DR. JACK R. VAN ENS, AUTHOR

CREATIVE GROWTH INC.

9745 W. 77 TH DRIVE

ARVADA, CO 80005

TEL. 303-420-7416

E-mail: vanensfam@juno.com

Web site: thelivinghistory.com

THE PERVERSE POULARITY OF PITBULL POLITICS

In her acceptance speech as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin identified herself as "just your average hockey mom." Her speechwriter spun head-wagging, in-your-face retorts. Seeing signs in the convention hall declaring "Hockey Moms 4 Palin," she ad-libbed a zinger. She asked Republican delegates whether they knew the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom?"

"Lipstick."

From her painted hockey mom lips, she lobbed verbal grenades at her opposition. You know how professional hockey players look: skin blistered with red patches from catching elbows, facial scars caused by errant pucks, and toothless gums. Palin used caustic language against her opposition to make them look like they were losers in a hockey game. She employed a pugnacious attack, sounding as if she had a chip on both shoulders. Palin delivered her barbs with a smile grizzled hockey players often lack.

After offering Republican bromides, she lambasted her opposition for not believing what she did. That is, American is exceptional because our nation is good. The war in Iraq is being waged for God-blessed reasons. Pulling ourselves up by grit and determination furnishes the answer to every social ill, which most government programs can't remedy. Lean government is best because it doesn't rob citizens of their personal liberties. Her God is as real as the podium from which she spoke.

Buzz words. Palin's caustic wit, deprecatory rants and snide asides about her alleged highbrow opposition made the speech standout. But perhaps I understate. The Bible cautions a believer to "bridle his tongue" ( James 1:26). Palin opened the barn door and let the mares of verbal doom run wild, with no saddle of reasoned discourse or bridle of humble speech to guide them.

She erected a voiced façade, plastering a plastic exterior on empty verbal buildings. Her sarcastic wit sounded so unlike her mentor who took the high road when appealing to "Reagan Democrats." Peggy Noonan wrote of Ronald Reagan, "He was never dark, never mean,, never waited for the sound of the door to close to say, 'What a fool,' didn't seethe, had no malice." Not Sarah.

S stridency linked her in tone to popular atheistic bashers of belief in God, like Hitchens, Harris et al. Of those who slam Christianity, Notre Dame's Professor Alvin Plantinga-my college philosophy professor and the #1 defender of Divine faith-wrote:

"When their comments are worth taking seriously, they are unoriginal; where they are original, they are not worth taking seriously." Like the atheists who assault believers, Palin used beaten down arguments restated with a bite to them.

Of course, it worked for many listeners. Political hackery prevails over statesmanship. It's far easier to insult than raise issues fairly; to be cynical than sincere; to accuse than to take seriously an opponent's argument; to deliver cheap shots than fairly play the game.

History proves this true. For every Palin, there's a John Adams; for every Obama, a Thomas Paine. Paine painted a picture of America's promise. He reminded Americans under King George III's spur that they could knock him out of his royal saddle if they plied their talents. But they must not ride alone. Working in concert through a Republic created to help the downtrodden, these patriots would establish an Empire of Freedom.

Jefferson said of Paine in 1801 that he had worked to secure our freedoms and aided the American Revolution "with as much effort as any man living." Paine wrote the three most widely read manifestoes for liberty in the 18 th century: Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason.

Granted, fumed John Adam in 1805, "whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last thirty years than Tom Paine." But this influence was mostly bad. Adams, built like a bowling ball, let fly against Paine, treating his enemy as if he were a set of knocked down ninepins.

Using Palin's tone of distain, Adams fulminated, " There can be no severer satyr on the stage. For such a mongrel between pig and puppy, begotten by a wild boar on awolf, never before in any age of the world was suffered by the poltroonery of mankind, to run through such a career of mischief. Call it then the Age of Paine."

Words carry punch. They have flavor. They wound and denigrate or heal and elevate. The purpose of a political campaign isn't to slam the opposition but to counter opposing arguments. Sarah Palin sounds like John Adams at his worst. What runs from their mouths doesn't foster dialogue. It damns. It doesn't build bridges of understanding.