Stephen Bannon moderated the panel. He saw, in his research, similarities between the type of people who supported Reagan and those who supported Governor Palin. He also saw the similarities in the way the elites and Washington reacted to Reagan and Palin. He saw her humility and her emphasis on team rather than self promotion. He made the point that we are either to be a country of of our traditional values or we will become something totally different.
Bannon also talked about how this country is at a turning point and how important the Palin coalition is.
Jackie Siciliano talked about how Sarah Palin inspired people to run at all levels of government. She also spoke about our youth and bringing young people on board in the face of what they are being taught in school and in universities. Stacy Drake was disillusioned with politics until she read about Governor Palin in 2007. She saw someone who finally had it right. Talking about Conservatives4Palin, she said it was never about one charismatic person, but all of us.
Whitney Pitcher spoke about moving forward and what we need to do to restore our country. She was never interested in politics until Governor Palin hit the scene. Whitney called Palin "the anti-Illinois" politician when talking about her experience as an Illinois resident familiar with the type of politics going on in her state. Sarah Palin, as mayor, took exception with a business owner who owned a garbage pickup company who tried to use government to make everyone have to use that company to pick up their garbage. Palin was against crony capitalism early on in her career.
Ultimately, renewing and restoring America is going to require renewing and restoring the Republican Party. The party establishment keeps pulling it back to the pre-Obama days’ philosophy of business as usual where candidates talk like conservatives to get elected but act as part of the political permanent class once elected. Democrats choose winners and losers based on their union, environmental and cultural affiliations. Republicans choose winners and losers based on their business, legal and social class affiliations. Either way, the regular American gets left out of the equation.
This explains the electoral frustration that has been expressed by generations of voters. You’ve always heard of voting for the lesser of the two evils or that there are no real differences between the two political parties. Yes, the Democrat party tends to favor more regulations and leans socialist while the Republican party tends to favor less regulations and leans more capitalist. But, overall, each party rewards its cronies at the expense of the American people and the small business owner.
The most effective way of renewing and restoring the Republican Party comes through Tea Party activism. Governor Palin and her followers have developed a strong enough network so that through her endorsements, her followers’ activism and grassroots support that comes from all Tea Party groups, candidates will be able to generate strong support first locally and then nationally. The 2010 elections showed us that the Tea Party can have a strong influence on the nominating process.The next step comes in 2012.
Because so many Americans are sick and tired of business as usual, they can be called upon to support and make viable commonsense Constitutional conservatives who run in GOP primary races against entrenched establishment candidates. Infiltrating the party is the first crucial step toward winning back the future. As more and more Tea Party candidates win nominations and ultimately go on to win in general elections, we can build the infrastructure in Congress and on the state level in order to effect real change.
The conservative movement can take a page out of the liberal playbook. For decades, they have been infiltrating the Democrat Party, the media, the culture and the academia. Winning back the future means beating liberals at their own game and affecting the Republican Party, the media (particularly the new media), the culture and the academia by running strong candidates, encouraging conservative activists to get into journalism, encouraging conservatives to bring a hip version of their values through humor, music and art to culture and by developing more of an intellectual base in colleges and universities throughout the country.
Sarah Palin will be an effective megaphone for us in that infiltration. Her supporters and supporters of the Tea Party movement in general can all play a role in bringing this about. It would have definitely helped us by having her in the bully pulpit of the presidency, much the way Reagan made conservatism cool again from his platform, but it may be more of a long term approach for Governor Palin if she can get the fires of conservatism stoked more than they are now.
We all know what happened after Reagan’s presidency. Everyone forgot what he said and went back to business as usual. If we lose our country and the presidency in 2012, many may second guess Palin’s decision to not run. But only time will really tell if her decision to not run is a way to forego a flash in the pan presidency in favor of developing a stronger foundation upon which we can build our power base and from which she can emerge as an even stronger presidential prospect in the future. This one’s a dice toss; but if it plays out well it won’t be the first time we looked back at a Palin decision and said “wow, that’s what she was doing and look at how well it worked!”
-listen to Patrick's World USA tonight on Blogtalk Radio. My guest is Whitney Pitcher, panelist on Grizzly Fest.
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