The Tragedy of Sarah Palin

What the !#&% is wrong with you people?

No, not you specifically. I'm talking to the GOP at large. To the activists, donors, party officials, and elected officials. To the pundits, kingmakers, and power brokers. Here we have the single most successful political figure of our times in the post-Obama era, a member of the GOP no less, and what is your response?

Eh, Romney. Maybe Bachmann. No? Definitely Perry. Erm... Christie? Chris Christie!? The wet-behind-the-ears pompous blowhard with questionable conservative values whose one claim to fame is that he can use all 500 of his flabby pounds to physically intimidate and stare down little old school teachers? That he can give a vicious, in-your-face tongue lashing to fire-fighters who put their lives on the line to save people from fiery infernos? This is your Ronald Reagan?

Not the wildly popular conservative governor from a western state who has experience running in a national election. Not the lady who had 80% approval ratings in office. Not the woman who broke the glass ceiling by accomplishing so much in just two years as governor that she was immediately snatched up as the GOP's choice for VP. Not the phenomenon who brought people out to see her by the thousands in a time when most were flocking to see Obama and the GOP was falling out of favor. Not the woman who still draws massive crows, has been pitch perfect on every issue of the day, has a higher approval rating than any other person within the GOP, has bravely endured all sorts of base attacks against her family to take the fight to Obama, has inspired and unifed the Tea Party movment, has enticed the media with every move while simultaneously criticizing their leftward bias, has even won grudging admiration from the NYT for ideas which cut across party lines, has had 24,000 personal emails scrutinized without a the slightest hint of scandal being uncovered, has written two best selling books in two years, has had her own reality TV show highlighting her home state of Alaska, has a daughter who gives speeches  and has her own reality show, has hairdressers who do such a good job they have their own reality show, has has been a pioneer of new media, has constantly led on the issues through well researched facebook notes, has consistently and accurately analyzed the daily political climate on FOX, has had the media and the nation hanging on her every word, has hundreds of blogs and thousands of articles devoted to her, has inspired huge support movments such as Team Sarah, Conservatives 4 Palin, and Organize 4 Palin, has had an entire movie produced about her rise to prominence, has toured the world meeting with world leaders and speaking in places as diverse as India and Israel, and has done all that while raising five kids, one with special needs, and tending to her Iron Dog champion husband from miles away from the lower 48 in the frontier outpost of Wasilla, Alaska.

Nah, unimpressive. She said she could see Russia from her house or something, so she's unqualified to be president. Seriously?!? Your fact-challenged ignorance aside, what about the woman is not exactly what we have been looking for since Reagan? I fear for my country when I consider that you have the right to vote, and even worse can influence the way other people vote.


Ronald Reagan was a former predient of the Screen Actors Guild, a union. Rather than intimidate union members like Christie, he welcomed them into the party, as Palin has tried to do by emphasizing her union membership and family background. Ronald Reagan was a successful governor of a western state who had more than two years to prepare a run for President, as has Palin and not Christie. Ronald Reagan had a media job right up until he announced late, and gave many substantive positions on the issues before he ran, as Palin has done with FOX and her facebook notes. Not so Christie. Like Reagan, Palin has a working class background that attracts indepedents. She also has some experience in the media, so she understands how to connect with people emotionally and in her speeches. Christie does not.

What are you people smoking? What is it about this woman that does not scream President or leader of the free world to you? Is it because the left doesn't like her? Is it becase she is a woman? Is it because she is not for sale? Do you think she is a lightweight? Do you think she is unelectable? Why? Why do you think the left tried so hard to destroy her ever since she stepped onto the national stage? Don't you think they fear her effectiveness? Just why should a woman not be President, especially from the GOP? Why would that not help her electability when confronting the first black President? Are only boring old dishonest elite white males with an ivy league pedigree like Romney to be allowed to run things? Are you worried that you will not get your fat chunk of taxpayer money? Are you worried that the lobbyists will starve and some of your government funded business scams might fail without a crony in office to bail them out? Are you worried that the veneer of authority might fall from some of your supposed leaders? Do you still believe the media narrative that Palin doesn't have substantiative policy positions that even attract indpendents, that she is dumb, or that she doesn't have the backbone and experience to serve as president? Why are you not begging and pleading for her to enter the race right now as you have with every other excuse for an alternative to the current pathetic field of dwarves and misfits? Is Snow White not good enough because the McCain camp tried to feed her a poisoned apple? Please, I would like some anwers to these questions. Or are you afraid that should you reveal the dark content of your whisper campaigns against her, your faults would be revealed and the game would be up?

I thought, when Obama was first elected and the GOP fell out of power, that the party would conduct a self-examination as to what went wrong and fix it in order to be considered worthy of holding office again. Though they were loathe to do it themselves, I thought that the Tea Party might be just the wake up call they needed. I thought that they would eventually come to realize they forfeited the last veneer of legitimacy when they validated the left's cries of class warfare by bailing out their wealthy banker buddies at the expense of the rest of us via TARP. I though they would come to understand that the public had soured on a few wealthy people manipulating the system for their benefit, and that though people had turned to the government for relief temporarily, the GOP would re-establish its governing credentials by returning to its true free market ways, embracing the battle cry of "free markets and free men". Alas, it was not to be. Though the people are ready for true change, having now experienced the downsides of both big business and big government being in control with no respite for "small" or "local" anything, the power brokers of the GOP still refuse to grant legitimacy to the Tea Party or their ideas. Despite repeated hints about "crony capitalism", "bail outs", "corporate welfare", "venture socialism", and the like, they refuse to get it. Or worse yet, they don't care about any of that and simply view the government as a means to rape the lowly taxpayers. Modern campaigns, one is smugly admonished should he deign to aspire to office, require boatloads of lobbyist fundraisers, establishment connections, and big donors. Left unsaid, but subtly implied, is the payola that must occur to keep this fertile power structure happy. Well, I'm sorry, if that's the way the party intends to remain, I didn't leave the party, but the party is leaving me.

I have been registered as a Republican for every one of my nearly 30 years. I have knocked on doors, made calls, put up signs, and supported candidates. I have organized with the Tea Party to work within the GOP to restore it to its true Constitutional values. But if this is all the gratitude the likes of a Sarah Palin can garner from the party who's butt she saved, I'm sorry, for the first time in my life I am considering re-registering as an independent. It is no longer good enough for me to support the party above all, saying that even if my guy loses I have to support theirs lest the opposition win. Sure, the party must be unified to win. But if they are not willing to unify around Consitutional conservatism or even the party platform, rather viewing the party infrastructure as a means to great power and wealth at the expense of the little guy, then they have lost my support. I will not be ruled by a massive out of touch government. I will not be ruled by a GOP establishment hell bent on world domination. I will not be ruled by anyone but my God, my family, and the best interests of my country. I will make my own decisions as to who I support. If the GOP cannot embrace that vision for all of us, than I will declare my independence from party over policy.

So what say you GOP? Are you going to doom yourself to the failed politics of the past? Or are you going to move forward with a bold and visionary conservative leader who is, whether you like it or not, the leader of the conservative movement in all but title? The choice is yours, and the tragedy of it all is that you will most likely throw her under the bus. No wonder her eyes light up when she speaks of independents who just want their leaders to do the right thing, and energy drains out of her when she must acknowledge party machinations. I would not blame her in the least if she were to decide that her path forward lies outside the GOP, indeed outside party labels altogether. The tragedy is what the once great GOP could have become again with Palin at the helm, and the agonizing death of slow and steady compromise that will result as power hungry Democrats and Republicans fight over the remaining scraps of what used to be independence and liberty for all.