Sarah Palin managed to make a couple of headlines this past week. She has now joined FOX News to add, uh… “commentary” to their already craptastic lineup of such Neo-Cons as Bill O’Reilly, Mike Huckabee and Sean Hannity.
This is significant, as the Republican base is now more fractured then it has been in decades. On the one side are entrenched, party-supporting, party-loving Neo-Cons who believe that George W. Bush was at the very least a “decent” president and would generally support anyone the party puts forward for local and state elections. Then there are the people who suddenly found a voice in the conservative movement over the past few years, as a few lone “kooky” leaders rose above the Neo-Conservative dominance. Some of them came in through Ron Paul, some through Glenn Beck and some through other libertarian oriented republicans.
But regardless how they came, they have now arrived, and are furious with many in the Republican party.
Sarah Palin, who despite what people may think of her ideals, unwaveringly supported John McCain and has demonstrated a relatively strict adherence to Neo-Conservative philosophy. Yes, she’s charming, and her personality speaks to middle and rural America – but were she to have her druthers, America would go back to the glory days of 2004. For more on Palin, see the American Conservative‘s Southern Avenger:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RgW5tgDIxY[/youtube]
This is why the second headline is so significant – that Sarah Palin will be giving the keynote address at the First National Tea Party Convention (for $100,000, I might add). The first “Tea Party” in the modern era was a fundraiser for Ron Paul – a man who represents libertarian-conservatism – quite the opposite of Palin’s big-government, daddy-state nationalism. And when “tea parties” became vogue – they were much more about Paul’s ideology: ending the Fed, dramatic reductions in spending, dramatic reductions in taxes, a restoration of civil liberties and support for capitalism. For the most part – these ideologies remain present, but Palin has managed to grab on to this movement and is doing a great job at steering these radical conservatives back towards the status-quo GOP ship of state.
The Tea-Party movement represents a rogue element in the political landscape. If it remains independent, then even Jesus Christ would lose as a Republican against Obama in 2012, because the Tea Party would likely vote independent. And this scares the crap out of the GOP, as Tea Party activists especially do not seem willing to vote for a standard Neo-Conservative like Mitt Romney, John McCain or Newt Gengrich. But Palin may be the key to working the Tea Party movement in such a way that within the next two years, they find themselves supporting the republican nominee (who will likely be against many of the issues they currently support).
This was done in 2004 with personalities such as Michael Savage, Larry Elder and Neal Boortz gathering a “libertarian” audience very angry with George W. Bush about immigration, fiscal policy and even “socialism” but these supporters were soon channelled into voting for Bush in 2004 because he was “better than Kerry.”
And that will be the ultimate judge of Palin’s success with the Tea Party movement. In 2012, will the people criticising the Federal Government on socialism, spending and bailouts vote for a socialistic Neo-Con simply because he is “better than Obama?” This will reveal both the genius of Palin’s actions, but also the fickleness and lack of principles in the conservative movement.
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I think Sarah Palin is doing this for the money. If she were positioning herself for a serious presidential bid, she would be establishing a more serious persona, and she would be working to gain the support of the Republican party establishment. The party doesn’t trust her right now. They like her popularity, but she’s too unpredictable to really be a great choice.
Quitting as governor was exactly the wrong choice if she wants to run for president. Writing a book wasn’t a bad move. Speaking at a tea party convention and signing on with Fox News are bad moves for a presidential bid. But everything she’s done is a good move for her personal financial situation.
I expect she’ll run for the presidential nomination, but it will be another ploy to make headlines so she can cash in. She’s not approaching this with a real intent to win.
I’m not sure what she needs the money for, but she’s cashing in.
Sarah Palin is not making a TYPICAL run for office, but I wouldn’t assume she doesn’t think she can turn her actions into a political advantage. By not being in office, she can’t make decisions that will hurt her. Those who care about experience won’t vote for her anyway, and if she can get the nomination “neo-cons” will vote for whoever runs on the Republican ticket. The tea party crowd are really the rogue element, because like Colin stated without them the Republicans can’t get a candidate elected and they don’t like the mainstream of the Republican party.
The fact that the tea party movement is even interested in Palin does show us a lot about it. Like Colin said, she’s not a fiscal conservative by any means. Alaska is the closest we have to a fascist state, with their negative income tax and government ownership of the oil fields (primary means of production in the region). What people like about Palin is that she refuses to play by anyone’s rules, and in that vein her actions have solidified her reputation.
There really aren’t enough fiscal conservatives to turn things around. Many people who “supported” Ron Paul did so because they liked small aspects of his platform, but few of them were truly fiscally conservative. Even if they were, there were far too few fiscal conservatives. Turning around national spending policies would require massive pressure on Congress and likely replacing a fair portion.
That isn’t going to happen until there is first a much stronger ground swell of fiscal conservatism from the population, which would probably start with personal spending habits. People who overspend want the government to bail them out of their mistakes. People who spend carefully want to keep as much of their own money as possible and understand that debt cannot be allowed to accumulate forever without consequences. Our nation is between decades to a generation away from being able to change government spending habits.
The party establishment matters alot less if you are already famous and can raise money. She is making a strong populist run and it just might work (for the Republican nomination anyways).
Not having an actual government position can be an advantage, she won’t have to address issues she doesn’t want to or have any responsibility for solving problems. There won’t be any new “bridge to nowhere” or inappropriate use of office allegation issues to navigate. Alaska (like alot of states) is facing a significant budget deficit – not her problem now.
As for Colin’s article, I maintain that the Ron Paul style paleoconservatives (or whatever term you like) remain an insignificant factor, even within the Republican party. The neo-cons and the social conservatives have merged to the point that they are large inseparable (with some individual exceptions of course) and are the clear dominant force in the party. The battle within the Republican party is between the more pragmatic conservatives like Newt (along with the few moderates left) and the idealistic, no-compromise tea partiers. It is about tone as much, if not more, than any actual issues.
The video refers to Palin’s “Going Rogue” and implies that she’s supposedly going rogue with her political platform. Um, read the freakin’ book. The going rogue part refers to how, on the campaign trail, she would sometimes actually [GASP] think for herself instead of answering with the notecard responses that the Republican Party provided for her. That might make some Republicans nervous, but I haven’t found anyone lately who agrees with any if not most of what the Republican Party has been spewing lately. Not that I’m a Palin-ite or what-not, but I just think this video dude got off track a bit there just to make a point.