Sarah Palin: Political Progeny of Ronald Reagan

No, Sarah Palin is not Ronald Reagan in a dress, as even someone who knew The Gipper as well as did Michael Reagan, referred to her. Reagan's elder son should have recognized Sarah Palin for whom she really is. Politically speaking, at least, Sarah Palin is a child of Ronald Reagan, as are Mike Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Paul Ryan and a number of conservatism's other "young guns." They don't have the benefit of Reagan's many years of experience, but they share the great majority of his views. Of all his political progeny, Palin seems the be the most outstanding of the offspring and the one most like to follow, if not in his footsteps, at least along the same path traced by them.

At Parcbench, Delaney Reese comments:

A staunch supporter of Goldwater during the ’64 election, Reagan’s singular power helped wrest control of the Republican Party from the moderate, squishy Rockefellers.

Nixon’s animosity towards him and California’s budgetary woes kept Reagan busy and out of the national spotlight for nearly a decade. But, it was the success of his ideas in righting the Golden State that thrust him back into national prominence during the ’76 election. Had he started his campaign earlier, Reagan’s threat to unseat Ford, like he would later unseat Carter, might have worked.

His failed bid for the presidency made him more influential, not less. Pundits and leaders found his wisdom compelling during the disastrous Carter years. And, after those four very long years, the entire nation turned to him to restore American ascendancy.

So, we have Reagan. A man who, by the force of his ideas, influenced -- no, changed -- the entire national debate.

Reese is not the first to opine that Sarah Palin is a Reagan and probably won't be the last to equate the two. But such comparisons tend to start arguments, and the debate takes our eyes off the prize. Better, we say, to choose a metaphor. Call Sarah Palin a political child of Reagan, one of his disciples, a soldier in his army or whatever allegorical device works for you. The bottom line is the same: Reagan showed everyone how he led his revolution, but many seem to have forgotten. Not Sarah Palin. She has studied Reagan's blueprints and committed them to memory. She's the contractor who can win the bid to reconstruct his coalition. All she has to do is submit it. The construction workers are ready to get on with the job:

A voice rings out against Obamacare’s inevitable rationing panels—correctly termed death panels, for that’s what they’ve become in Britain and Canada. That voice rationally raises concerns that Obama’s neglecting Afghanistan. With a logic that cannot be denied, dulcet tones eviscerate the Administration’s so-called energy policy—an energy policy that leads to the decline of the dollar and American power.

Sure, she’s been knocked around and mocked. So was Reagan. She’s been forsaken by the Republican intelligentsia and elite. So was Reagan. She has the ability to bring the ruling Democrats to their knees. So did Reagan.

Reese, like so may others, remembers  Reagan as "one of our greatest and most successful presidents" and that "Palin could be, too." Sarah Palin will have to prove the latter, but from where we stand, she's been making all the right moves lately.

- JP