SIXTY-NINE

Actual doodles as Palin brainstormed
for her mayoral campaign...

On p. 69 of GR, Sarah is in her second term as a member of the Wasilla City Council. She has now decided to challenge the long-time incumbent, John Stein, for the office of Mayor of Wasilla.

She writes, "A key question arose that convinced me that the town needed new leadership, and it went right back to my concerns about heavy-handed government. The issue was forced annexation. Stein and some council members were fine with forcing other areas of the Mat-Su Borough to become part of the City of Wasilla. With a bigger footprint, the city would increase the size of its tax base, plus gain political power in Juneau.

"But they tried to sell it with rhetoric like 'Government's here to help; trust us, you need better public services.' For me, it went back to people being able to think for themselves. If they wanted Wasilla's services--and Wasilla's property taxes--then they'd choose [italics in original] to be part of Wasilla. I supported annexation by invitation instead."

This whole passage demonstrates Sarah's deep and profound understanding of what we may term "civic architecture." She understands the intimate and true nature of the "building blocks" that coalesce and come together to raise on high a marvel that is more wonderful and lovely than even the most grand and glorious physical edifice: A community of free men and women, living together in the peace and harmony of Ordered Liberty.

Let us consider the case of a physical structure, such as a building. If the architect and the builders do not take into careful account the nature and the properties of all of the elements of steel, brick, concrete, glass, etc. that are combined to raise up the work, then that work will soon collapse; its parts will not cleave and hold to each other.

He or she who would construct something must understand, above all, two things, what we may call the "Alpha and Omega," "The Beginning and the End" of any project. These are, first, the fundamental elements that will serve as the material parts of the structure and, second, the final goal and plan for the finished product. There must be a compatibility and "sympathy" between the parts and the whole!

Let us next consider for a moment what the Lord does when he brings two people together for the holy estate of matrimony. He takes two hearts, the depths of whose nature only He knows, and binds them together in eternal bonds. He is the Master Builder. He knows how to cement his bricks together, two by two, throughout time. From the families that are thus created, arise cities, nations, civilizations…all from the union and unity of hearts, two-by-two!!

Let us then consider a Free People. What is the "mortar" that will bind and hold its "bricks" together? It is the mortar of mutual trust; it is the mortar of mutual fidelity; it is the mortar of mutual esteem; it is the mortar of the shared ideals of Liberty.

Sarah knows well, and has understood from her earliest days, that there can be no lasting State where coercion and force and tyranny replace freedom. Where INTERIOR unity is lacking, it is only through gulags and guns, through torture and terror that a "State" can be temporarily held together in a "union" that is as deceptive as it is transitory, as fickle as it is fleeting.

God created men and women to be FREE. He has given us a Lady Warrior who well understands that it is only FREE men and women who can hold together and preserve the Res Publica Americana.

Sarah is reaching out her hands and opening her heart right now, appealing to Americans to follow her lead in RESTORING America. She cannot and she would not FORCE anyone. However, if enough of us choose FREELY to follow her lead, we shall witness in our days a true and new rebirth of Liberty in America.


Read It For Yourself:

Other Great Sarah Books:

Palin Essentials:

Credits:

All sidebar photos are from Wikimedia. I have tried to post all royalty-free images or to get permission, but in a few cases I could not locate the original source of a photograph or find a way to ask permission.


Contact info: bbrianus@gmail.com.

Other Great Going Rogue Reviews:

Jedediah Bila:

"Palin’s inviting first-person narration that is sometimes whimsical, often confident, and always patriotic...Going Rogue is truly one of those reads in which you put the book down after your eyes graze the final lines and you somehow feel like the writer is someone you’ve known all your life."
John Ziegler:

"I was simply blown away by Going Rogue on almost every level. For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime..."
Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata:
"Her book washes away all doubts that any reader might have had about her readiness to be president. She comes across as exceptionally bright, dedicated, and passionate about public service. Her moral compass is strong, pointing true North in this case. And she has a wicked sense of humor."
Don Surber:
"Conservatives know why Palin is still standing — and standing taller today than those who tried to bring her down. What does not kill you makes you stronger. Thank you, Tina Fey."

