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 don’t know. Whatever it was, I imagine he deserved his punishment. He’s been getting increasingly unhinged since Trump got in the race. He’s been really nasty to just about everyone who doesn’t agree with him.
In 2012, when Sarah Palin was banned from speaking at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump was the only person to come forward and defend her right to speak.
The whole TEA Party was treated like a red-headed bastard step child at Romney’s shindig.
got a link to back that up?
In 2012 Trump was absent from Tea Party rallies. In fact Trump said he is a part of the establishment and is now courting the establishment with his promise to make deals with them
no matter what she is.. liberal or left wing,
the TRUTH in the article is what matters.
She told the truth.....and no one can deny it.
No, she is giving the go ahead to the teapartiers that it is okay to vote for Trump and to dis on Cruz because Cruz proved weak.
That’s not true for someone with principles.
Yes, that Sara Palin is gone, for sure, but I sensed it coming when she commented about getting into Yoga. Scripture warns about other religions and God not liking the mixture...different religions, even working together, because what has Light to do with Dark? Yoga changes your mind about things. Now she apparently sees things differently. That is sad. I pray that it has not changed how she sees Christianity, because that would be a disastrous act, to adopt Yoga with Christianity.
The same could be said of political things, too. God warns us to elect godly men and women as leaders, but those who are double-minded we are to reject. God allows judgment to come upon the people when they are unwise and give ungodly men/women control over their lives. Trump obviously got a little coaching before his speech at Liberty, but before that it was obvious that he did not have a relationship with God...now all of a sudden he does and it has been for years. Just a couple months ago he stated publicly that he did not feel he needed to repent or ask God’s forgiveness for anything. Now, all of a sudden he is more spiritual than anybody he knows. One has to wonder at the big change in Palin. It is distressing to lose a good conservative voice. Hopefully she comes to her senses.
Sara Palin played as a child down the street, about 200 yards from my house in Kennewick, WA during summers in the early 70s. But this makes me wish I could forget the memories.
This is not a issue for the advancement of CONSERVATISM..
IF DONALD TRUMP is elected , conservatism will have been dealt a huge death blow... ..HE is LIBERAL in his own words.
Who gives damn? She is a celebrity seeking blimp on the radar now days.
But Trump said he wants nothing to do with the tea party. Why go to this level of effort to send them a message?
So now we are supposed to love a touch back amnesty, crony capitalist, K St ethanol loving guy who says he no longer supports outlawing guns, Hillary, third trimester abortions?
So now we are supposed to love a U. S. Senator who campaigned for Barack Obama’s Legacy trade agenda? Who wades knee deep in Goldman Sachs cash? Who knew the path to Lord was through Goldman Sachs. I learn something new every day.
Trump hates Glenn Beck. Palin hates Glenn Beck. A match made in hell.
She didn't finish her term as governor because she was unable to govern, due to continual and unbridled attacks by Leftists in her state, who were using Alaska's laws to level meritless charges against her.
She resigned to save the taxpayers money, and to allow effective governance to proceed.
Are you for or against "activists" burning taypayer dollars in furtherance of their goals, as happened in Alaska?
Or perhaps you have a justification for their actions?
In my view, Palin was successful, because she STOPPED the wasting of tax dollars, and provided for effective future governance.
So, your argument is FAIL.
Sarah Palin, the mother of a Down’s child, just endorsed a man who mocks handicapped people.
I noticed that. Even though the author is liberal and less than desirable, it’s the TRUTH in the article that we are concerned with.. but not those supporting TRUMP...
Odd that you never noticed the Media DeathStar obliterating everything in its path, including Sarah Palin.
When they tried it with Trump, he only became stronger.
Why is she gone? The usual reasons. M9ney. The soft life. Book sales. That sort of stuff.
Transformed, indeed.
If I were to write down Trump’s actual policy quotes, not the “run them all out” cheerleading hysteria, but his actual quoted stance on issues important to conservatives, and not tell you who they were from, and polled this site for agreement, I bet the approval numbers would be in the low double digits, if that high.
Now it is a sickness to support a conservative over some touch back amnesty, crony capitalist who is so weak he can’t even stand up to the ethanol lobby in Iowa?
The Donald read the K St lobbyist written statement today just like a hostage. If you can’t stand up to some ethanol corn farmers, how is going to stand up to our enemies.
He is like the great Oz, but in reality he is a petty little man.
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