Posted on 01/19/2016 7:59:42 PM PST by Isara
Back in December, I was at a small event in a Las Vegas bar; CNN's Jake Tapper was interviewing Sarah Palin. He asked which candidate she'd most like to grab a beer with. Her answer? Donald Trump.
Trump, of course, has been sober his whole life. But the moment perfectly encapsulates the Palin-Trump romance. Because in addition to endorsing a beer run with a man who doesn't drink, she also just endorsed for the presidency a man who is neither a committed conservative nor an anti-establishment rogue.
Trump's long history of liberalism is well known. He was once a registered Democrat who supported Democratic candidates, from Bill de Blasio to Hillary Clinton. He has said publicly that the economy usually does better under Democrats. At times he's supported legalizing drugs, raising taxes on the wealthy and embracing isolationist foreign policies.
But what's most jarring is the positions he's held on a number of issues that are particularly important to Palin.
In the past, he called himself "very pro-choice." Yet Palin - who made the very courageous and compassionate decision to have a baby she knew would be disabled - is unbothered.
On guns, he once supported a ban on so-called assault weapons and longer waiting periods to purchase a firearm. That should be deeply disconcerting to Palin, a Second Amendment firebrand who once said, "If you control arms, you control the people."
And Trump has supported universal health care - expressing admiration for Scotland's single-payer system as recently as last year. Palin spent years denouncing Obamacare, which is many steps short of a single-payer plan, as "socialized medicine."
These aren't minor policy differences. The beliefs long embraced by Palin and long eschewed by Trump are fundamental to conservatism. That Trump has suddenly gotten religion - on issue after issue - should be met by Palin with suspicion.
If his world-view weren't enough to make Palin cringe, Trump's inauthenticity as an anti-establishment candidate should be. Palin admirably took on what she called the "good old boy network" to become Alaska's first female governor. Now, she leaps to support a guy who helped create that network and who thrives in it. In what bizarre world is a billionaire real estate mogul who donates money to Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid "anti-establishment"?
Over the past eight years, Palin's influence within the Tea Party has remained strong, but her favorability rating among all Americans has dropped 40 points. Worse, her rating among Republicans has declined more than 55 points.
But despite that waning influence, I've supported and admired Palin for defending life, religious liberty and gun rights, and for being a strong mother to a disabled son and another serving overseas.
The Sarah Palin I knew in 2008 - the one who campaigned tirelessly and many times thanklessly for John McCain, a war veteran Trump has openly mocked - would have seen through Trump's charlatan candidacy. The Sarah Palin I knew in 2008, a devout Christian whose faith was constantly scrutinized by the secular left, would have no affection for a man who is constantly scrutinizing the devout Christian faiths of other conservative candidates.
The Sarah Palin I knew in 2008, who was a passionate and fearless voice for hockey moms, mama grizzlies and women everywhere, all while enduring patently sexist attacks from the left, wouldn't have supported a man who calls other women bimbos and slobs, thinks women who breast-feed and go to the bathroom are "disgusting," and criticizes another candidate for her looks.
That Sarah Palin is gone. Maybe one day, over a beer, she'll tell me why.
Leave the child out if it.
Her kids do seem to be a bit on the problematic side. I wonder how much of this has to do not with her child-rearing, but with the strains of being thrust under the public microscope.
I think she understands that until the Media is dealt with, they own the field of battle.
I told you I already won the argument. She was elected by the people to do a job - one she CHOSE to pursue. She quit. She failed. I don’t give a tinker’s Damn what her excuse was. Failure.
I don’t have a link.
I watched the GOP convention on TV and the pre-convention coverage, and I saw, with my own two eyes, Donald Trump expressing outrage that Sarah Palin was not allowed to speak at the convention. It may have been on one of the evening national news broadcasts; not sure where, but I do remember Trump going to bat for Sarah.
Later, it was explained that the Romney people wanted to see every speaker’s convention speech in advance, and Sarah took offense to that requirement.
The most conservative moment of that Tampa convention was when Clint Eastwood spoke to that empty chair and laid in to Obama. My favorite part of the whole convention.
I don’t have a problem with Trump making deals with the GOP establishment as long as the establishment gives in and does what is in the best interest of America (for a change).
Are you serious? Trump mocks handicapped people, yet you tell me to back off? Please.
That makes me somewhat cross.
Deep in Goldman Sachs cash?
Do you know what a margin loan is?
For the zombies, a margin loan is where you give a brokerage company $100 and they will loan you up to $50 against it. In other words, it is your own money.
Funny, the Donald is so weak he is controlled by the ethanol corn lobby. What happened to not being controlled by special interests? Cruz wants to end the crony capitalist theft, while weak Donald is wetting his pants. Lol, real tough guy.
Good Lord. Even C-Cup gets it right.
A very unfortunate day for American conservatism. But then, no one ever said defeating liberals would be easy, even when they’re endorsed by a former conservative stalwart.
This is a fair article about Sarah Palin. I would think most Trump supporters would agree.
I agree whole heartedly.
I’m praying for TED CRUZ and his campaign right now and for a miracle of renewal in America.
Sarah died today.
Why would tea partiers support Trump when he said he wants nothing to do with tea partiers? It makes no sense.
Or C.W. Mcall?
Plenty of kids of famous people turn out fine. Look at Trumps kids - and I don’t even like Trump but his kids turned out fine. One kid can be a bad seed. Two? Failed parenting.
Yep, any time in the future I hear Palin pretending to be a conservative or support conservatives, I will remember today and LMAO.
Leave the child out if it.
Leave the child out of it.
You are correct, in tactics this was a personal sacrifice move so the people of Alaska could regroup and rescue their new more conservative state government, free from attack by the leftist media and agitators, and it worked very well.
I swear I’ve read this exact article ten times, only this one has “Today Sarah Palin endorsed Trump” cut and pasted into it.
And in this one Palin would never endorse Trump. EXCEPT she did.
And Trump is not an anti establishment outsider. EXCEPT now he is.
Dude stop pretending they liberal establishment wants to curtail illegals and Muslims via Trump. They decidedly do not want Trump.
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