Having spent all of my adult years following politics, I have never been as disappointed in my party and the people who are supposedly on my side of the issues as I am now. Negativity is the work of the devil and it shows not just on the liberal side (where negativity is norm and the politics of personal destruction trump debating the issues), but on our side as well.
Sarah Palin's electability isn't really the issue. Courage is the issue. Too many on our side are severely lacking in that category.
Palin hasn't even announced. Nor has she started campaigning yet. Speculating on someone's electability based on polls over a year out is ridiculously stupid. If she campaigns poorly or doesn't garner the votes necessary to win the nomination, that's one thing. To kill the egg before it hatches is another.
We can look at scenarios where Republicans didn't stick together and learn some lessons. Harry Reid is still the Senate majority leader because people on our side were too nervous about Sharron Angle. Mike Coons is the Senator from Delaware because people on our side threw Christine O'Donnell under the bus. Lisa Murkowski won the Senate in Alaska ON A WRITE IN BALLOT because people on our side bought into the media and opposition spin about him.
We can look at scenarios where Democrats stuck together and learn some lessons, too. They elected a nationally untested Jimmy Carter because they believed in some crazy dream, similar to the hopey changey thing they bought into three years ago. They elected a scandal plagued philanderer from Arkansas president without even the slightest concern about how electable a womanizer with questionable business and political dealings could be. They elected a wet behind the ears novice from Chicago because they didn't care about his associations or lack of experience.
You didn't see Democrats hawking their candidates' flaws, did you?
They stuck together. And because they stick together, they're capable of nominating and electing some of the most ridiculous candidates we've ever seen in American political history. So, Sarah Palin is unelectable? Are you friggin kidding me?
I'm tired of being on a team of wimps, wussies and trembling tigers. Watching Karl Rove, Dick Morris and Erick Erickson do everything they can to drag down Sarah Palin's chances in the minds of feeble minded readers and weak kneed viewers tells me all I need to know about the conservative movement and the Republican Party. We're just too stupid to win.
When have you seen Democrat media pundits talk about Bill Clinton's affairs or Barack Obama's associations? Do you know why the Democrats and the left wing media keep beating us? They suppress their candidates' flaws. They sell their candidate. They stand behind their candidate no matter what. Barack Obama has driven our country and our economy into the ground; yet night after night, pundits, anchors and writers keep talking about how transformative he is and how he can be reelected.
Do any of us do that for Sarah Palin - or Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain for that matter? No. Our side is full of loud mouthed, hot air blowing tweeters, bloggers, pundits and shallow thinkers who find it easier to find the how not to than it is to work at finding the how to.
Sarah Palin supporters trumpet her potential as president. They talk about her record. They focus on the one thing this nation needs more than anything else: someone that can go in there, clean house and set our policy straight on jobs, energy and the economy. If those on the conservative and Republican side fought as hard for their candidates as they do to put down Sarah Palin, maybe we would have someone else that we could rally around in case she didn't run.
But, at this point, I won't get into the foxhole with backstabbers, mealy mouths and people who call themselves conservatives. If we don't beat Obama in 2012, it won't be because of Sarah Palin. It will be because of them.
Regardless of what you thought about Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell or Joe Miller, punishing our candidates for not being perfect by handing victory to their Democrat or RINO challengers is the most idiotic electoral strategy I have ever seen. I for one will not be part of a party or a movement that continues to shoot itself in the foot over and over again.
Why is it that if we put an establishment candidate into a monkey suit and run him, everyone votes for him but when we put up one of us - a regular day American who is sick and tired of how business is being done - some of us start stuttering and spewing green vomit like they're at the screen test for the Linda Blair's part in The Exorcist.
Back your candidate if it's not Sarah Palin. Vote your conscience. But don't be as intellectually dishonest as Democrats are and deny the reality of Sarah Palin's record, her viability, her work ethic and the historical parallels to how people in our movement were doing the same thing to Ronald Reagan in 1979.
Sarah Palin can't win if our side, our movement and our party hasn't learned its lessons from the past. The next time I hear that Sarah Palin is unelectable or that she can't win, I will tell the person they're right, we can't win. Then I will walk away.
There is no arguing with negativity, stupidity or rigidity.
Read more from Jedediah Bila here: What pundits should be talking about when it comes to Palin
Very Well Said! Love it! You hit the nail on the head!
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your two last statements.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment of the Reagan election and the negativity associated with it.
However let that election stand to correct YOUR negativity.
The point is Reagan volunteers did not give up and we elected him President TWICE.
WE CAN DO THE SAME FOR SARAH PALIN.
Do not give in to negativity. That is the pundits goal, for whatever their reasons are.
Take Sarah-Pac's post to heart "These are the same tired establishment political games that fuel the 24 hour news cycle and that all Americans will hopefully reject in 2012, and this is more of the "politics-as-usual" that Sarah Palin has fought against throughout her career.