeated by the voters.

** In answer to another Eagle Forum question, Palin stated that she supports schools funding "abstinence-until-marriage" education and opposes schools funding sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools.

** There are serious questions whether Palin even believes in birth control. While in general, a candidate's personal family decisions should be outside the realm of political discussion, the pregnancy of Palin's 17-year old daughter raises questions about Palin's beliefs on birth control. Palin is a member of the deceptively named "Feminists for Life" who would criminalize not only abortion but the IUD and hormonal birth control methods (e.g. the pill). Although Palin's decision to keep and raise a baby with Down's syndrome may be admirable, the same questions are raised by Palin herself, already the mother of 4 other children, becoming pregnant at age 44. Palin is lucky that her failure to educate her daughter about contraception only led to an out of wedlock pregnancy. It could have led her to contract a sexually transmitted disease.

** Palin's answer to the Eagle Forum questionnaire also reflected other extremist views. She supports the right of parents to block their public school children from reading books or participating in curricula and classes which disagree with their religious beliefs. (This is consistent with Palin's firing of the Wasilla town librarian for refusing to remove books to which Palin objected from library shelves.) Palin is against expanding hate crime laws. She opposes the decision of the Alaska Supreme Court according spousal benefits to same-sex couple who are state employees.

* Far from putting "Country First", Palin has been closely associated with the far-right wing whack job Alaska Independence Party which questions the legality of the vote for Alaska to join the union and wants to hold a referendum for Alaska to secede. Just 6 months ago, Palin gave a speech to the AIP conventions calling on them to "keep up the good work" and wished the party luck on what she called its "inspiring convention." Palin's husband was an AIP member for 7 years until 2002 and she and her husband both attended AIP's 2000 Convention. AIP founder Joe Vogler said "I'm an Alaskan, not an American...I've got no use for America". There is evidence that Vogler was connected to domestic terrorism--He died in a plastic-explosives sale gone bad.

* Palin seems to believe that she knows God's will and that he is on the side of Republican political positions. She has said that the US sending troops to fight in Iraq is a "task that is from God". She called the building of a $30 million natural gas pipeline in Alaska "God's will." One can debate the pros and cons of these political positions, but claiming unique knowledge of God's will in human affairs is scary and contrasts sharply with the views of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, who proclaimed, "Don't pray that God's on our side, pray that we're on his side."

* Palin has close political and religious ties to theocratic groups which do not believe in the First Amendment's separation of church and state and want America ruled by biblical law rather than the Constitution. Many of these groups are associated with Dominionism, an extreme religious ideology which, according to journalist Frederick Clarkson shares the following beliefs:

"1. Dominionists celebrate Christian nationalism, in that they believe that the United States once was, and should once again be, a Christian nation...2. Dominionists promote religious supremacy, insofar as they generally do not respect the equality of other religions, or even other versions of Christianity. 3. Dominionists endorse theocratic visions, insofar as they believe that...'biblical law' should be the foundation of American law."

** This Dominionist ideology is consistent with Palin's statement that she was the first "Christian Mayor of Wasilla", which was objected to by the prior Mayor of Wasilla who was also a Christian, must not one of Palin's denomination.

** Right before McCain selected Palin, she was vetted for McCain at a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, whose members include such leading Dominionists as Rev. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and Tim LeHaye, author of the apocalyptic "Left Behind" books which predict the coming rapture in which true Christians will be instantly transported from earth to heaven and while the rest of humanity will be left to face plagues and pestilence on earth. After this vetting, Dobson, who once said he would "never" vote for McCain, issued a statement hailing Palin as an "outstanding" choice. It is reported that McCain caved in to the Council for National Policy in choosing Palin, after they unequivocally rejected his more moderate first choices of pro-choice candidates Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman.

