President Obama’s election in 2008 marked a landmark shift in American politics. But what if he had lost? What would life in America be like today, had John McCain and Sarah Palin headed to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave?
Imagine a Sarah Palin presidency — what kind of a difference —if any — would it have made if the course of history had flowed in a different direction?
The Carey Institute for Global Good in Rensselaerville is hosting its latest Carey Dialogue Saturday night. Institute President Carol Ash is extending an invitation to the public to come and discuss what she says are very important issues about political and social forces at work in our country. "We have been last year and this year for our winter activity, putting on a series of what we call dialogs, which is bringing authors of books that have a point of view, and asking the regional audience to come and hear what they have to say and discuss with them the theories and the attitudes and the facts behind their books."
Ash says people need to be informed, and notes that the February 1st evening of political “what if” discussion will be with New York City and Hudson Valley resident Frederic C. Rich, the author of one of last year’s most controversial novels: Christian Nation. "His hope is that through this book, people on both sides of the political spectrum will start to listen, start to take elected officials and candidates at their word, that they will do what they say and that they will make intelligent, informed decisions based on that."
I asked the author, Fred Rich, how the religious right has responded to his book. "The Christian community in general has reacted rather positively to the book. The book was praised by the Dean of St. John the Cathedral, by theologians up at Boston University, a variety of other ministers who recognized that the book is neither anti-religious in general or anti-Christian in specific. The far right, the kind of Christian Nationalist movement, interestingly did not react in any kind of monolithic way. I would say the particular fans of Sarah Palin expressed a fair degree of outrage. There were thousands of comments online. I did a series of editorials for example on the Huff Post about the book if you sift through literally thousands of comments, you'll see that many of them are pretty emotional along the lines of 'Why do you hate God so much' or 'You're the Anti-Christ.' "
The Carey Institute will open its doors at 6 p.m. and the event will start at 6:30.
