Texas governor Rick Perry is about to stride purposefully through every cultural tripwire in the country.
He may not become as despised as Sarah Palin, but that’s because he’ll never be a pro-life woman — the accelerant for the conflagration of Palin-hatred. The disdain for Perry won’t burn as hot, but it’ll burn just as true. He’ll become a byword for Red State simplemindedness in the New York Times and an object of derision for self-appointed cultural sophisticates everywhere.
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You could be mistaken for thinking that Perry set out from his infancy to trample on certain eastern sensibilities. Born in nowheresville Texas to a family of cotton farmers. An Eagle Scout. Attendance at Texas A&M, where he was a “yell leader” — basically a male cheerleader — and in ROTC. After earning a degree in animal science and serving in the Air Force, he entered politics and eventually ascended to the governorship in the wake of another hated Texan — George W. Bush.
Perry makes Bush look like a sniveling elitist, what with his patrician, highly credentialed family. Perry went to Paint Creek Rural School in Haskell, Texas; Bush went to Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and then on to Yale and Harvard.
Perry is a great partisan of Texas and has mused about its leaving the union. He’s an evangelical Christian who unembarrassedly prays in public and for his state. He’s a tea partier who extols the Constitution and seeks a drastically limited federal government. He’s a law-and-order conservative in a state that still executes people.
It’d be almost impossible to come up with a background and cluster of affiliations so provocative. Texas has all the negative charge for liberals that Massachusetts does for conservatives. Perry will be branded as a backward, dimwitted, heartless neo-Confederate. A walking, talking threat to the separation of church and state who doesn’t realize people like him were supposed to slink away after the Scopes trial nearly 90 years ago.
Surely there can’t be anything wrong with being an Eagle Scout? Such is the culture war that even the Scouts are controversial. In some quarters, they are considered notoriously anti-gay. A few years ago, Perry wrote a polemical book-length defense of the institution, On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.
The title speaks of an author who is an incorrigible square, another Perry offense. In a photo of him at Texas A&M, wearing white sneakers and his Yell Leader sweater, he looks like the guy we’re always supposed to root against in movies about college life. Perry apparently lacks all ironic detachment, the quality that so endears liberals to Pres. Barack Obama even though they constantly exhort him to become a fighter.
Obama officials have already signaled they will attack Mitt Romney as weird if he’s the Republican nominee. If it’s Perry instead, they will surely pursue a similar line against him as bizarrely retrograde and altogether too Texas — George W. Bush, only more so.
The cultural static around Perry could well distract from his core economic message. He’d do well, as he began to do in his announcement speech, to cast his personal story and his state in terms of aspiration. Rural life, the Scouts, the military, and his faith inculcated in him the virtues necessary for success, and he lived in a state wide open and free enough for him to rise.
No matter how big his belt buckle and his boots, Perry should work to belie the image of Texas. It’s not the TV show Dallas of 30 years ago. It’s a dynamic state that has created jobs to absorb a population growth of 20 percent during the past ten years. It has thriving big cities and a diverse economy no longer exclusively dependent on the oil-and-gas industry. It has close ties to Mexico and a large Latino population.
Perry can say all that and more, but it won’t matter. He’ll still be hated.
Dude,
Please realize people don't actually HATE Palin as much as they are just BORED with her. People cut her down because they're tired of her and hope she goes away. People hated Dick Cheney and Osama bin Laden - there's a difference. Palin's like a bothersome gnat, not a destructive manipulator (and she'll remain so as long as we have general elections - not that she's going to run.... anyday now she'll recycle her reason for resigning - that she can do more for "the cause" from outside a confining elected office. Then she'll be gone and life will go on for normal people - her supporters will be crushed and blame everyone and everything other than Palin (as did Christine O'Donnell).
THe worrying thing about Palin for republicans is that literally every Democrat i know desparately WANTS Palin to be the nominee- its not so much that she drives Dems wild, its just that they sincerely believe that Obama would win in a landslide running against her- THATs the thought that makes them giddy.
I happen to think the Dems are right- id put decent money on a 100% clean sweep of the Union if its Obama versus Palin.
No hatred here. But I don't find him compelling. It's hard to support anyone who used to be pro Gore. Also, knowing your odd disdain of Romney (I haven't forgotten NRO's recent editorial stance), I question your objectivity.
