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Jewish World Review Sept. 22, 2008 / 22 Elul 5768 The Beehive buzzes for Sarah Palin By Rod Dreher http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | If you want to understand why Sarah Palin has made such a powerful connection with American voters, don't listen to the political professionals. Listen to the voice of the Beehive. The Beehive is the Wasilla hair salon where Ms. Palin has had her hair done since 2002. She kept going back to the Beehive even after she became the state's governor. A New York Times profile of the salon revealed a Steel Magnolias-style place where a close-knit community of women shares their everyday trials and triumphs. Ms. Palin remained loyal to the Beehive even after she hit the big time. She's that kind of woman, and people sense that about her.It should be obvious, of course, that one shouldn't choose vice presidents based on hair care. That's not the point. Ms. Palin's relationship to the Beehive telegraphs both her authenticity and her sense of community. She's the real deal — and that made a "gut values connection" with Americans. The gut values connection — that's what most people vote on, at least according to Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik, Republican politico Matthew Dowd and journalist Ron Fournier. In their 2006 book, Applebee's America, the trio write that policies and issues "are mere prisms through which voters take the true measure of a candidate: Does he share my values?" Authenticity and community are the most important gut values contemporary voters look for, the men write. That would explain much of Barack Obama's popularity. There wasn't much difference between his policy program and Hillary Clinton's, but Mr. Obama triumphed because masses of Democratic voters believed he truly was someone different. In a year when 80 percent of the voting population thinks the country is headed in the wrong direction, that's powerful stuff. Anybody who believes that Mr. Obama represents substantive change should compare his Democratic convention acceptance speech to those of John Kerry and Al Gore. Mr. Obama is selling Democratic boilerplate. The same conservatives who rightly mocked Mr. Obama's appeal as superficial, drive-by emotion — yet are now ga-ga over the God, Guns and Lipstick candidate — should ask themselves how, exactly, the McCain-Palin platform differs from the same old GOP same old. The truth is, politics in our media-driven democracy are primarily about symbolism and personality, not a rational consideration of issues. University of Virginia psychiatrist Jonathan Haidt, in trying to explain to fellow liberals why culture matters in how people vote, said the first rule of moral psychology is this: Feelings come first and tilt the mental playing field on which reasons and arguments compete. The second rule, which Dr. Haidt says liberals tend to discount, is that morality is in large part "about binding groups together, supporting essential institutions and living in a sanctified and noble way." Mr. Obama's mass appeal comes primarily from his ability to strike a resonant chord along those lines within tens of millions of voters' hearts. Same with Sarah Palin. That is irrational — but that doesn't make it foolish. As Dr. Haidt avers, move the hearts of men, and their minds will follow. The ability to win the trust and loyalty of the majority is a critical component of leadership. Mr. Obama and Ms. Palin possess unusual degrees of charisma in its older definition — that is, the innate personal authority that makes for an exceptional leader. Given that each candidate weds that gift to distinct value systems, it's by no means clear that their discrete personal characteristics are a distraction from "real" issues. The personal truly is the political more often than many of us care to believe. Last week, I shared my concerns about Ms. Palin's lack of policy knowledge with a small-town pal. My friend responded dismissively: "She can learn all that. All I want to know is if she has good values and the sense to surround herself with good advisers." My friend comes down on Ms. Palin's side, but it's easy to imagine a liberal dismissing criticism of Mr. Obama's dearth of executive experience in the same way. Ms. Palin is only a vice presidential candidate, but emotionally, this election is a Palin-Obama face-off. Both speak to the public's hunger for authenticity and community — but which community, and authentically what? I neither extol nor diminish either candidate when I say that, in terms of their competing worldviews, Sarah Palin comes from the Beehive, and Barack Obama comes from Harvard. The question most Americans will take with them into the voting booth this fall is a variation on Bill Buckley's famous aphorism: Would you rather be governed by the faculty of Harvard, or the steel magnolias of the Beehive? Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. BUY THE BOOK Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.). Comment by clicking here. Rod Dreher is assistant editorial page editor of the Dallas Morning News and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum). PREVIOUSLY 09/08/08: Palin's a fighter — and worth fighting for 09/02/08: GOP slouches toward St. Paul 07/18/08: ‘Wall-E’ Pixar's surprisingly political postmodern masterpiece 06/08/08: Era of cheap airfare is over 05/29/08: What if they're not smart enough? 05/11/08: From horror, a child's loving gift 05/07/08:Will a canary be our last meal? 04/03/08: Economic crisis is of our own making 02/14/08: What child-men need is some tradition 02/05/08: A Republican victory this year could do more long-term damage to the party than a loss 01/22/08: Putting faith in Obama: Do GOPers tempted by him know what they're supporting? 11/20/07: We can't fix the world with The Care Bear Stare 10/17/07: Every father should read this book to his son 10/03/07: Not even our parks are safe … And I lay at least part of the blame on the cultural revolution and our obsession with the individual 08/22/07: The Decalogue, dangerous? Advice for a society that cringes at commandments 08/15/07: Playing the anti-science card 08/01/07: How the U.S. can avoid its own version of the fall of the Roman empire 07/24/07: Conservative author: Big business can be as dangerous a threat as big government 07/09/07: All quiet but the doleful pleas of a father who knows 06/28/07: When we let conspiracy theory masquerade as news, we fall prey to much more than deception 06/20/07: Stranded on Delta: They may love to fly, but it certainly doesn't show 06/13/07: When did conservatism start to mean never having to say you're sorry? 05/08/07: PBS darling gets abused by PC police 05/02/07: Impervious to beauty and deadened to depravity 04/20/07: What I know about being a loner 10/28/05: How the conservatives crumble © 2007, The Dallas Morning News, Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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