By God, @SarahPalinUSA Is Right!

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Last week, a Breitbart News article highlighted Sarah Palin’s criticism of the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, and on Sunday, she wrote a Facebook post excoriating this “bipartisan” sellout:

Great job, GOP establishment. You’ve just abandoned the Reagan Democrats with this amnesty bill, and we needed them to “enlarge that tent” of which you so often speak. It’s depressing to consider that the House of Representatives is threatening to pass some version of this nonsensical bill in the coming weeks.

Palin went on to say that many Americans, herself included, “are barely hanging on to our enlistment papers in any political party,” denouncing both parties as “dysfunctional political machines.”

Hear! Hear! Attagirl, Sarah! You tell ’em!

Then, in response to my friend Josh Painter, Governor Palin said she liked his suggestion of joining forces with Mark Levin to create a new “Freedom Party” if the GOP continues its drift toward abandoning a commitment to core American values. This comment was picked up by the Daily Caller’s Jeff Poor (who has always hated Sarah Palin with a blind fury) and was in turn seized on by a Red State diarist who, in order to illustrate his post, used a Photoshopped image to mock Palin.

By a strange chain of events — having missed the build-up of the brewing controversy — I learned of this via Stacy Drake, who slammed the dishonesty of the Red State attack. Quite frankly, a lot of Palin supporters have been bitter toward Red State since 2011, when Erick Erickson went out of his way to mock them. But let us lay aside these ancient quarrels to ask: Is Sarah Palin right?

Not only is she right to oppose this amnesty sellout, but the resentment toward GOP leadership she expresses touches on key aspects of a criticism that the most astute minds in the conservative movement have been making for many, many years. Readers already acquainted with this critique will excuse me for taking time here to explain to new readers the historical and philosophical background.

The perennial problem of the Republican Party is that they are a party of ideas, whereas Democrats are a party of people. That is to say, the GOP since the era of Reagan has been devoted to a philosophy of conservatism — an ideology — while by contrast, the Democrats sit around identifying specific voter groups (labor union members, women, blacks, gays, etc.), telling them that the Republicans are their mortal enemies, and then pitching them with promises: “We’re on your side. We’re your friends. Vote for us and we’ll give you X, Y and Z.”

Republicans succeed when they are led by spokesmen who can clearly articulate a conservative philosophy, and who consistently point out the Democrats’ history of dishonesty and failure: Even if you could trust Democrats to do what they say they’re going to do (which by the way, you can’t) their policies don’t work, have never worked and never will work. People who vote Democrat in the belief that Democrats will fix their problems always end up with worse problems.

Want to see what Democrats do for their “friends”? Go to Detroit.

Republicans fail when they lack confidence in their own beliefs and instead offer voters a “Me, Too” agenda of Democrat Lite. This has been a GOP problem since the era of Herbert Hoover, at least, and was a basic reason why William F. Buckley Jr. and a number of other like-minded people organized what we now know as Movement Conservatism during the 1950s. It is a sad fact that many of those who today claim to be conservatives have never really studied the development of this movement. Too much of this history has either been forgotten or twisted by liberal authors (e.g., Sam Tanenhaus) so as to be unrecognizable to those familiar with the actual facts.

Many of my friends of the libertarian or traditionalist persuasion (“Old Whigs,” so to speak) scorn Movement Conservatism as weak tea, a pragmatic compromise with electoral politics that lacks the radicalism of a fighting creed which can inspire a true revival. As one of my late acquaintances liked to say, the conservative movement is an oxymoron; it conserves nothing and doesn’t move anywhere.

Well, “steady licks kill the Devil,” as they say. We have seen in the past half-century that, if properly organized and properly led, the conservative movement can make real changes. But personnel is policy, and too often the ambitions of individuals — careerists seeking to make politics the vehicle of their own personal success — have put the wrong kind of people in key roles, enabling them to prevent success (and then, of course, to scapegoat others for the failure).

Ability and ambition are not always accompanied by virtue and wisdom. Quite commonly in political life, we encounter selfish people who cleverly present themselves as principled idealists, zealous for The Cause, while enriching themselves and enhancing their own influence behind the convenient camouflage of political purity.

Al Regnery once summarized this problem by saying that the success of conservatism had created opportunities for opportunists.

In other words, back when “conservative” was an unpopular label and a misunderstood idea, people could not get rich or build careers for themselves by parading beneath the banner of conservatism. But the success of the conservative movement during the Reagan era and beyond made it a popular thing — both for Republican office-seekers and for various sorts of political functionaries — to identify themselves as “conservatives,” to claim to speak for conservatism, and to assert that their particular ideas were True Conservatism.

This influx of opportunists has not only confused the public as to what “conservative” means, but it has erected an organizational infrastructure of the movement staffed by careerists more interested in their own advancement within this hierarchy — “The Ziggurat of Ambition,” as I’ve called it — than in conservatism itself.

