As progressives, democrats, and liberals, we see Sarah Palin for what she is... But do Republicans? Were there Republicans with whom you might not agree, but you could have a conversation and exchange view points while standing in line at the grocery, or in the lobby of a school auditorium, school gym, or playing field as you wait to watch your children perform or compete together? I had Republican friends and associates before Sara Palin but now the experience with Republican counterparts is not the same. I explain why below the fold.
I used to know some fair minded decent people who belonged to the Republican Party. We would not agree at times, but I did not consider them unreasonable. Pretentious at times, but generally nice respectable people. I guess our greatest points of contention were the different ways we perceived lower income people, minorities, the communities they reside, resources that are not equally accessible to them, and the way to address those issues. (Sound a bit familiar?). It always seemed like I could concur with some of their observations, but their concurring to any of mine meant, to them somehow, that their whole mental scaffolding was bearing collapse. Be that as it may, we would agree to disagree.
Now mind you, my sample of Republicans is limited in that I am one person. However, I am from Indiana, the Crossroads of America(n) (Conservatism) as it were, and I have rubbed elbows with some of the brightest people from all over the that state from both Democratic and Republican parties. I also attended a very small conservative private university while there and earned a bachelors degree in business sales and marketing. I worked as an employment specialist in the Welfare to Work initiative constructed by the Republican Administration in place at the time. Lastly, I was a fellow in the 2008 campaign for then Senator and now President, Barack Obama, in central Florida. I share those things as an attempt to give you a gauge, if you will, of my exposure to and experience with, the Republican mindset and culture.
Then came Sarah Palin, and I began to wonder, of the Republicans of which I had encountered over my lifetime, how many of them would co-sign on her ballot? Of those who did cosign, what made them do it? Habit? Protection of the old guard? You cannot protect what ceases to exist. Her whole thing was go rogue and go rouge.
It is just difficult for me to understand how, for the lack of worth in all she says, people I may not have agreed with but respected, possibly rallied and possibly continue to rally, behind incoherent, narrow vision, narrow scope, unintelligible babble.
Does anyone wonder the same? Does it make you wonder if her thoughts do indeed reflect what were always the actual thoughts of Republican Party? If so, what does all that really mean? Is what she expresses what the Republicans really wanted to say all along? Were conversations had in good faith by one just a chain jerking session for the other? If not, then where did those Republicans who do not agree with her or her kind go? I do not have much contact with Republicans now. They are seemingly more and more unapproachable.