Michael Walsh: The divide for 2012

America needs a serious fight
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Michael Walsh, the conservative NY Post columnist who sometimes channels the progressive persona of liberal "David Kahane" at NRO, was writing under his true identity when he penned his latest column, "The divide for 2012: America needs a serious fight." Walsh reminds us that the stakes for 2012 couldn't be higher and couldn't be defined more clearly than two recent speeches by nanny statist Nancy Peolsi and Reagan conservative Sarah Palin:

Speaking at Tufts University -- right in the midst of the negotiations over the 2011 budget -- ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi whined: "To my Republican friends: Take back your party, so that it doesn't matter so much who wins the election -- because we have shared values about the education of our children, the growth of our economy, how we defend our country, our security and civil liberties, how we respect our seniors."

"Elections shouldn't matter as much as they do."

There you have it: an authentic, unscripted window into the mind of a professional politician. For this is how the members of the permanent political class (Pelosi first went to Congress after a special election in 1987) view the messy -- to their minds -- business of politicking.

[...]

Pelosi's frustration is understandable. Her party was turned out of power in the House last fall in a landslide, and she's now the minority leader. Worst of all, a grassroots group of citizens concerned about the untrammeled growth of government called the Tea Party rose up against both parties to deliver that electoral rebuke -- and to demand further changes in the post-Great Society relationship of the federal government to the citizenry.

By contrast, consider Sarah Palin's appearance in Madison, Wisc., last weekend. The former Alaska governor has been keeping a relatively low profile. But in a brief, fiery speech to supporters of Gov. Scott Walker -- delivered while being heckled and shouted at by pro-union activists -- Palin laid down some markers for the coming campaign.

She began by congratulating the people of Wisconsin for staring down the left's thuggish attempt to overturn the results of the 2010 elections, which installed Republicans in the governorship and both houses of the Legislature.

Then, taking on her own party's leadership, she lit into the Republicans over the recent budget deal.

[...]

Palin also hammered President Obama and the Democrats, directly challenging their tactics of "conservatives want to kill granny" class warfare and their relentless tax-and-spend policies.

[...]

Conventional wisdom says that Americans don't like partisan "bickering," that we want our politicians to just get along. Principled combat and loyal -- but vehement -- opposition, the thinking goes, make Main Street uncomfortable.

Baloney. Disputation is as American as apple pie. It's what made our country great -- vigorous disagreement, not cringing servility. So let the battle begin.

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Or, as Gov. Palin so succinctly framed it, "Game on!"

Speaking of "Game on," check out Dan Youra's animated "Fight Like a Girl" video.

- JP