America By Heart Lights the Way

Ronald Reagan once said that it’s not that he was a great communicator, but that he communicated great things. Our 40th president was able to capture the spirit of our Founding Fathers and unite it with the deep grassroots desire of citizens at a time when the nation needed to return to the basic Constitutional principles upon which it was founded. When Reagan left us, it was thought, so did his philosophy. But, following the 2008 election, there has been a return to the longing for the American exceptionalism and the core fundamental underpinnings of the Constitution.

Historians and social psychologists can study the reasons why Reaganism went on the decline since he left office. America’s return to the progressive agenda set by those going back to the Great Depression is steeped in deception, sugar coating and the exploitation of the apathetic and the poor. Barack Obama’s blatant radical shift in our country’s direction, however, served as a wake up call for those who once called themselves the silent majority. Like sheep on their way to the slaughter pen, the American people feasted first on the grain of hope and change. Prodded effortlessly by a complicit media, an unhappy public rejected the status quo of a two party system which seemed to only reward cronies and insiders at the expense of the people and on the taxpayer’s dime.

Having forgotten the virtues of the Constitution (in part because of a complicit academia), the American people hungered. But for what, they really didn’t know yet.

Then came Sarah Palin. Many began to catch on when Sarah Palin was chosen to be John McCain’s running mate, but 57 days wasn't enough time. Obama still won the election in 2008. Yet as the “sheep” drew closer to the slaughter, they bucked up and saved themselves in the nick of time by forming Tea Party groups and by speaking out against the political reaper’s socialist scythe just as it was about to fall. We were so close to being thrown into that thousand years of darkness that Reagan warned us about. We were really close.

Many of the young people in the Tea Party movement who have become politically active were either not yet born or too young to remember Ronald Reagan’s presidency. But they have taken to it like hungry nestlings by researching it and learning from us older folks what it was like to be an American between 1980 and 1988. Although they may not have experienced first hand the exhilaration and the pride that we felt as Americans under the strong and capable leadership of the great Ronald Reagan, you can tell from their blogs, their tweets and their comments that they long to know what we older people did; and that they long to live in a country where capital and capitalism was abundant.

These people are learning their Constitutional Conservatism from Sarah Palin in much the same way those youngsters of this writer’s generation learned it from Ronald Reagan. While reading Palin’s America by Heart, it jumped off the page. It was my political philosophy. It was the political philosophy that this young college student honed in his mind and which he had learned by becoming a devout follower of Ronald Reagan. Sarah Palin had taken everything I knew to be true and gave it back to me in the most purest and most articulate of ways.

The children of today are learning the same philosophy as those of a generation ago. We were enamored by Reagan in much the same way they are enamored by Palin. My generation hung on his every word. Our mouths dropped in awe as we watched someone in power tell us the real deal in a world full of charlatans and demagogues. We were no longer crazy to believe in individual initiative and to reject cronyism and collectivism. We were right.

The historical parallels are there for those who wonder about Palin's electability or simply were too young to remember how it all went down. Mark Whittington explains in an excellent piece (h/t Texas4Palin):

Some have suggested that there is a historic parallel to a Palin candidacy. In late 1978, Ronald Reagan, himself a former governor and media star, was considered a has-been politician who had tried for the presidency in 1976 and had fallen short. Reagan was ridiculed, like Palin, for his alleged lack of intelligence and his alleged extremism. Yet, in 1980, Ronald Reagan beat President Jimmy Carter and became the 40th President of the United States.

All that the true conservative philosophy needed was a voice. And once that voice spoke, the people came to it not because they are lemmings or because of the cadence of how the speech was delivered, but because the words that were being spoken were true. It happened when Reagan came. It is happening again with Palin.

And just as they did to Reagan, the media and the Establishment derides and mocks Sarah Palin. They find flaws with her educational background, intellect and family in much the same way they did with Reagan. But they cannot touch the philosophy. They won’t even rebut it. They can’t. The closest they can come to attacking the philosophy is to call her an extremist and then not comment further. That’s it.

Sarah Palin's latest book, America By Heart, is proof positive that she is now the articulater of the true conservative philosophy. It lays out Constitutional Conservatism and quotes great conservatives of the past, including Reagan.

What Reagan and Palin both represent is an upsetting truth that draws ridicule from the Left and from the Establishment because it threatens their ways of collectivism, social engineering and cronyism. Constitutional conservatism to them is a danger to the status quo of their power structure. They're afraid that Palin may succeed. And they will do anything to plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of the people.

The people must be strong and courageous if they want to change their nation. Morning in America is a beautiful place. But it will require hard work and mental fortitude to get there. Follow her because she light's the way. Don't be distracted by the pundits and the critics.