Sarah Palin has drawn many fair comparisons to our most notorious Vice President, Dick Cheney. Legal obstructionism, an anti-oversight philosophy, and (since her debate debut) a muddled and power hungry view of the Vice President's Constitutional role in governing the US. These are traits shared in large part by the neoconservative apparatus present in the White House today.
Now becoming more apparent is Palin's underlying thought process that puts her right in the neocon boat: a growing commitment to US 'exceptionalism', an exceptionalism that throughout this administration has inspired the institutionalization of right-wing evangelism, disregard for international norms and law, the waging of wars of revenge, and a hyper-active executive ready to consume the Constitution.
(Though I have been reading DKos for over a year now, this is my first diary entry - so hello to everyone out there)
Exceptionalism - the idea that might makes right, and that the United States, solely by being the United States, can and should disregard the norms, ideas and thoughts of other countries and peoples; that the US operates on an entirely different system, both morally and geopolitically, than the rest of the world; that US moralism justifies any action we may take.
Since the Puritans first came to the shores of New England, seeking to build in America a 'city on a hill', 'exceptionalism' has been an important part of American political philosophy. The Puritans held that they alone had the moral authority and sacred charge to create the one, pure kingdom of God on Earth, to strictly control the moral fiber of a continent's population and to purge any who deviated from their cosmological purpose in the New World.
In the four hundred years since, this exceptionalism has undergone many superficial transformations. In the Great Revival, it served to instill a moral superiority across the nation. Under the guise of 'manifest destiny', it fueled an all-encompassing form of capitalism across the regions, and imperial control from sea to sea (over native Americans) and across those seas, to Cuba, the Philippines, and other Pacific islands. Despite hypocritical complaints of European empires, America was truly 'exceptional', with the geographic isolation, economic might, and moral strength to bring democracy to other, less fortunate peoples. With such a worldview, non-interventionism is a moral lapse. After World War II, American might and exceptionalism were brought center stage.
This exceptional ideology continued throughout the Cold War; only the US could stop the 'godless' Communists in Korea, Vietnam, etc. The 'City on a hill' knew its duty lay in leading the moral West against the Soviet Union.
And now, the Bush administration presents the height of American exceptionalism. Everyone has equal human rights (except when we need to torture for our security); other nations must obey international law and norms (except us, as we un-sign the charter creating the International Criminal Court, ignore the Kyoto Protocol, install the Neoconservative New American Century precepts; as we thumb our nose at the entire international structure. Most threatening of all, American exceptionalism has led to an illegal war of aggression and conquest, one deemed illegal by international custom and law, and one that flies in the face of diplomacy and any other method of resolution save naked violence.
The US has the ability of preemption exclusively over its enemies, the Neocons say; our moral mission, as the only country with the power and moral strength to accomplish it, is to bring justice and democracy to the whole world, no matter how many bombs we have to drop.
This is why Palin is a particularly frightening Veep choice. Despite his support for the Iraq war, John McCain isn't really a neocon. An inability to forget the misery and humiliation of Vietnam, and the life of a soldier, dedicates McCain to whatever kind of 'victory' is possible in Iraq. Being the Republican candidate places bellicose and hawk-like warmongering on him by default.
But he is not motivated by overweening moralism, or desires to 'spread democracy around the world', or other aspects of the neocon world view. But Sarah Palin is. Growing up in red states, ultra-evangelical churches, and regressive areas of the US has given her a sense of arrogance over governance. Which is why, four years of McCain-Palin could be four more years of Cheney-esque, Rumsfeld-esque carnage around the world, economic damage to the United States, and further stains on America's standing with the rest of the world.