The Specifics of an Exceptionally Big Government and American Exceptionalism

On Friday, Governor Palin gave a wonderful speech, sharing her thoughts on Reagan's " A Time for Choosing" speech in 1964. Governor Palin also spent time meeting and taking photos with the more than 300 speech attendees. Stacy Drake at C4P pointed out over the weekend, New York Times reporter, Jeff Zeleny, attended the speech wearing both earplugs and a blindfold, claiming that Governor Palin didn't mingle or meet with guests. He neither heard Young America's Foundation's Kate Obenshain mention that all attendees would have the opportunity to meet Governor Palin and have their picture taken with her, nor saw that while he claimed Governor Palin didn't mingle with attendees, a photo accompanying his article (with the caption "Ms. Palin greets guests after her speech") showed her doing just that.

Byron York at the Washington Examiner, in an otherwise fair piece, also wore a blindfold and earplugs at the event, seeing only 200 attendees and hearing only from those who would not support Governor Palin for President, highly unlikely for the size and setting of the crowd. CBS was among those who also decide to wear earplugs at the speech, claiming like so many pundits and "journalists" do any time Governor Palin speaks, that she is short on policy specifics.

Upon watching and listening to Governor Palin's speech, one can see that she had a broad message supported by specifics. The broad message? Exceptionally big government leads us on the path to ruin, but American exceptionalism lifts us from the rubble of the ruin and allows us to rebuild. The specifics that Governor Palin shared outline the ruin that big government creates, the reforms and policy changes needed to clean up the rubble, and the American exceptionalism that needs to be embraced to allow us to rebuild.

Governor Palin outlined the specifics of the ruin big government has created: a $14 trillion national debt, a $1.5 trillion deficit, 84% increase in federal spending over the last 2 years,17% real unemployment, and 2.9 million home foreclosures in the last year, along with "stimulus" spending and "investing". Doesn't that sound like the specifics of the ruins of big government and the boxcars of the "bullet train to bankruptcy"? In addition to statistical specifics, Governor Palin addressed the problems with unproven "green energy", speaking specifically of the unemployment and debt in Spain due to an overemphasis on green jobs. She mentioned the problems with pervasive "crony capitalism on steroids", perhaps like when General Electric received a regulatory break following GE CEO heading a jobs panel for the Obama administration.

Governor Palin not only identified the rubble of the ruins of big government; she also identified the steps that need to be taken to clean up the rubble. Governor Palin emphasized the need for entitlement reform, something that she has mentioned on numerous occasions including her endorsement of Congressman Ryan's Roadmap. She also mentioned the need to cut, not just freeze spending at their historically high levels. She mentioned the need to cut corporate taxes to allow for job creation. These measures allow America to pick up the economic pieces and lay the foundations to allow American exceptionalism to build.

Governor Palin specifically mentioned three industries, that if only they weren't over-regulated, would provide jobs and an economic boost to America--energy, agriculture, and manufacturing. Governor Palin mentioned how an all-of-the-above approach to energy that included drilling would provide hundreds of thousands of good paying job, lower fuel prices, and less dependence on non-allied or enemy sources of oil. Of course, the Obama administration has doubled down on blocking drilling in the Gulf and elsewhere, even to the point of being held in contempt. Manufacturing and agricultural jobs are indeed over-regulated, as the EPA now even requires milk spills to be treated the same way as oil spills. Governor Palin also spoke of the American people's willingness to work hard if only over-regulations were removed to enable job creators to indeed create jobs. This is how rebuilding can be done after the rubble has been identified and removed. Governor Palin went on to speak of the work ethic, self-determination, and trust in God that our grandparents had. Those attributes are among those that make America exceptional, and those are the kinds of attributes that define the western conservatism that both President Reagan and Governor Palin embraced.

If the press and pundits would remove the blindfolds and earplugs, they may get a better picture of the specific perils of an exceptionally big government and the specific solutions that lie in American exceptionalism.

Crossposted here, here, here, and here.

The Audacity of American Exceptionalism

Last night I finished reading Governor Palin's newest book, America by Heart. It was a wonderful, encouraging, challenging read. In fact, I fear I read it too quickly and didn't let everything sink in--kind of like when you regret eating a piece of dark chocolate too quickly. I will be re-reading it soon.

I found the book almost to be like an American took a theoretical journey similar to that of Alexis de Tocqueville when he traveled throughout all of America in the early 19th century observing American culture, politics, and Founding documents. In a sense, that's what Governor Palin did when she wrote this book. She viewed America's Founding documents, speeches by Presidents like Reagan, Kennedy, and Coolidge. She spoke of American work ethic and how great joy comes through the effort of hard work, not entitlement. She wrote of issues of race and feminism. She wrote of her personal experiences with family-- the birth of her children and her relationship with her husband. She wrote of her faith--how it is both deeply personal, but also very public.

Many politicians and political leaders write about such things, but there is something different about how Governor Palin presents the message. I think it has something to do with the title--America by Heart. It wasn't America by Mind or Thoughts on American Exceptionalism; it was America by Heart. The thoughts that she put down on paper were heart-felt. They were genuine. She didn't present a long dissertation on feminism or economics, but she did present well-reasoned, heart felt thoughts on those topics. You knew that she meant every word she wrote. Her words weren't focused group tested or written for the sake of political expediency; they were written because she meant them.

During the 2008 campaign, in the nascent days of my political awareness, I decided to read Obama's book, the Audacity of Hope, and McCain's book, Faith of my Fathers, prior to election day, hoping to get a first person perspective of the two men running for president. Prior to the 2008 campaign, I'd only really seen the term,"hope", as a religious term. Particularly, I always thought of hope as described by the writer of Hebrews in the New Testament: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". We hope for things in the future, and things not of this world, but of eternity. Without getting too theological, suffice it to say, hope to me, was looking ahead to something, rather than viewing things in light of the present or the past.

When Obama's campaign mantra was "hope and change", what I thought about was a forward focused hope in what the country could be changed to. This is what Obama said, even a fundamental transformation of America. What America is currently is not good. There is no American exceptionalism--at least exclusively. He was "bold" enough to hope though that America could and would be transformed to something "better". This is what separates President Obama and Governor Palin both in terms of their books and their ideology. Governor Palin's book outlines American Exceptionalism as America was in its founding and what it still is today. There isn't a hoping for a better America. That exceptional America is already here, if we choose to recognize who we are as a nation and what our Founders intended for America to be. This is why Governor Palin said at the Restoring Honor rally that we need to "fundamentally restore America".

Governor Palin sees that a great America is nothing to be hoped for because it is already here, if we choose to live like that is the truth--the audacity of American Exceptionalism.

Cross posted here and here.