Palin is a maverick in the GOP

Last week I wrote an article repudiating the lies regarding Sarah Palin that are being told in the media and on liberal Web sites. But there’s so much more to this fascinating woman than just the faux scandals.

Her beginnings in politics were very modest.

“I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better,” Pailin said in her acceptance speech for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination.

From there, she went on to describe her rise to Wasilla City Council and eventually mayor. In 2006, she defeated Republican incumbent Governor, Frank Murkowski.

When Palin became mayor in 1996, she told her constituents that she was going to reduce spending and lower taxes. According to the New York Times, one of her first spending cuts was her own salary. Throughout her years as mayor, she reduced property taxes by a whopping 75 percent as reported by the Anchorage Daily News. As a senior business major, that has been taught by some of the best professors at this university. I can assure you that more money in people’s hands and less in the government’s coffers is always beneficial to the economy.

Sarah Palin was also a very ‘hands on’ executive when she was mayor. The Seattle Times reported that while Palin was mayor of Wasilla, she kept a jar of names of her constituents and once a week she would pick out a name and call up that citizen and get an opinion on the city.

Palin truly is a small government politician. Often times, even the most idealistic, small government politician will fall victim to the lure of power and big spending. This is precisely what has happened with other Alaskan Republicans, particularly Republican Senator Ted Stevens and former Governor Murkowski. You may recognize Stevens’ name for one of two despicable reasons. He’s the author of the highly criticized Bridge to Nowhere proposal, which Governor, Palin opposed, according to National Public Radio (NPR). Stevens has also been indicted by a grand jury on seven counts of falsely reporting gifts.

When Sarah Palin became governor she created ethics reform and according to her nomination acceptance speech, put the governor’s personal jet on eBay and fired the governor’s personal chef. While she has only been governor two years, she has been busy making serious changes to Alaska’s government for everyone’s benefit. And I do mean everyone. As governor, Palin signed off on plans for the TransCanada Pipelines, which will take drilled Alaskan oil down to the Continental U.S. once the ban on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is lifted.

When a presidential candidate picks a vice presidential candidate, they look for someone that can help them win in November. There’s no doubt that McCain’s pick of Palin will certainly help him win this election. Some say that McCain only picked Palin because she is a woman, but the truth is that she was the best pick for social conservatives to rally behind. Conservatives would not be rallying behind Romney, Pawlenty, Lieberman or Tom Ridge the way that they are supporting Palin.

John McCain has spent his whole career as a maverick. That is why I generally disagree with him and strongly considered not voting for him. However, by picking Sarah Palin the conservative base is as fired up as ever and his recent lead in the polls is showing it.

However, it shows the sad state of the Republican Party when a small government, social conservative like Sarah Palin, is considered a maverick by her party. It’s not that her social views are out of line with the party, but rather her strong stance against ear-mark spending, support for a balanced budget and a strictly small government mindset are no longer mainstream in the GOP.

A few months ago, I stumbled across a blog where a conservative mentioned Sarah Palin and directed me to YouTube videos of her. For an hour straight I watched interviews and speeches of hers on YouTube and the whole time I was thinking that this woman is the future of the Republican Party. Now, I’m thinking this woman is the new Republican Party.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 19 2008. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry