Ryan Streeter
Follow Ryan on Twitter
I share with Rod Dreher a deep appreciation for the local and small over the global and big. When I held a reading group in my home with fellow conservatives and we read Rod's Crunchy Con book, I found myself defending organic farming and homeschooling against the aspersions a few of my friends generously threw Rod's way.
So it's not a big surprise to hear him defending these remarks today at his new blog over at The American Conservative:
This [big business's tactics] is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk. It's the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest — to the little guys. It’s a slap in the face to our small business owners — the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70 percent of the jobs in America.
What is surprising (or not, if you follow her) is that they are Sarah Palin's words.
Rod writes, "Maybe Palin would do more good for American politics by staying out of the race and becoming the sort of independent activist suggested by these remarks."
I agree. Her base of support will be too small if she runs, and she will be too polarizing, but if she rises above politics and stays on this theme, she might actually attract people to her cause who have been reluctant to support her this far. The only caveat I'd add is that her polarizing nature stems more from her tone and posture than what she says, and if that doesn't change, she may have a hard time building a movement as an activist.
Still, it's good to have someone defending the little guy against the big and well-connected.
And it's good to have Rod blogging again.
Comments