Sarah Palin’s career on the national stage has involved some misfortunes, which the Red State diarist imperfectly summarizes:

I’ll admit, for a brief moment in 2008, I thought John McCain might actually have a chance at winning the White House. That moment was at the end of Sarah Palin’s RNC convention speech during which she took a mere 45 minutes to eviscerate the 18 months of image building that was Barack Obama’s campaign.
In 2008, to me, Sarah Palin was the “hope” and “change” the GOP could have used. Palin seemed to be more the ‘maverick’ than McCain ever was or could hope to be.
However, shortly after her convention speech, the McCain campaign took over, the Left attacked, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now, after four years of being the quasi-professional bomb-throwing GOP outsider, Palin is tossing the idea out there that she’s open to supporting a third party.

This certainly summarizes a perception of Palin that many people might agree with, if they haven’t bothered to study Palin’s biography and to assess the fundamental problem: What happens when a successful but relatively obscure Republican with no previous exposure to high-stakes national politics is suddenly thrust into the spotlight — and finds herself surrounded by the sort of vicious backstabbing crapweasels who were running John McCain’s campaign?

Seriously: If Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace are the future of the Republican Party, we are doomed beyond all hope of redemption.

Criticize Palin however you will — say she was “not ready for primetime,” call her a “bomb thrower,” accuse her of greed or excessive vanity, impugn her temperament, whatever — but you must understand this: Sarah Palin is not what’s wrong with the Republican Party.

And while I do not mean to endorse a third-party effort in 2016, Governor Palin has put her finger directly on a key problem for conservatives, namely that such leaders of the Republican Party as have joined The Gang of Eight Liars are betraying the people who elected them with the belief that those voters have no alternative.

Controlling the party apparatus and able to hire plenty of “conservative intellectuals” to endorse their betrayal as essential to the future success of the GOP, these Republicans proceed on the assumption that conservative voters are so lacking in devotion to principle that they will always vote Republican no matter what.

Governor Palin can’t say this, but I can: F–k you, “Republican leaders.”

And while we’re at it, f–k anybody who says we should roll over and accept this kind of phony “conservative” bulls–t as inevitable.

No, by God, I say we fight these bastards with everything we’ve got.

Fight them until Hell freezes over, and then fight them on the ice.

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, a fine occasion to declare our independence from these vicious backstabbing crapweasels.

If Governor Palin is willing to help lead this fight — inside the GOP so long as there is hope, but outside the GOP if we must — then I say, “Patriots! We must conquer here or die! Rally on the Alaskan!”
 

WOLVERINES!

 


237 comments

  1. Speakin’ of infiltrators, at Scoop’s and other sites I frequent, we’re already seeing the usual litany of new folks showing up to “out conservative” all of you phony conservatives who support Sarah Palin and Allen West, or Mark Levin and “that big fat fraud Rush.” That’s what they keep telling us, anyway.

    I suspect it’s mostly Ronulans.

    We’re all stuck with a universal fact that perfection is not a character train of man. If you have a dying need to see perfection face-to-face, then you have a need for dying, so to speak, because only when you meet your “Creator” will you see it.

    But this time around I’m not one for putting up with the backstabbing weasels. What matters is what people are doing right freaking now. If they are pandering to the amnesty crowd to get elected, they should be put on the black list. If they are slamming the “immigration reform” BS as amnesty, then welcome them on the train. We can’t get anywhere if we expect to allow only those who were on board at birth.

  2. Sarah Palin is spot on! I am no longer gung-ho for the GOP. If the GOP continue to be Democrat lite then I think I’ll be joining the Freedom Party.

  4. The fecklessness of both parties on immigration is sickening. The Dems want the votes; the ‘Pubs want cheap arugula. Yet, we proles can’t even hike in a National Park (e.g.Coronado National Monument) without seeing signs warning us of bad guys all over the place. Ranchers in southern AZ and NM can’t ride their own ranches unarmed. Before our eyes our sovereignity and security are being dismantled and sold to protect people’s seats in Congress.

  5. You won’t be the only one. There are a lot of us that are disgusted by how 2012 played out, and even more by the broken promises that followed.

  6. I *DO* endorse a third Party effort in 2016.

    The following article about counter-arguments to the “NO THIRD PARTY” notion
    http://www.examiner.com/article/arguments-against-third-parties-and-how-to-counter-them
    was linked at here
    http://noisyroom.net/blog/2013/07/01/forum-should-senators-who-voted-for-the-amnesty-bill-be-primaried/
    about pro-”amnesty” voters being primaried.

    Though I don’t agree 100% with it, and share *some* of your concerns, the upshot at this point in history is
    WE MUST START AND VOTE FOR A NEW PARTY…NOW.

