TEA Party Legend Sarah Palin
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin rose to national prominence as an establishment-slaying populist Republican Governor. As the conservative Vice Presidential candidate yoked to the blundering establishment campaign of GOP presidential candidate John McCain, Palin often drew larger and more energetic crowds than her running mate. In large measure, this was because she gave voice to the frustrations of middle class Americans in what Washington’s inside elite derisively call “flyover country.”
It is not a stretch to say that the outpouring of populist support for Sarah Palin’s Vice Presidential run was a precursor to the Tea Party movement.
Almost from the moment the defeat of the McCain-Palin ticket was announced, there was a populist clamor for Palin to run for President. But the fervor at the grassroots level was accompanied by vicious personal attacks from establishment Republicans and the media elite who were both anxious to suck the energy out of a Palin-led populist surge.
In some measure those attacks worked. Palin left the Governor’s office before her term was up and has now announced she will not run for President in 2012.
But in other respects, the establishment attacks on Governor Palin have failed miserably. Rather than drive Palin from the public arena, they created a national media celebrity, the Tea Party’s first martyr and gave Tea Partiers a model upon which to base challenges to the Republican Party’s inside elite.
In announcing her decision not to run, Governor Palin said, “When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.“ From that perspective Palin’s decision not to run for President is undoubtedly the right call. But she also said, “…by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.”
Governor Palin is right of course, one doesn’t need a title to pitch-in to help take back the Constitution and this country, and it is hard to think of a better summary of how the Tea Party got started and why, whether she is a candidate for President or not, Sarah Palin will continue to be a force in American politics and a premier voice for the Tea Party rebellion.
By Richard A. Viguerie | 10/7/11
http://www.conservativehq.com/node/4908
I had the singular honour of meeting with Richard Viguerie in Washington.
His Conservative HQ is a great source for American political news. http://www.conservativehq.com/
I found him a very bright and dedicated Conservative … with a deep respect for the TEA Party movement .
I have been waiting for just the right sentiment on this.
Methinks this is a good one.!
the editor
How is Sarah Palin the “TEA Party Legend”? She’s a NeoConservative. As a Libertarian and firm believer in Liberty and free speech, property rights, how can a darling of the establishment Status Quo be remotely portrayed as this?
Ron Paul was the instigation of the grassroots tea party movement, it was formed directly after the last US election cycle by his supporters who are sick and tired of promises, being lied to, and the true destruction of true capitalism, based on the original constitution of the US, which he champions, and which has clear definitions of the rights of the people, not government, to decide their own fates.
If this is an offshoot extremist group, pro-war and pro-establishment, just go join the Liberal party, cause they are no better than Labor in solving the general populaces problems, they add to the problem through redtape and taxation.
I thought this was actually a place were people had woken up, apparently not.
If bumbling morons like Palin (who has made that many TV gaffes in her time) is representative of the intelligence of the Australian Tea Party movement, “god help us all”, quite literally, and i’m agnostic.