** Palin's home church, the Juneau Christian Center, and its pastor Mike Rose advocates Dominionsim and is closely connected to the Dominionist movement. Rose is an advisor to Rodney Howard-Browne's Revival Ministries, one of the leading Dominionist organizations. Palin's church is also connected with the "Joel's Army" movement which uses stealth methods to recruit teens to the cause. One cannot definitely connect Palin to these extreme politico-religious views, but she certainly has her own "Pastor problem".

These views place Palin on the extreme right-wing of the American political spectrum and should raise serious concerns among moderate, centrist and independent voters. The McCain campaign will try to bury these views behind a rosy picture of an all-American hockey mom and mother of five with a Downs Syndrome baby. Despite Republican attacks on media coverage of Palin, the media seems to be focusing on the personal aspects of Palin's story and not the issues.

Democrats need to inform swing voters, in particular, of Palin's extremist views and McCain's caving in to the extreme right wing of the Republican Party in choosing her. If they are fully informed, centrist, moderate and independent voters are likely to think twice about voting to put Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

Comments

[jungfreud]

In my opinion it's not even about Palin. It's about a man so desperate to be President that he will literally sacrifice every moral, every stand, every principle he has ever stood for to win. McCain is not the same kind of "conservative" Palin is. An examination of her history in Wasilia and Alaska clearly shows she is a Rove paint by numbers candidate, cynically expoiting even the political machine in her own state to come to power with the most fundamentalist of values. If McCain will go down this road for his election, well, the obvious question is, will he go this way during this presidency. The answer is, i suspect, yes.
Look, all im asking is 4 years to fix all these problems, then we can go back to the insane warmongering nonsense of the last 8 years. Just give us a chance to fix the health care, energy, and monetary issues we are facing, then we can play the war/bigot game that i know is so fun. If I could speak directly to republicans, this is what I would say. Take 4 years off, go to church everyday, and once we have insured the future of this country for the next 20 years, you are welcome to come back in and deep six the country and undermine the constitution as much as you want for another 8-12 years.

[regina1]

Can you source every fact in this? Especially the strength of her Dominionist ties and vetting by CNP. It is important information that must get to the broader media, but it won't be taken seriously unless the facts can be documented. Palin scares me to death.

[mmogu77]

Some sources on vetting by CNP and Palin's Dominionist ties:
International Herald Tribune:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/03/america/mccain.php?page=2?pass=true
The Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/352178/secretive_right_wing_group_vetted_palin
Focus on the Family:
http://www.citizenlink.org/videofeatures/A000008016.cfm
Sourcewatch:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_National_Policy
Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/29/163234/559/495/579213
Politico.com
http://www.politco.com/news/stories/0908/13098.html
Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/06/palins-church-promotes-co_n_124536.html
Hopefully, the mainstream media, in addition to the International Herald Tribune which is principally distributed overseas, will pick up and investigate this story further, rather than just focusing on Palin's family.

[batguano]

Thanks for the links Miles. Here are some revealing her views on wildlife and "hunting", including aerial killing, and bounty on wolves. People who show such contempt as Sarah Palin, IMO, for our wild creatures and the science that supports the symbiotic relationships between prey and predator, in favor of killing for profit, do not meet the critical level of morality to be considered for vp or president.­.....only a heartbeat away.

http://www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm

http://www.akwildlife.org/content/view/105/

http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2007/03_21_2007_defenders_condemns_gov._palins_decision_offering_bounties_for_wolves.php

http://www.adn.com/polarbears/story/413710.html

and another on her reported racism and mean, vindictive mindset.
http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/05/alaskans-speak-in-a-frightened-whisper-palin-is-%e2%80%9cracist-sexist-vindictive-and-mean%e2%80%9d/

[swift goat pet for truth]

Be fair.
She is taking a two month course on how to be the backup to the most powerful person in the world.
That should be enough.

[Dave01]

Yep at the foot of the master! Imagine that, we have become the slave state once again!

[wandering girl]

right. I'm waiting with bated breath for the McCain campaign to come out and say she's a "quick study." maybe Harriet Miers is tutoring her.

