The Classic Liberal Blog

Overall, I thought Sarah Palin did a good job last night at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, TN.

A lot of people on both the left and right are trying to nit-pick her speech ... "she used notes" (duh) ... "she says she's not the leader, but then why is she speaking at the event?" (um, why wouldn't she?) ... "she invoked the recent GOP wins in NJ, VA and MA, but didn't play a significant part" (she was talking about the individuals in the Tea Party movement, not herself) ...

Blah, blah, blah ... Blah, blah, blah, blah ...

As Sarah Palin said last night, nobody's perfect, but the above type complaints and the whining about her supporting Republican Liberty Caucus-endorsed Rand Paul in Kentucky, are nothing but the ramblings of Those Who Like Things As They Are. Not those who prefer America as she was designed.

That said, there are 2 points I'd like to have seen her address differently.

First, she talked about "constitutional rights." This is a collectivist point of view, not conservative. But I think she had the right idea in mind. Second, I am against sanctions against Iran, because sanctions only hurt the people, not the political powers (who are the real enemy).

Other than than those 2 details, I like Sarah Palin because she is an outsider, even if she's trying not to be. What makes her different, is that she presents herself as she is, rather than as a polished politician. In other words, trustworthy.

Palin is right too, that the Tea Party movement doesn't need a leader, and neither does the country! Leaders are for collectivists. Do your history, the president was almost completely irrelevant until that dastardly Teddy Roosevelt.

Now, from Smitty at The Other McCain ...

The Speech Sarah Palin Should Have Given

The sad truth, Americans, is that Progressivism has drunk your milkshake. The free states delegating powers to a central government to handle foreign policy and inter-state issues has turned into an imperial nightmare. We’re broke. Our children are broke. Our grandchildren, not so financially good.

The Tea Party movement has to coalesce on fixing the system. That means gettin’ on a 10th Amendment bulldozer and leveling a few executive departments. That means our broke States taking care of their citizens, not the Federal government. That means breaking all of the Federal Reserve banks, and selling souvenirs to make up for the devastation carried out on the dollar by placing vast power in the hands of the few. That means restoring the rightful three-tier government upon which this country was founded.

There is no need for recrimination. The whole country, actively or passively, played along with the Progressive experiment the last century. If it had worked, fine. But. It. Has. Been. Disaster. So we can continue to elect Pollyanna-ticians and pile up the ruin, or we can set about a gradual, orderly, reconstitution of what made the country great.

This is not the easy road. The elderly and so on will have to be protected by the improvements. They’ve been swindled. But what we’re going to do is force political leaders to make responsible decisions. To disabuse themselves of the notion that they are better than their constituents. To forge transparent programs at the appropriate level of government so that there is actual accountability. To ensure that generations cannot simply steal from the next generation.

Go Sarah Palin!