Sarah Palin -- like many of her fellow conservative "young guns" -- grew up in the Reagan era. She was born in 1964, the same year Ronald Reagan delivered his famous "A Time for Choosing" speech. She was twelve when The Gipper challenged Gerald Ford for the nomination of his party in 1976. When Reagan was elected to the White House, she was a teenager, and she was entering adulthood when he defeated liberal Walter Mondale in a 1984 landslide reelection victory. Eric Cantor, Jeff Flake, Thad McCotter and Mike Pence were children of that same generation. Michele Bachmann and Jeb Hensarling are a few years older, Paul Ryan and Bobby Jindal a few years younger, yet they are all Reagan's political children. Ronald Reagan was their inspiration, and they share his vision of America as that shining city on a hill. Sarah Palin, however, is the only one of them who was blessed with the gift of charisma to the same degree that Ronald Reagan possessed it. She is truly a political rock star.
While Sarah Palin is indeed not Ronald Reagan, she knows his playbook like the back of her hand. Palinism is Reaganism. And that's both the point and the title of an Examiner opinion piece by Rob Binsrick:
"Reagan’s appeal to the middle and to those ‘Reagan Democrats’ was not his policies but rather his optimism and more so his ‘Americanism.’ When Reagan went abroad he did not apologize for America like Obama has done, but instead he sold America as the best brand available in the world. He was completely unabashed in his pride for America and he was strong, forceful and vocal in his disdain for communism and other perceived evils in the world. Contrast that with how Obama presents America abroad and bows to leaders of communist states."Yet, as Binsrick takes pains to illustrate, both Reagan and Palin governed not as radical right-wingers, but from a center-right perspective. They had to. The realities of their respective terms in office required them to deal with Democrats and Republican Lites to push through their own agendas.
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"When [Sarah Palin] starts talking about America... is when she sounds absolutely Reaganesque."
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"Palin shares Reagan’s optimism about America and about Americans. As opposed to Obama’s ‘blame America first’ approach to diplomacy, Palin speaks fervently about the greatness that is the America spirit. Reagan had that ability to make everyone feel better about their country and about themselves. He not only wanted everyone to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, he was able to convince most Americans that they could do so."
"Palin is a living example of what Reagan envisioned for all Americans – someone who could start out from humble beginnings but achieve high levels of success in life. As her book title suggests, she has lived ‘An American Life’ and it is just the kind of which Reagan would have approved."
"Palin also wears her conservatism on her sleeve and is unashamed to talk about it. The same was very true of Reagan."
Binsrick also has a great counter punch for those who have criticized Palin's two and a half percent increase in the production tax oil companies pay to her state:
"Democrats in Congress during the Bush administration... wanted to take the money from the oil companies and keep it in Washington for the government to use, but in Palin's plan she gave the money back to the taxpayers of Alaska. Palin and Reagan correctly understood that individuals can make better decisions for themselves than bureaucrats in Washington or Juneau can make for them."The full op-ed is here, and it's worth the read.
- JP
I have to nitpick here, Josh; Reagan delivered The Speech in 1964, not 1968.
ReplyDeleteJosh,
ReplyDeleteA correction for you. Sarah Palin was born in 1964, not 1968.
It was a typo. 1964 was indeed both the year of Sarah Palin's birth and Reagan's speech. I knew that. I typed "1968" nevertheless. It has been corrected.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
- JP