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Practice writing and read good books.>
Sam Reviews Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue"
December 31, 2009
It is probably best to say upfront what Going Rogue is not: it is not a book that gives us the views of Sarah Palin on issues of foreign and domestic policy.
Rather, it is a book that according to Sarah Palin was written to tell Americans who she is, where she came from, why she believes what she does and to set the record straight.
Pundits like Stephen Chapman who ridiculed the book never once acknowledged the merciless and relentless character assassination practiced by journalists during the campaign at her and her family's expense.
Instead, he goes off on an irrelevant tangent and compares her book to one written by Barry Goldwater and commentaries written by Ronald Reagan. But neither of these men had to withstand the withering assault that drove less grounded politicians like presidential hopeful Edmond Muskie to tears and out of the race during the 1972 campaign. Goldwater and Reagan were free to express themselves at a time when "absence of malice" still carried weight in the Fourth Estate.
Chapman implied that Palin has a simplistic view of the role of government. Limited is more accurate. She states that government has three purposes: infrastructure (e.g. roads, sewers, water, electricity, natural gas, oil); education (e.g., primary, secondary, post-secondary); and protection (police, firefighters, military, courts, environment). Federal government should be as small as possible and only as large as necessary. Most government, she says, should be left to the states and local politicians. The primary responsibility of government, she says, is to provide freedom for people to live their lives and run their communities as they see fit.
What is it that makes a surprising number of people question the intellectual horsepower of Sarah Palin? I believe that it is the simple way she expresses herself. She is painfully informal. Her vocabulary is never atmospheric.
Does this mean she is not smart? No. She is quick on the uptake -- savvy -- even politically savvy -- and she knows how to connect with "real people". Her views are uncomplicated. She sticks to Concepts and Big Ideas that people are able to grasp and understand. She has no pretences. Chapman and others like him despise her "guts", but she proved she has more than most men.
Listen to or read a speech by the brilliant Bill Gates. He expresses himself like an eighteen year old. The fact that he was never educated beyond high school is obvious. Despite this, I never hear anyone criticize the content of his discourse.
So it is with Sarah Palin.
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Sarah Palin's story opens with her parents moving to a remote village in Alaska. It is here, in the wilds and austerity of small town life in America that her values were set in stone. They were values based on hard work and living off the land. Her story is foreign to those who grew up in suburbia and big cities or on the coasts. Her life was fishing, hunting, small town sports, and earning good grades in school. Community, Faith and Family trumped watching television or becoming enamored with Hollywood. Malls were nonexistent. Mom and Pop businesses, established by other likeminded Alaskans, created her perspective. She lived a life without glamour or glitz.
Her husband, part Eskimo, is what used to be called a man's man. Incredible fortitude. Expert in the outdoors. He tamed nature and its creatures. And Sarah Palin.
Todd and Sarah Palin started out life together with ordinary expectations. Politics were never in their calculus. Todd was a "sloper" who worked the northern oil fields of Alaska. Palin did some light journalistic work and raised the family. In the summers they fished with Todd's family in a seaside locale called Bristol.
Palin was invited to run for the City Council of Wasilla by a sitting Council member. It is the first time that she was underestimated by both political allies and foes. To the dismay of her political allies, she went on to become mayor. She was underestimated by State Republicans when she was appointed to a state oil committee and drove corrupt politicians from office. And she was underestimated again when she ran for state office and was eventually elected governor.
When she entered National Politics, however, the Democrats would make no such mistake. They would not underestimate the confidence and persuasiveness and drive of this "unremarkable" woman.
The isolation of Juneau, Alaska's capital, which can only be reached by plane or ferry, is used by Palin as a metaphor for the isolation and elitism that she claims eventually comes to possess nearly all politicians who gravitate to seats of power. Elitists who do whatever they want in spite of their constituents.
Ms. Palin offers us her personal responses to difficulties that also give us insight of her character: the mixed emotions when she learned that her son Trig would be afflicted with Down Syndrome; Todd's reaction to the news; and when she learned that daughter Bristol was pregnant and her surprise and hurt at the delighted ferocity of the Media.
Sarah Palin received a call from John McCain to enter the National frenzy called presidential politics. I will let you read the details of the constant Media distortion of all things Sarah Palin. Suffice it to say that Ms. Palin's upbringing and her faith in God were keys to her ability to re-center herself whenever the criticism or chaos threatened to careen out of control. She has an interesting way to gage whether change is needed: if she can't sleep, something is awry, and it is time for a change.
During the campaign, I found Ms. Palin's reaction to her handlers disconcerting. Despite her concerns when the handlers appeared completely inept, Ms. Palin resisted caving to her political instincts to rebel and was surprisingly compliant to their demands. As Bill O'Reilly said during his recent interview with Ms. Palin, he could not have complied with the direction of McCain's campaign that silenced her voice and kept her "on script". As I read over and over again her willingness to comply with the unreasonable control exercised by "campaign headquarters", I wondered at her readiness to "remain true to the team". I have to conclude that it was only her immense respect for John McCain -- for whom there is not an iota of criticism in the book -- that led to such complete cooperation despite her misgivings.
There were many miscues by the McCain team, and it becomes clear as you progress through the story of the campaign that it never took full advantage of the woman who reenergized the Republican campaign's chances.
The unethical use of ethics rules by Democrats and their moneyed cronies to continue the suffocating assault on Governor Palin when she returned to Alaska was telling. Finding herself unable to sleep, she knew that change was necessary for the good of her state and constituents. The result was the controversial decision to leave office and do something else in life.
Unfortunately, we never get a real sense from the book of who Todd Palin is. We learn that he is a supportive husband who never wavers in his optimism or belief in the values that he and his family have embraced. Other than that, we really do not know what he thinks or for that matter what he thinks about.
In the end, Going Rogue is a "must read" book for every American frustrated with politics as usual. It will end any naive perceptions Americans might have about the nobility of our current political class.
Public servants they are not.
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