All of these critiques of Palin are based on unsubstantiated assumptions about her. I don’t think Palin really cares about being president or even vice president as a goal for her life. She has a life. Her involvement in politics seems to have arisen from an interest in specific issues that affected her, her family, and her community and state. She is certainly not a trained energy expert, but when she saw problems, she studied the issues and figured out solutions. When she accepted McCain’s offer to run with him, she probably did so because she thought she could really contribute to solving energy problems because she knew how energy prices affect average people and small business operaters. She wanted to give a voice to those who are not Prius-driving pundits.
She never claimed to be a foreign policy expert, but she tried to convey that she had done her homework on things that affected Alaska, like the national guard and missle defense. In contrast to Obama, she never pretended to have mastered the complexities of nuclear proliferation while in college. She surely lacked Obama’s mentors on Islamic issues, but she would not have made the false assumption that the problems of the Islamic world all resulted from American policies. She would have recognized a lot of PC BS and looked more deeply. No, Sarah Palin would not have been ready from day 1 to take on American foreign policy, but judging from Obama’s reversals, he wasn’t either. He just knew the buzz words.
Sarah Palin is not being attacked just for herself. She is being attacked to put everyone similar to her in their place. No one should have the timerity to question the monstrosity of cap and trade. No one should question whether their reps should actually read a mammoth, life-changing piece of legislation before voting. No one should question details when their betters have such good intentions. The message is clear: Raise your voice and you will be Palinized. Join your next victim group and stretch out your hand to your betters.
We should all support Sarah Palin, not as a presidential candidate and certainly not as the savior of conservatism, but as an average American who identified problems and worked to solve them. She personifies William James’s belief that the way to get closer to truth is to roll up your experiences and think. America would be a better place if more people would follow her example in this. This was the liberty our founding fathers fought for– the freedom to think and contribute.
