It is obvious in retrospect that only an external attack like that on 7/22 could have saved the Palin presidency. Without it, would any of what followed have happened? I doubt it. The Democrats would have recaptured both the White House and Senate that fall. The culture wars would have simmered on, but the evangelical movement’s momentum on the path toward political power would have been lost. I would be installed in my corner office downtown, practicing law. I would probably have children with Emilie. I might be having dinner with Sanjay tonight instead of sitting here with people I really don’t know, trying to remember and record all that happened since then.
But 7/22 did happen. It was truly horrible, and the American people were understandably scared and angry. 7/22 opened a door, and Sarah Palin walked through it.
On July 24, 2012, President Palin, for only the second time in the history of the republic, declared martial law over the entire country. Instead of appearing alone in a televised address from the formality of the Oval Office, she addressed the nation from the situation room in the basement of the White House flanked by all the Joint Chiefs of staff, with Vice President Sam Brownback and top consultant Steve Jordan the only civilians present. Her speech was direct and forceful. After 9/11, she said, our enemies had counted on our weaknesses. They knew of our preoccupation with rights, laws, and political correctness of every sort. They counted on it. And what did we do? We acted true to form: no profiling of Muslims; continuing to welcome Muslim immigrants; hauling terrorists into federal courts as if they were common criminals; and having some of the brightest legal talent in the country come to their defense. “No more,” she said. Nearly seven thousand of our fellow citizens died because of it, hundreds of thousands more were heartbroken, and six American cities were still smoldering. This was a war. Islamic fundamentalists were our sworn enemies. each of the eighty-one terrorists had been welcomed to our country like the millions before them seeking freedom and a better life. But they had betrayed us and used our freedoms against us. Thousands more were doubtless still in the country plotting the same betrayal. She swore to find and deport or punish every last one of them. Every one. Nothing would stop her.
The president reported that the Joint Chiefs, her cabinet, and all her advisors were unanimous in their advice that fighting this war here in the homeland required a declaration of martial law. The protections of the Constitution were not intended for our enemies, she said. Moreover, this was a war to be fought by soldiers, not policemen, and when the terrorists were caught, they needed to be tried in military, not civilian, tribunals. Nothing else mattered. She would devote her presidency to this and only this. The emergency and her duties as president required her full attention. She would not conduct a normal political campaign. She would appear at her party’s convention but would neither debate nor travel the country for public appearances in the run-up to November 6. This was not, she said, a time for politics. If the American people chose to reelect her, her promise was simple: she would eradicate all the other Islamists lurking here in the homeland and keep out any new ones. That was it. She hoped everyone understood her priorities.
Yes. well I have ALWAYS understood her priorities. Which is why I have remained focuses on her, and those who are influenced by her, and those politicians who in some way emulate her.
She may be ridiculous today with her crazy wigs, non-nonsensical word salad, and now dimply lit interviews, but if John McCain HAD been elected we would have seen none of that.
She would have been groomed and packaged, and sold to the American people like New Pepsi. We would know that what was inside was an inferior product, but ooh the package was so attractive.
The above may seem too unrealistic to ever reflect a possible reality, but if you think that you have not been paying attention the last thirteen years.
The book introduces a nightmare scenario, but to be honest it is a reoccurring nightmare that I had for many years before I felt that we had undermined Palin too much, by revealing the truth that she tried so hard to keep hidden, for her to ever be a viable candidate in the future.
For a glimpse into that nightmare just read this:
On November 6, 2012, Sarah Palin was reelected with 56 percent of the popular vote and an even stronger majority in the Electoral College. Riding the wave of 7/22, the election would doubtless have broken the same way had the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act not been passed early in Palin’s first term and ultimately survived constitutional review in a 5–4 decision by the Supreme Court. But the election was notable for being the first where the evangelical churches, the threat to their tax exemption removed, spent heavily on political advertising. The mega-churches themselves became centers for partisan political action by conducting elaborate get-out-the-vote and phone-bank efforts and other political activities. The full consequences of this legislation would not be generally recognized until four years later. The other thing driving the 2012 results was the remarkable success by Steve Jordan in forging such a close alignment between the Tea Party and the Christian right that the media had started to call it the teavangelical movement. During the campaign, Ralph Reed boasted that he had the cell phone numbers of 13 million teavangelical voters.
In addition to the reelection of the Palin/Brownback ticket, the House and Senate both returned to Republican control, and the new Congress included a large number of new members who had ridden an ugly wave of post-7/22 anti-immigrant Christian nationalism.
Yeah I think it will take TWO glasses of wine to help me to sleep tonight.
