Sarah Palin displays what is most lacking in many people in high office: character. Character is far more fundamental and important than “experience,” because without good character, experience will not enable office-holders to deal with the tough issues confronting our country.
A person of character has moral integrity and courage, personal dignity and humility, a strong sense of justice and devotion to the common good, respect for human life and, above all, a love of God. All this I discern in Governor Sarah Palin’s character—a strong, dynamic, yet humble person.
The Jewish sages regard humbleness as the highest virtue. Indeed, the Torah says Moses was the humblest person on the face of the earth. Humbleness is the only adjective the Torah uses to describe Moses. Why? Because humbleness is a precondition for achieving the highest wisdom. No wonder Gentile as well as Jewish philosophers and statesmen esteem Moses as the greatest law-giver of mankind.
I’m not suggesting that Governor Palin or any living person possesses the wisdom of Moses. Rather, I am simply saying that her fine character conduces to wisdom—a readiness to listen to diverse opinions, but to draw rational and independent conclusions, rather than succumbing to emotion and popularity. She’s a doer, not an image maker. Unlike too many political novelists and aspirants, she does not avoid taking controversial stands on serious national issues.
Here, allow me to mention the first Sarah, Abraham’s beautiful wife. Did not God tell Abraham to defer to Sarah when she expelled Ishmael from her household because of Ishmael’s defective character?
But make no mistake. Even a person of the highest character is not flawless. The Bible does not conceal the flaws of its greatest heroes and heroines. That’s what makes them human, so real, and so worthy of emulation.
I will not dignify those who are casting aspersion on the Palin family, certainly not by vulgar mediacrats or by neo-Democrats that have degraded the Democratic party that harks back to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman—presidents who would never have advocated same-sex marriages, live-birth abortions, non-judgmentalism or morally free sentimentalism in foreign affairs. These were men of character—in the no-nonsense tradition of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Read Talleyrand of France, Gladstone of Great Britain, and you will see that America has a reputation of having an unequaled tradition of great statesmen, of men who candidly and fearlessly addressed national issues, not family matters. They were not image-makers but history-makers.
Of course, it’s too early to assess Governor Sarah Palin as a national leader. Still, excuse my ruminations: I like her name, which in Hebrew means princess. I like the Israeli flag in her office, which signifies an appreciation of Israel’s importance to America. I like her dealing with issues and avoiding negative campaigning.
She knows that what American voters must focus on is not private matters but on public issues: above all a nuclear Iran, because Iran is the epicenter of Islamic terrorism and Islamic imperialism. Indeed, a nuclear Iran will control the Middle East as well as Europe and thereby pauperize America. And this is not all.
Unlike neo-Democrats, Governor Palin does not pooh-pooh the significance of the Russian invasion of America’s ally, Georgia and the resurgence of Russian imperialism.
She is aware of the dependence of the United States on Saudi oil, which has enabled the Saudis to penetrate American government.
She knows that multinational corporations have established “economic colonies” in American government, which can only diminish American jobs, harm the working class, and even undermine America national sovereignty and American democracy.
This is why we want a president and a vice-president of character, possessing a solid record of public service, of unselfish devotion to America and American values, values rooted in the Judea-Christian tradition, the fondest hope of mankind.
So let us have serious debates about serious pubic issues. Let us scorn the titillations of the media, the detractors of Sarah Palin and her family. America is better than that.
Let us set an example to American youth and to nations abroad by the raising the level of public debate. Let us listen to what an independent and intelligent vice-presidential candidate has to say about the basic issues confronting our country. And let us pray, as America’s Founding Fathers prayed, that our future president and vice-president will be graced by wisdom and wholehearted dedication to the common good.