[wagadog]

Heck, she could learn everything McCain and Bush knows in 5 minutes.

How to be a puppet. That's all.

[zendem1]

If she's being trained by Republicans it's the blind leading the blind.

[Totto]

After eight years of alcoholic George W. Bush, aged John McCain's quest for power is so cynical that he is willing to subject a country of three hundred million to the real possibility that an astonishingly ignorant woman, Ms. Palin, would hold power in his absence. Mr. McCain has had four cancers and has a ninety percent chance of recurrence. Does anyone on the right actually care about the world in which we live, or are their egos so twisted that power, and power alone is the only thing of importance to them?

[smag]

I realize that a many of Americans see themselves as an evolved people. I agree to an extent. But can't help but wonder if most of them wouldn't be viewed as intolerant, right wing, haters and just in general backwards people. I realize that some of the writers of the Constitution approved of Slavery and that was remains a horrendous point of view. But some of the other enlightened points of view are difficult for me to comprehend. Guess and one on the post put it, I'm just stupid. This is definitely not a forum where ideas can be exchanged with the purpose of trying to bring people together. Yes we are really are evolved. We have embraced hate as an acceptable filter through which ideas are received. We will never as a country comes together freely because so many believe there has to be a senior subordinate view point.

[Indie2008]

That's an insult to Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was indeed a Conservative, but far more Libertarian on social issues than the smarmy GOP of today , I don't think Barry Goldwater would be pleased with this Republican campaign.

[mmogu77]

From Miles: I agree. Goldwater was a conservative libertarian who supported the First Amendment and the separation of church and state. Palin, and the religious right, are far to the right of Goldwater in these respects. He would probably be appalled by the modern Republican Party for nominating such a candidate to stand next in line to the Presidency.

[meleon]

Seriously agree. Goldwater might've been forceful in his conservative views but I believe wholeheartedly that if he were here today; if he could not persuade voters to go in another direction, he'd quit the party. I really believe that.

[Dave01]

Absolutely 100% agreed! Goldwater, a Republican of all parties, was in support of gays serving in the military. He was in favor of a woman's right to choose. He was in favor of medical marijuana, and even came out and said to religious extremists like Jerry Falwell "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."

[ProgressiveCowboy]

Very Good Points Dave
I was thinking the same thing, which would make Sarah Palin the most extreme renown political figure since the Spanish Inquistion

[DoTheMath]

Thanks for the facts. They should be all we need. If people would just be honest and reasonably careful, there's no way the majority of Americans would support these positions or risk putting a person who holds these positions so close to the selection of Supreme Court Nominees.

How on earth can McCain claim to want to work across the aisle to solve our problems when he has selected the sort of person whose political positions are not negotiable because they are based on extreme religious beliefs? She tries to fire everyone who disagrees with her. McCain has also contradicted his "bipartisan" or "country first" rhetoric by publicly insulting the people he would need to work with to get anything done (not just by selecting Palin but also by calling them nasty names in his acceptance speech).

This would be funny if people weren't buying it. It would be depressing if we didn't still have them outnumbered. So instead of laughing or crying, the best thing to do is exactly what Miles Mogelescu has done here: Get to work!

[vstar]

I agree with the a comment above that Barry Goldwater was true conservative that believed in separation of church and state. By the end of his life, he was also pro-choice. The Republican party has nothing left now but small minded rednecks and the religious right.

[SweetTee]

My God! I am absolutely worried about our future... If this woman gets into office then I will move to Canada! I will spread the word.

[HHarvey]

Me too. You have to live in Canada for three years before you can apply for citizenship. However, my point is that even if Barack wins the popular vote he could still lose the election due to those states that are stupid enough to vote against their economic self interest, Ohio comes to mind.

[SeekerOne]

The rest of the world is watching and worried, too.

