Searchlight Shining

Finding America's Way Back Through the Dark Night

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done. - Ronald Reagan

This is a moment in American history where that statement rings true like never before. As the statist government marches on in defiance of the will of the people and they take over more and more of our private economy, Sarah Palin tells people to stay energized, be excited and believe we can take our country back. At a Tea Party rally in Searchlight, NV on Saturday, she said "America is going to be just fine — keep up the good work — if we stick to our principles." Palin's optimism in the face of what many see as the beginning of that thousand years of darkness was simply Reaganesque.

Research that I am doing to try to convince myself that we are really not headed toward becoming a European style socialist democracy is not convincing me. Instead, I'm finding serious clues as to how the Shadow Party, the radicals, the progressives and statists are taking steps to "fundamentally transform America." The European style socialist democracy they are manipulating us toward is only just a step. After that, it could be on to full blown Hugo Chavez style communism here in America if they are not stopped.

It's very dark in America right now as we struggle to extract our country from the hands of socialists, progressives and statists. Ronald Reagan showed us what "morning in America" looks like. Barack Obama shows us the middle of the night. Sarah Palin helps us find our way through that dark night.

Out of that darkness shines a light, a ray of true hope that searches for liberty. The light shines from the woman who was brutally "beaten" after losing her VP run in November. She was marginalized, smeared and forced out of office by Democrats who were trying to politically and financially bankrupt her. Thrown on the defensive, Palin rebuilt her public image by writing a book, giving speeches, using social media and becoming a Fox News contributor. On Saturday, Palin went on offense. After emerging from the smear campaign stronger, smarter and more politically savvy than ever, Palin reloaded and fired in the direction of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.

"We're sending a message to Washington. It's loud and it's clear, and in these upcoming elections we're saying that the big-government, big-debt, Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending spree is over. You're fired!" Palin told the crowd which was estimated to be somewhere between 20,000 to 25,000 people.

She also took the opportunity for a full frontal assault on the media which once tried to destroy her. “We’re not inciting violence," Palin said. "Don’t get sucked into the lame-stream media lies." Palin, who herself knows what it's like to be a victim of a smear campaign told the audience to stay energized and not be sidetracked by the "bunch of bunk... the media is trying to feed you.”

What struck me most about the speech was her undying optimism. She told us not to worry. She said “it’s nothing a good old-fashioned election can’t fix.” Smiling and breaking it down simply, Palin told us we can take our country back. "America is going to be just fine," she said. This calming effect she had on her followers was completely missed by the mainstream media who chose, of course, to focus on anything that they could spin into incendiary rhetoric.

Forget what the media says about her speech. Understand what really happened there. Average everyday Americans came out to share their feelings about what the government is doing to them. They could feel what Sarah was saying to them.

These are times again when I feel "it." I almost forgot what "it" was since "it" was only a memory of how I felt when Reagan spoke. It would be two decades before I would feel "it" again when Sarah spoke at the RNC in Minnesota and now again in Searchlight. When she speaks, it feels as if Reagan is with us, his spirit filling the air around her. Rachelle Friberg was there and she describes "it" perfectly on her blog Conservative Girl With a Voice:

As she spoke, five jets wrote messages in puffy, white smoke above in the crystal-blue sky. One of the messages read Thank you, Sarah Palin. Another read, God bless Sarah Palin. I learned later that night from a friend that Sarah looked up to the sky at one point and blushed, and I have a feeling she was looking at what was being written. She was overwhelmed at just how amazing the whole event was. It was during her speech that I developed shivers and had tears in my eyes.

Many of us feel that we stand on the precipice of history worrying that America may be taking that first step into a thousand years of darkness. And in that voice of hers, Sarah tells us "nah, that ain't gonna happen."


Writer's Note: Please visit The Other McCain to get a flavor of what the rally was like. The picture which appears on this post is courtesy of Robert Stacy McCain.