I think you're missing a critical piece of the puzzle: What really drives Palin hatred is her legion of devoted supporters and their cult of personality. I've not seen evidence of either surrounding Perry or for that matter Bush. Bush hatred arose after he was elected.
Please explain to me how Perry is going to appeal to social conservatives when he has endorsed two pro-abortion rights presidential candidates - one from each party. The opposite side of the political spectrum may not like them, but pro-life voters contribute, volunteer, and will walk up hill, in the rain to get to the polling place. How many of them can Perry do without with so many candidates in the race?
Algore used to be pro-life, back when he rhapsodized about the thrill of raising tobacco (and back before he lost his mind). So cut Perry some slack on that.
Perry's views about Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare: "They’re a Ponzi scheme," he's said. Odd that Lowry has not mentioned those features of why Perry would prove a bit unpopular with the voters, especially older moderates.
I'm an older moderate geting older and less moderate. Of course its a Ponzi scheme. You don't have to be a chicken to recognize an egg at any age. Perry's comment would be unpopular. Because the truth often is. He told the truth and they thought it was Hell. Perry is just mobilizing the English Language and sending it into battle. He is master of the vituripative because he was taught by masters: Democratic ones. Like Reagan Perry was a Dem in the beginning. The only fellow Texan that gave You'll all angst was LBJ. As for Bush. You'all come back now.
Just this morning, CNN was comparing Perry to Bush. I think it's a little early (or late) to be running against Bush, but I'm not a programming editor at CNN.
I liked the article down to the "belie the image of Texas" part. People who scoff at Texas can go pound sand. Perry would get nowhere and demean himself working to appeal to fools.
Well, if folks are bound to say that Perry is Bush #2, there's a simple fix. Ask 'em if they'd rather have Obama #2. You know, Obama, another time around. Barry is no longer new. He has a record of misery(unless one is a gov't functionary, of course). So you can ask: were you better off under Bush#1, or Obama#1? I know this sounds as foolish as folks saying Perry=Bush, but there it is. Play their game. They want to make this Bush vs Obama? Have at it.
Representative democracy is supposed to consist of delegates that represent the values and concerns of the voters who put them into office.
Thomas Jefferson warned about the danger of a politician becoming the representative of a Party ideology and not the folks back home. If the snobbish elites hate Perry they would hate me also. That is a badge of honor I would wear with pride. Insofar as I am concerned Elite is the precursor to Delete.
Wow, where to start? Firstly, Palin. Though I am a pro-choice male, I actually respect Palin for her pro-life stance. That was her CHOICE and she proved her convictions with the birth of her last child. The reason that people of BOTH genders and ALL political stripes dislike Palin is that she is intellectually challenged, and that makes people resentful that she can still garner so much popularity.
Texas won't be discredited - it will more specifically be about Perry. Yes, there will many reminders that there's where Dubya was from. But on the west coast, northeast, and the Great Lake states, it will be all about him being a Bible thumper and being from the sticks. The line of thinking wil be "even Bush is from a political family and went to good schools, and look how that turned out". And now I see, even pro-lifers are turning on him? Wow, this ain't looking good.
Romney is still the best shot at winning. Attacking his Mormon background can only go so far. He is more likely to get hammered on his flip-flopping, and attacked from Republican ranks for not being right-wing enough.
Look, man, I get it that you aren't a Palin fan. Okay, neither am I, particularly. But "intellectually challenged" is liberalspeak for "retarded". Palin isn't a dimwit, she's perfectly capable of executing the office of president, and it would be worth having her elected just for the fun of watching liberals keel over clutching their chests.
I remember when the Los Angeles Dodgers used to be good.
They traded for Kirk Gibson, a fiery ballplayer who likes to win. My memory is fuzzy, but one day when Gibson had been with the team only a few days,some teammate put eyeblack in Gibson's cap. When he put it on and began to sweat, it cascaded down his face and everyone laughed. Typical ballplayer hazing.
You forget the part where Gibson ( a long time player for my favorite team, the Detroit Tigers) wins Game One of the 88 Series for the Dodgers while injured. That kind of guts and passion is what conservatives should be looking for in a nominee.
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