[08Barack08]

If you believe John McCain exercised poor judgment in choosing Sarah Palin (or if you believe Sarah Palin was simply a HORRIBLE choice all around), please join the movement.

www.imPALIN.com
It's worth a minute of your time!

[timberdoodle]

There are lots of huge problems with the selection of Sara Palin as she has so many extremist views on how to keep America from becoming a modern society.

Having said this the most dangerous is her preaching the invasion of Iraq is God's will and basically a holy war. If anything should scare Americans this is it. The Muslim extremists propaganda for recruitment is that America is waging a Crusade against Islam. If Americans think 4,000 casualties is bad since the war began just wait until the Islamic extremists convert 100 times more recruits just on American administration's preachings.

[BADEN]

The irony?

Her father is a Science Teacher.

I want to know who her donors were on her first run for mayor.

Seems the Christian RightWing swung into gear.
This type of manipulation of the political process by theocratic leaning people is the most frightening thing I have ever witnessed in this country.

These people are willing to die and have others die for their religious ideology.

This IS the 21st Century, correct?

ORGANIZED religion is the bane of civilization.

[PumaAnn]

Many scientists are also religious. There is no conflict.

[BADEN]

There is when you run on denial.

Honest, PumaA, haven't you gotten over yourself yet?

Grow up, girl.

[atila]

Joe Biden must push these points in the debate,we have the right to know where this woman stands...

[tempting]

Back in 2004 I sat in a church where ballots were passed out for GWB and the people prayed against gays. I left that church and never looked back. But I am sad to say that many churches (and their community organizers) round up folks at election time and physically stand over them while encouraging them to fill out ballots according to their sick agendas. I don't put it past them this year. I also hope they don't have a "ballot blackout" or any other Repug Reich tactics. Hopefully, Americans will do the right thing this year and vote for Obama.

[gvc]

I think Palin is despicable, but I do not think this article is up to HP's standards. Two examples:

(1) You cannot blame a particular pregnancy on the parents. Sure you can generalize, but this example should be left out of the discussion. Proper education helps to prevent unwanted pregnancy to be sure, but still lots of educated kids get pregnant.

(2) Palin is anti-gay, but she actually vetoed a bill that would have prohibited state employees in gay relationships from receiving consideration.

[mmogu77]

1. This article doesn't blame Palin for her 17 year old daughter's pregnancy. It raises questions about her views on birth control, in light of her abstinance only position, her own pregnancy and 44, and her daughter's pregnancy despite her abstinance only views.
2. Palin was only following an Alaska Supreme Court order.

[gvc]

From the article: "Palin is lucky that her failure to educate her daughter about contraception only led to an out of wedlock pregnancy.­"

Sounds like blame to me.

[TommyMcCarthy]

"You cannot blame a particular pregnancy on the parents"..­..........­um......ok

Not quite sure what you mean there, "gvc"

Care to clarify?
tm

[altovuelo]

Excellent article, except for the title. NOT "since Goldwater" -- Barry Goldwater was a traditional conservative, and that included a strong belief in the constitutional separation of church and state. He never suggested that politics should be mixed with, or worse, guided by religion. Sarah Palin is the Most Extremist Candidate of a Major Party in the History of the United States. Period, no comparisons. And without exception, the most dangerous.

And I suspect that the real reason that the McCain campaign is preventing her from being interviewed by journalists is not out of fear that she may not know the answers to their questions, but instead that she will answer only too well and too directly, revealing her for the radical extremist that she is.

[valleygent]

Here here alto... spread the word!! Palin is the new moral inquisitio­n... she and McCain must be defeated. Give me liberty from the right wing evangelists or give me death!!

[thespacecowboy]

When I saw this headline I thought the same thing.

Palin is nowhere near what Goldwater stood for and should not even be mentioned in the same breath. To do so gives her some form of legitimacy that should not be bestowed upon her.

Goldwater was one of the last conservatives before the Republican Party was hijacked by the religious right.