    The GOP? After Bush, Dole, Bush, Romney…and all they offer is Jeb Bush, Christie Cream and the like?!?
    THEY DO NOT LISTEN TO US.
    THEY DON’T *WANT* TO LEARN.

    I for one will likely vote republican in 2014, *only* to stave off a Dem/Marxist takeover of the House, as long as someone like Obama is in power.
    …but, after *that*?
    THE GOP IS DEAD TO ME.
    NEVER again.

    Don’t fool yourself or restrict your options out of context.
    “Third Party” *may* be unreasonable in certain situations.
    Sticking with the Dem/Rep template, ONE Party is all we’ll have left.

  9. American Conservative Party. In place since 2008.

    Got me kicked off RedState when I complained that the GOP (with RS FULL and complete support) was playing to democrats and opposing conservatives.

    I still think most people that complain about the GOP will continue to support it s they won’t be able to NOT vote if all they give us is more RINObait.

  10. Creating a new party is a guarantee of Dem victory. Take back the GOP. Commandeer the party apparatus. Show the Loser Brigade the door.

    Reagan did. Theodore Roosevelt did. Lincoln did.

  12. Good luck with THAT. Remember how they trashed Conservatives after 2010?!? They don’t WANT to learn or change.

  13. I don’t think Palin wants to go Third Party. I think she shot a broadside across the bow of the House GOP because she has friends inside the House Republican Conference who are telling her that the Fix is in for Amnesty. Boehner, Cantor, Ryan and the Donor Class want this garbage and they are going to find a way to pass a “tough” bill that will allow them to fold in Conference so the Business Roundtable can get what it wants.

    I think that’s the only reason why she’d do this. She doesn’t bluff, it’s not her style.

    That said, there are huge obstacles to a putsch against the Establishment, given the Rule 12 issues passed in Tampa last year. Stacy, I wonder if you’d have any thoughts about what Rule 12 does to any potential insurgency against the Establishment and its acolytes going forward.

  14. Enh, Art Chance dug his own grave at RedState by throwing in with the Murkowski campaign. Personally I think they go overboard with the bans, when a timed suspension would be good enough.

  15. Yeah, ColdWarrior there still pushes the precinct committeeman strategy every chance he gets, even to the point of annoying moderators now and then. It’s a very good strategy.

  19. I have been calling for this for quite some time. The “elite leadership” of the GOP doesn’t support conservative values…they have “gone along to get along” for so long, they are part and parcel of the problem, and NOT part of the solution.

    http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7107890#allposts

    Please go to my blog and see the 41 posts that I have excoriated the GOP Congressional leadership…

    Rich Vail
    Pikesville, MD

  20. Ace is far more right than wrong. I do not see the benefit of directing friendly fire to people I agree with 80%, 85%, and 90%. But when some fat dweeb tries to frag Sarah Palin as Professor Bainbridge did, well then we need to close ranks like a herd of angry muskoxen and drive him away. Or be a pack of wolves and drive out the omega.

    You can come up with your own Alaskan animal totems.

  22. It’s well past time…after all, the GOP USED to be the party of smaller government. Now they are part of the problem…
    Time to ditch them and turn the Tea Party into a genuine political party.

  23. My comment disappeared…

    The “elite leadership” of the Congressional GOP has “gone along to get along for so long” that they are now part and parcel of the problem in DC. I’ve been calling for ditching the GOP since 2008…

    http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7107890#allposts

    Please take a look at my blog and search GOP Leadership and see the 41 posts that I’ve written on how the GOP leadership is as corrupt as the Dem leadership…

  24. I’d buy the ‘friendly fire’ argument if the Rovians weren’t using scorched earth on Movement Conservatives for the last decade. To Rove, we’ve been why every election that’s lost is lost. Even when we come out and fight for candidates who don’t give two dimes for what we stand for. He was right, even when his ‘math’ about Ohio was dead wrong in the middle of the night. It couldn’t be bad analysis by him.

    So yeah, I’ll throw bombs at the RINOs, because they freaking started it. Goose for the sauce, at this point.

  25. I want to see what the landscape is like after 14 before saying ‘anything’ about 16. I don’t like getting wound up about 2 battles down the road when there’s an important one in the immediate future. But I’ll agree that if the GOP Establishment plays dirty pool with the movement again, I’ve no problem voting 3rd party. Even if that means Libertarian. How many times do we have to do the same thing and lose before people figure out it isn’t working?

  26. when are you people going to wake up, maybe never. This is the here and now, not the reagan era sorry to say. Our gov. has been taken over by Corp. money , greed, blackmail,..etc. My question to you great posters is what is going to happen going forward.Most people that we elect go to DC and dont vote for what they told you they stood for when asking for your vote to elect them.Are we going down a path to collapse.

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