padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
other thoughts, which may get into some of the above questions

a major point that you didn't mention at all was the initial roots - predating Palin - of the Tea Party as a fake grassroots movement astroturfed by the Koch bros - i.e. FreedomWorks, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Sam Adams Alliance, etc - and others in the GOP establishment. Obv that was quickly overwhelmed by the deep well of real and volatile feelings it tapped into, which the comet of Palin streaking across the night sky set ablaze. But you're underselling I think the level of the GOP establishment - or elements of it - setting its own destruction in motion by cynically unleashing a tiger, thinking it could be ridden to victory and then basically discarded/ignored like Reagan and the Moral Majority in the 80s. the Palin VP pick is particularly cynical and damaging instance in the long tradition of the GOP elite (and an even longer tradition in the American political class more generally) exploiting a sincere belief in that Tocquevillian view of America to its own ends.

one of the most important points you make, I think, is Palin grasping that crucial distinction between heterogenous social movement and political (or specifically GOP) enthusiasm long before I think any other major political figure or most of the press, precisely because as you say she did share and understand their feelings and core beliefs. but, there's something about the inability of the Tocquevillian view to survive contact with the reality of politics. the Palin/Trump relation is only aberrant in scale - it inevitably winds up ceding responsibility to and even actively enabling the worst kind of cynical, self-serving elements.

For me it's an inability to grasp what "the swamp" actually entails. It's like the medieval convention of avoiding directly attacking the king by blaming everything on his evil counselors. You can't separate the swamp from American politics. It is American politics. That was true in the 1790s - all the Revolutionary heroes having to climb down from Mount Olympus into the muck and slime of day-to-day to politics is one of the most interesting facets of the post-revolutionary period - and it's true today. For people with such a cynical vision of centralized authority - which I generally share tbc - they have a shockingly optimistic view of individual behavior, linked to (yr typical left/anarcho types like me would probably say) a misplaced quasi-religious faith in the infallibility of markets.

Really it seems like you could say Tocquevillian/Jeffersonian/Jacksonian conservatism is essentially a centuries-long rearguard action in a fight that Hamilton - as historians have long-known and theatergoers recently discovered - already won in the 1780s and 90s.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
tbc I agree with basically everything you wrote and yr main theses, just doing some fine-tuning/thinking out loud

trying to gin up a worthy response to such a worthy effort
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Brilliant, thanks Padraig, delighted you enjoyed it.

I'll answer your points with my opinions, which is all they are.

Would Trump have happened in the same way without Palin? I have no idea, but I think possibly yes, but then, without Palin who knows what would've happened? I stopped short of saying that Palin caused or led to Trump, because there is no evidence for it. It would have been a more compelling thesis if that were the case, but then it would have also been more obvious, and my essay would have been superfluous. I do think she was one of the most important figures on the road to Trump, almost like a gateway drug for Republican grassroots activists. She focused and expressed a lot of tendencies and feelings that led to Trump. She was also a catalyst for the Tea Party (although not a leader), and their influence on gubernatorial and primary races from 2010 to 2016 was a massive source of friction and fear for the GOP, as well as a cynical opportunity as you say. She didn't cause Trump, but she was a catalyst for (and symbol of) that journey.

Populist takeover - I would have a similar answer. She was a catalyst for it, and a symbol of it, but she didn't cause it. The VP pick was therefore a very important, fateful moment for the revival of populism that the Tea Party represented, but it wasn't the only reason for it, and didn't on its own make it inevitable. Ultimately, Bush and Obama were more important.

Viable candidate 2012 - no, I don't think she was. Maybe she knew it. I don't think she has ever addressed her decision not to run, but it is an interesting and important decision. If she had been the 2012 candidate, she would have lost, I think that is obvious - but the interesting question is, would her candidacy have hastened or prevented Trump 2016?

Thatcher/Palin - the comparisons are superficial. Thatcher is one of her political heroes, she says as much in both her books, but then doesn't dwell on it. Thatcher was an active participant in the political and economic ideas that become orthodoxy for conservatives by the time Palin was studying and then working as a politician. Also, like you say, Palin is very much an American politician and is invested in Constitutional issues. Her most Thatcherite moment was when she broke the oil company monopoly on the Alaskan gas pipeline and put the project out to private tender, and she also enacted a lot of free market policies as Mayor of Wasilla. She admired Thatcher as a female politician, but you can only push that so far - in Going Rogue she also talks about how much she admired Hilary Clinton as a female politician!

Tea Party - I take your point about the Tea Party funding, and I wasn't unaware of it. There's a lot been written and speculated about the money behind the movement and I wasn't writing a history of the Tea Party as such, nor do I think that the various sources of background funding were the most significant thing about it. Also, to be fair, there are a lot off different origin stories about the Tea Party, and they are probably all simultaneously true because it wasn't a unified thing.

I probably did undersell this, I guess, but I do talk about the GOP establishment patronising and exploiting the grassroots, it's definitely one of the points I make, from the perspective of the VP pick but then also mobilising the Tea Party in the midterms, until they found it getting uncomfortable and out of control. Also, it is really interesting how basically all the former Tea Party candidates (apart from Haley) ended up attacking Trump, while the Tea Party grassroots clung to him harder.

I think all of your points I pretty much agree with, however. Great feedback, thanks, I appreciate it. It was an easy essay to write, so much fun!
 
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craner

Beast of Burden
@luka I got loads of readers from Facebook, thanks!

Twitter is useless, I never get any traction there, apart from my Swansea essay which got picked up by a load of local historians and Swansea literary types, which was gratifying!
 

luka

Well-known member
Twitter has become a closed shop. There was a time when it was almost a level playing field but that's long gone now. It's stage managed and policed and status obsessed.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
It must have been OK, because I was really expecting to get hazed here for being soft on Palin.
 

luka

Well-known member
Padraig said you were a little starry eyed and naive which seemed fair but then again you're in love so it's to be expected. She's your muse. It was really fun to read and obviously fun to write.
 

craner

Beast of Burden

My piece was better than this one. This only has one idea and it just drills it into the ground.
 

sus

Well-known member
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craner

Beast of Burden
You'll be proud of me lads, I was just completely shameless on Twitter:


This is how it's supposed to work, isn't it? I mean, it won't for me, but this is the kind of desperate, shameless self-promotion you're meant to do these days, right? I hate it.
 

luka

Well-known member
what i'd also do is search for 'sarah palin' and the post the article with a brief blurb under every search result
 
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