Sarah Palin is Coming to Town

Review by Stanley Fish:

When I walked into the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan last week, I headed straight for the bright young thing who wore an “Ask Me” button, and asked her to point me to the section of the store where I might find Sarah Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.” She looked at me as if I had requested a copy of “Mein Kampf” signed in blood by the author....


A few days later...I had begun reading Palin’s book, and while I wouldn’t count myself a fan in the sense of being a supporter, I found it compelling and very well done....

First, the art. The book has an architectonic structure that is built around a single moment, the moment when Palin receives a call from John McCain inviting her to be the vice-presidential candidate of the Republican party. When we first hear about the call it is as much a surprise to us as it was (at least as reported) to her, because for six pages she has been recounting a wonderful family outing at the Alaska State Fair. When her phone rings, she hopes it might be a call from her son Track, a soldier soon to deploy to Iraq, but “it was Senator John McCain asking if I wanted to help him change history.”

And that’s the last we hear of it for 200 pages. In between we hear a lot about Wasilla, high school, basketball, college, marriage, children, Down syndrome, Alaska politics, the environment, a daughter’s pregnancy. The re-entry of John McCain into the narrative on page 208 introduces Palin’s account of the presidential campaign and its aftermath, especially her decision to resign the governorship before the end of her term....


Paradoxically, the effect of the neatly spaced references to the call is to de-emphasize it as a dramatic moment. It is presented not as a climax, but as an interruption of matters more central to Palin’s abiding concerns — her family, Alaska’s prosperity, energy policy. (She loves to rehearse the kind of wonkish details we associate with Hillary Clinton, whom she admires.)

Indeed, it is a feature of this narrative that events we might have expected to be foregrounded are elided or passed over. Palin introduced herself to the nation with a powerful, electrifying speech accepting McCain’s invitation to join the ticket. It gets half a sentence (“I gave my speech”)....


The only event that receives an extended discussion is her resignation. It is important to her because as an act it reflects on her integrity, and she has to be sure (as she eventually was) that she was doing it for the right reasons.

Resigning was a moral act for which she was responsible. The vice-presidential candidacy just happened to her; her account of it reads like an extended “what-I-did-on-my summer-and fall-vacation” essay.


For many politicians, family life is sandwiched in between long hours in public service. Palin wants us to know that for her it is the reverse. Political success is an accident that says nothing about you. Success as a wife, mother and citizen says everything...

I find the voice undeniably authentic...It is the voice of small-town America, with its folk wisdom, regional pride, common sense, distrust of rhetoric (itself a rhetorical trope), love of country and instinctive (not doctrinal) piety.

It says, here are some of the great things that have happened to me, but they are not what makes my life great and American. (“An American life is an extraordinary life.”) It says, don’t you agree with me that family, freedom and the beauties of nature are what sustain us?


And it also says, vote for me next time. For it is the voice of a politician, of the little girl who thought she could fly, tried it, scraped her knees, dusted herself off and “kept walking.”

In the end, perseverance, the ability to absorb defeat without falling into defeatism, is the key to Palin’s character. It’s what makes her run in both senses of the word and it is no accident that the physical act of running is throughout the book the metaphor for joy and real life. Her handlers in the McCain campaign wouldn’t let her run (a mistake, I think, even at the level of photo-op), no doubt because they feared another opportunity to go “off script,” to “go rogue.”

But run she does (and falls, but so what?), and when it is all over and she has lost the vice presidency and resigned the governorship, she goes on a long run and rehearses in her mind the eventful year she has chronicled. And as she runs, she achieves equilibrium and hope: “We’ve been through amazing days, and really, there wasn’t one thing to complain about. I feel such freedom, such hope, such thankfulness for our country, a place where nothing is hopeless.”

The message is clear. America can’t be stopped. I can’t be stopped. I’ve stumbled and fallen, but I always get up and run again. Her political opponents, especially those who dismissed Ronald Reagan before he was elected, should take note. Wherever you are, you better watch out. Sarah Palin is coming to town.

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