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.
I’ve seen Trump use the exact same gestures when talking about Anthony Weiner.
Rogue Palin may know that an outsider is our best hope in this election.
S.E. Cupp. Really? Rino, establishment, amnesty loving,S.E.Cupp? LOLOLOLOLbreathLOLOLOL
Did she ‘leave’ before she endorsed Ted Cruz for his 2012 Senate run or later?? Maybe she’s a political ‘manic/depressive’.......
Could be worse. At least Trump didn’t get Glenn Beck’s endorsement. I mean who would want the endorsement of an open borders guy?
Damn. S.E. Cupp is your go to girl.
Keep Pounding
And Marco Rubio also IIRC, but facts just upset these people.
pretty pathetic Cruz bots posting that establishment hack SE Cup she is a pathetic joke
Smart girl. Picks the DD.
She is also a hardcore atheist.
Pray America wakes
Palin has exposed herself as just another phony looking to extend her 15 minutes of fame and could not care less for conservative issues. McConnell looked principled compared to this incoherent mess.
Follow the money!!
Like you said, and in the immortal words of J D Clampett, “ Pitiful”.
I think Sarah's exact words were, "Look back at the press box, Yup heads are spinning."
Too bad you will not have anymore understanding when your head stops spinning
Gone rouge ...that’s a little red and a lot of purple.
Cupp is on the list of pundits determined to undermine the insurgency. Easy to ignore her at this point.
Father forgive him, he’s full of it.
It dragged Palin's child into its rant.
Wow. Notice how not one of the Trump supporters in this thread have responded to any of the points raised in the article? It’s all ad hominem attacks on the author, as usual.
Palin was a failed governor who never finished her term in office, a failed vice presidential candidate and she raised failures for kids - the baby momma preaching abstinence that gets knocked up outside of marriage (again) and the domestic violence son arrested today.
Her endorsement means something? I haven’t been swayed.
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