Palin and the Opiate of the Academics

American malaise is by far our most dangerous enemy at the moment. Our economy is tanking as much from lowered consumer optimism as it is from the housing crunch. Our success in Iraq is discounted meaningless. Our ability to transform our position in the world is hampered by pathological incessant apologetics which only embolden Putin and Ahmedinejad. And the source of much of this national malaise is our continued adherence to the opiate of the academics: our resignation to helplessness, depression and relativism. That dark threesome is downright deadly. Identity politics (gender and race trump reason) is the offspring of this opiate and McCain's pick of Palin blows identity politics off the picnic bench like the milkweed fluff it really is. I, like many of Palin's supporters, disagree with most of her personal social opinions, from abortion to evolution, but she has made it possible for Americans to be proud to be Americans, without feeling politically INcorrect. To embrace life, with all its heartwrenching dangers and embarrassing flaws is to embrace opitimism. McCain gets this, Obama doesn't.