The GOP With and Without Palin

Having started a new job and trying to keep up with a side business that can be a headache sometimes, I've not had much time to blog or do my BlogTalk radio show. But, I also have to admit that without Sarah Palin in the race, there's not much that I can add to what the great folks out there in the blogosphere are saying. My motivation for blogging was to add mine as another supportive voice for the Palin cause. Without Palin in the race, there's not much for me to do really.

This leads me to something that I was thinking about for the last couple of weeks. Apparently, I wasn't the only one thinking about it as Conservatives4Palin points out. They picked up on an interview of Tea Party Express leader Amy Kremer by MJ Lee where Kremer says:

The grassroots conservative movement has yet to throw its support behind a Republican presidential candidate because “we don’t have the female Ronald Reagan running — and that’s Sarah Palin,” said Amy Kremer, chairwoman of the Tea Party Express.

“We haven’t engaged in presidential politics yet because the movement hasn’t coalesced around anybody, so we’re just sitting back and waiting,” Kremer added.

For the past few weeks, I have been struggling with my own dissatisfaction over the direction of the Republican Party and the Tea Party. This is not to say that they're not working to unseat Obama or that they have stopped pushing for limited Constitutional government. The troubling part to me is that neither the GOP or the Tea Party have one leader that they can coalesce around.

The Tea Party has always prided itself on being a leaderless movement. Until now, the Tea Party has been united despite not having a leader. But now that the Republican Party doesn't have a clear leader, the Tea Party like the rest of the conservative movement has been a movement divided by candidate preferences even though it remains staunchly anti-Obama and anti- big government.

There's nothing wrong with people choosing their own candidates. But, we all know people who were in lock step with each other about Sarah Palin who are now backing a different candidate than we are. The person who may have shared my thoughts, quoted my articles or retweeted a link as a sign of agreement may today be the person who is arguing Rick Perry or Rick Santorum when I may be thinking about backing a different candidate.

It's so odd and so surreal to think that if I strongly backed another candidate or even leaned toward another candidate that people who I once locked arms with might argue with me. This doesn't mean we're still not friends or that we won't end up uniting again to go up against Obama next year. But, again, it's just so odd to not have that tying thread which Sarah Palin was to us all.

Because of Governor Palin, I have made some very awesome friends on here. I hope to continue those friendships into the future, Palin or no Palin, because I am convinced that there is still greatness left in America as evidenced by the mere existence of these people.

While we will all tend to disagree from time to time, we all recognize that America would be a better place if Sarah Palin led us back to that shining city on a hill and put an end to not only the national nightmare that is Barack Obama, but put an end to business as usual in Washington. Sarah Palin was a two for one special: someone who could destroy the Democrats and liberalism while cleaning up and reforming the Republican Party at the same time. Sudden and relentless reform? You betcha!

That's why everyone on the left and in the GOP establishment were just crapping their drawers at the mere thought of her running. They knew that at the snap of a finger, millions of us would have poured out of the woodwork. It would have looked like a scene from Braveheart. There would have been pundits asking where all the Palinistas came from?

We've been here the whole time. We built an army over the past three years. We would have gone to war for Governor Palin. There would have been no sacrifice too great to demotivate or deflate us. The world was about to see something they haven't seen since the Reagan revolution.

Which leads me to this. What was the Republican Party before Sarah Palin became a national figure? What is the Republican Party now that she's not running?

Before Palin, the Republican Party was a mess. It had lost its way having become drunk on the Potomoc water. It never fought or spoke out loudly enough in advance of the housing and financial crisis. The principles of conservatism weren't being adhered to or spoken of much in the halls of Congress.

While Sarah Palin remained a potential candidate following her run for vice president in 2008, we were a strong party. We took back a swath of seats not only in Congress, but in state houses and state legislatures across the country. America was hopeful again because we knew Obama couldn't push anymore of his economy busting stimulus and health care craziness through Congress anymore.

Now that Sarah Palin isn't running, the Republican Party is becoming a mess again. You can put eight Republicans in a room and all eight of them will pick a different candidate for president. Republicans know what they want. Conservatives know what they want. If what they want was up on that stage last night, they'd be behind her. Instead, they're all trying to find pieces of what they want in each candidate and are ultimately going to end up going with the least common denominator.

The Republican nominee selection process is not so much about choosing the best person, it's about choosing the least worst person. The 2012 election will be a referendum on Obama, not a coronation of Romney, Gingrich, Perry or anyone else.

While Palin remains a voice for our philosophy, without power she cannot stop the party from returning to business as usual once Obama is defeated. We will all breathe a sigh of relief when Obama is ousted in the election. But it will only be then that the real fight will begin. If we sit back and allow the Republican Party to return to business as usual, we're screwed.

When you see Tea Party patriots like Nikki Haley and Christine O'Donnell endorsing Mitt Romney, it makes you scratch your head. The Tea Party is a leaderless party, but all movements eventually seek out a leader whether consciously or unconsciously. Palin would have become that leader. Without her, they wander in the wilderness. The discipline isn't there. There's nothing wrong with Republicans supporting Mitt Romney (he is a Republican after all). But when Tea Party members do it, it makes you wonder if the lights went out and now everyone is just bumping into each other.

I don't want to sound like I'm not supportive of Governor Palin's right to make her own career and family decisions. There is always a day down the road for her to come back into political life if she so chooses. And, if she so chooses, we will be there for her. Yet, one can see what's been happening since she decided not to run. It's not her fault. It is what it is. But, without her running, we're just falling apart.

We can do the self improvement stuff without her. We can do the grassroots stuff without her. But, we can't run this country without her. There are rare times in history when great leaders come into existence and this is one of them. We pray that someday Sarah Palin recognizes her greatness and takes the helm of a ship that is in dire need of a top notch captain.