Ex-Governor Sarah Palin

I’m always amazed at how popular Sarah Palin is within her own party, or as a Tea Party darling. She resigned her post as Governor of Alaska!! If a Democratic Governor of any sex, in any state quit as the chief executive of their state, and head of their state’s party, their career would be over. That would be the end of the discussion.

Palin shows an appalling lack of understanding of the issues. This should alarm women and Republicans alike. In fact, if you’re a citizen trying to see beyond partisanship to what policies might deliver real remedies to the people of the country (and, after all, isn’t that the purpose of government?), then Palin is more of what is wrong in this country.

Perhaps more frightening than reasons not to support Palin as a politician or thought-leader, are the non-reasons people seem to like her. Check out this youTube video, a survey of her fans as they wait outside a Columbus, OH bookstore at a Palin book-signing event: Palin Supporters Can’t Explain Why They Like Her. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKKKgua7wQk&feature=player_embedded

When McCain first announced that Palin would run on his ticket, the reaction from her political colleagues in her own state was decidedly mixed. Members of her own party described her as unprepared to lead at that level. Many questioned her fitness to lead as then-Governor of the state.

In her stint as Republican celebrity she has shown a shocking lack of any sense of responsibility for the truthfulness or the effect of her words. Here’s a quote from her Facebook page during the summer of ’09, when Tea-Partiers across the country were threatening violence against lawmakers trying to describe healthcare reform to the folks in their districts: “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” What is her purpose here if not to divide the nation and stir up hate? None of it is true, as any literate citizen knows full well.

Perhaps Palin’s destiny is only to serve as a trickster to stir up trouble, to distract us from grappling with real issues, to excuse cluelessness.