The Battle be Joined

The battle between liberals and conservatives has been long and often bloody as our history shows... and so far it appears that our next general election will be more of the same as the Republicans and Democrats battle each other, and now both face an irate Conservative TEA Party movement as well. No actual "lines in the sand" have been drawn... yet, but the the fangs are bared, the snarls are heard daily, while the fund raising and recruiting has stepped up considerably. While no mainstream politician has openly stated that they'll run for the Presidency, several are quietly gathering funds and positioning themselves for a campaign. Of the "fringe" contenders, only Sarah Palin currently seems interested, as indicated by her recent TEA party speech in Nashville.

"How's that hopey-changey stuff workin' out for ya?" she asked the convention. Classic Palin, and brilliantly delivered, as stated by one liberal pundit "she does folksy far better than George W. Bush or any of the other Republican focus-group populists ever did." That same pundit claims Sarah's speech was "inspired drivel, a series of distortions and oversimplifications, totally bereft of nourishing policy proposals". Humm... Drivel? Distortions? That depends on your viewpoint I guess. But it seems to me that it's still a little early in the "campaign season" to be making any serious policy proposals. After all, Mr.O has only had a year to work on his pet project of "changing" the greatest nation on the planet into a debt ridden third world has-been, and who knows what horrors he'll manage to pull off over the next three years!? But still, Sarah seems to be the favorite target of the lamestream media, and as we saw with Sen. McCain's campaign, she's eminently available for the left's favorite weapon, derision. In a interview with Chris Wallace the day after her Nashville speech, Palin said she'd been focusing more on "current events" since she quit as governor, and then corrected herself saying "national issues". The media had a field-day with that, informing all and sundry that current events is the high school term for the ocassional hour when students sleep through studying the state of the world. Her western American vernacular seem a bit odd to folks who've probably never been west of the Mississippi River in their lives, but that's OK I guess, as I don't understand their Ivy League accents either. The $100,000 speakers fee from the convention (that she plainly stated is going to "the cause") certainly roused their ire, but campaigns have to be funded somehow, and the TEA Party advocates don't have George Soros handy to pay the bills. Palin also brought up the fact that the Democrats don't produce many men of the people, but rather they produce idealists and elietist law school types who apparently don't understand the supreme law of the land. Which is a point I hope we'll be hearing a lot more about in the future.

Sarah's entire speech was delivered in her trademark "Abe Lincoln" folksy manner which seems to raise the liberal's dander, and that's a bit of a surprise considering that Lincoln was a raging liberal for his time. Some of her comments that seem so childish to the leftists include; "I am so proud to be American.", “May the best ideas and candidates win.", "We have hope that we can move things in the right direction...", "We will stand up … we will be counted.", "We have a vision for the future of our country...", "Washington has broken trust with the people.", "Our U.S. constitutional rights …", "Only limited government can expand prosperity.", "We're stealing the opportunities from our children.", and finally "Get government out of the way." Small government, lower taxes, greater individual liberties, more power to the states, and government according to the Constitution and Bill of Rights are the general principles that most tea-party activists agree on. And quite likely they'll agree with Palin's stated wish of "Allowing America's spirit to rise again … a God-fearing nation". She didn't have much to say about the Republican Party, but did encourage Tea Party aligned candidates to compete in GOP primaries, saying: "Contested primaries aren't civil war; they're democracy at work...". The former governor didn't specifically indicate whether her political future would extend to an actual presidential candidacy either, but given the attacks that Palin aimed at Obama and the Democrats, it seems like she's already running.

Things can get awkward when protesters have to put down their placards, start building an organization, and recruiting candidates. That shift is even more difficult in the glare of the national media spotlight. And, as with any protest movement, consensus has proven elusive. The tea-party folks are naturally suspicious of any established institutions, and that in itself would make the formation of another political party difficult, even though many would like to see that happen. "Form another party? Why would we want to do that? That's exactly what the Daily Kos wants us to do and we'd just be playing into liberal hands," said Andrew Breitbart, referring to a well known liberal blog. Personally I think a third party would almost guarentee Mr. Obama another another Democrat controled Congress, and probably another term, as it would split the Republican/conservative vote, much as Ross Perot's presidential bid made Bill Clinton a shoo-in. Still, one TEA member said "I see the problems but I also think that tea partiers would better represent me than Republicans right now." Recognizing the hazard, Sarah urged the movement to work within the system. "The Republican Party would be very smart to try and absorb as much of the tea-party movement as possible," she told the crowd. "Because the tea-party movement is the future of politics." Or perhaps as I believe, the movement should absorb the GOP instead, and dump the high and mighty power brokers that have consistantly ignored their conservative base for years.

Sarah has an image problem at the present time according to a Washington Post/ABC survey, claiming that 37 percent of Americans view her favorably and 55 percent view her unfavorably. If true, that usually spells defeat for a candidate, but she does have the next three years to work on the problem. And remember that Ronnie Reagan was the conservative outsider in 1976, who worked diligently between '76 and '80 to convince his opponents. Right now, while Palin is the grass-roots favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination, I don't think I'd consider her as the next President-in-Waiting yet, as a lot can happen in three years. But she is most certainly someone to be taken very seriously. The hope among the Republican elites is that she’ll keep annoying the liberals, raising money for the party, and stay out of the 2012 campaign. And Sarah? Well, the left loves to mock her, the right rushes to defend her, and folks in between seem fascinated by the whole thing. She also appears to be a lady who is real savvy in a cat fight and well able to defend herself.

So let the battle be joined.