McCain-Palin: The Reformation Ticket

Andrew Sullivan wonders why William Kristol has abandoned any concern about foreign policy in his support for the Palin pick.

he hasn't said a word about Sarah Palin's foreign policy views. I know she's being safely indoctrinated by Joe Liebermanand AIPAC as we speak, but the fact that Kristol, like the rest of us, has not yet been able to point to a single view of hers on foreign policy in her entire life, is eloquent enough. Aren't we at war? Isn't he supposed to care about national security? Is everything about pursuing power by any means to him?

Perhaps Kristol's position can be better understood by looking back to something Sullivan wrote in 1998 (NY Times).  Quoting William Kristol on the conservative future:

Roe and abortion are the test [of the conservative future]. For if Republicans are incapable of grappling with this moral and political challenge; if they cannot earn a mandate to overturn Roe and move toward a post-abortion America, then in truth, there will be no conservative future. Other issues are important, to be sure, and a governing party will have to show leadership on those issues as well. But Roe is central.. . . ''The truth is... that abortion is today the bloody crossroads of American politics. It is where judicial liberation (from the Constitution), sexual liberation (from traditional mores) and women's liberation (from natural distinctions) come together. It is the focal point for liberalism's simultaneous assault on self-government, morals and nature. So, challenging the judicially imposed regime of abortion-on-demand is key to a conservative reformation in politics, in morals, and in beliefs.''

As Sullivan says:

The choice of words is revealing here. Not just politics, a realm conservatives were once comfortable restricting themselves to, but ''morals'' and ''beliefs.'' And not revolution or reform but ''reformation." Kristol's conservatism is happy with the vocabulary of religious war.'

Although this was written over ten years ago, the observation has startling relevance today as the McCain-Palin ticket campaigns as the reform ticket.  McCain may, indeed, be a reform candidate, but does the addition of Palin make the Republican ticket the religious reformation ticket in the eyes of evangelicals?  And does the addition of Palin make this a reformation ticket in Kristol's eyes?  Is that why Kristol seems unconcerned with her grasp of foreign policy?

Comments

[Michael]

Everything is about war with Kristol. He's not a good man.

Didn't a rumor pop up that Palin supported Pat Buchanan back in 2000? If that's true, you think that would make Kristol think twice about her. Buchanan and Kristol are about as far away from one another as you can get in politics.