A Philosopher’s Rogue Thoughts on Palin

Over on Evangel, philosopher John Mark Reynolds live-blogged his reaction to reading Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue . Although a fan and defender of Palin, JMR has become decidedly less enthused after reading her tome:

Practical wisdom is guided not just by common sense, but by reason and the experiences of generations of wise people from ages past. Palin knows this is true, but shows no knowledge of it.

Don’t tell me a plain speaking book has to be this devoid of ideas . Read Lincoln. He could get big ideas across in simple ways to farmers with primary school educations. Read Reagan. He was not Lincoln, but he did the same thing in a television age. When I was a kid, I read Conscience of a Conservative in some yellowing paperback and it made sense to me. For heaven’s sake, read William Jennings Bryan who sent the Grange through the roof with prose that sounds positively dialogicala compared to this book!

Teddy Roosevelt could thunder and denounce with the best of them, but he could write a book. Dwight Eisenhower won a war and then had someone ghost an awesome account of that win. If Palin is running for President, we needed more.

We don’t need a philosopher president, but we do need someone who can make our cause appear plausible to the half persuaded.

I want to like Palin. I love many things about her politics, but where oh where oh where are the ideas?

I hope I am wrong.