The Sarah Palin Farewell Speech Big Media Missed: On Liberty and Self-Reliance

The media uproar after Sarah Palin's Sunday farewell address as Alaska's governor focused on two things: her "wacky behavior" and her attack on the media. In other words, the coverage had nothing to do with Palin. It was a group therapy session for the Big Media elites and Democrat partisans (I guess that is redundant).

What Big Media calls "instability" is acting like a regular person. That is one of Palin's characteristics that drives these blow-dried blowhards batty. She is always unedited. She doesn't test her words in front of focus groups. Most politicians sounds like they are reading from the same script. Palin connects with Flyover America because she is outraged and irritated by the same things that peeve regular folks.

As for her attacks on the press, Big Media needs to check the polls. Even most Democrats realize that the media is slanted in their direction. Their reporting is sloppy and their evaluation of public figures is hyper-partisan. The "experience" canard during the campaign was a great example. Big Media belittled Sarah Palin's preparatory experience to be vice-president while fawning like a gaggle of teenage girls over Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Obama who possessed zero executive experience and an undistinguished legislative record which included half a term in the U.S. Senate, most of which was spent running for President. Palin was a nobody from nowhere and he was the greatest leader to ever walk on planet Earth.

Big Media left out the best parts of Palin's farewell speech. She spoke of liberty and self-reliance. Nooooooooooo! Those concepts are so dangerous to the goals of Leftist-Liberal-Progressive-Socialists and Big Media that they are taboo for coverage. But, a lot of Americans still prefer liberty to totalitarianism, even if the freedom is curtailed "for our own good." These words were from a person who is grounded in the Founders, not Marx and Alinsky.

So much success, and Alaska there is much good in store further down the road, but to reach it we must value and live the optimistic pioneering spirit that made this state proud and free, and we can resist enslavement to big central government that crushes hope and opportunity. Be wary of accepting government largess. It doesn't come free and often, accepting it takes away everything that is free, melting into Washington's powerful "care-taking" arms will just suck incentive to work hard and chart our own course right out of us, and that not only contributes to an unstable economy and dizzying national debt, but it does make us less free.

I resisted the stimulus package. I resisted the stimulus package and we have championed earmark reform, slashing earmark requests by 85% to break the cycle of dependency on a stifling, unsustainable federal agenda, and other states should follow this for their and for America's stability. We don't have to feel that we must beg an allowance from Washington, except to beg the allowance to be self-determined. See, to be self-sufficient, Alaska must be allowed to develop - to drill and build and climb, to fulfill statehood's promise. At statehood we knew this. At statehood we knew this, that we are responsible for ourselves and our families and our future, and fifty years later, please let's not start believing that government is the answer. It can't make you happy or healthy or wealthy or wise. What can? It is the wisdom of the people and our families and our small businesses, and industrious individuals, and it is God's grace, helping those who help themselves, and then this allows that very generous voluntary hand up that we're known for, enthusiastically providing for those who need it.

Alaskans will remember that years ago, remember we sported the old bumper sticker that said, "Alaska. We Don't Give a Darn How They Do It Outside?" Do you remember that? I remember that, and remember it was because we would be different. We'd roll up our sleeves, and we would diligently sow and reap, and we can still do this to carve wealth out of the wilderness and make our living on the water, with strong hands and innovative minds, now with smarter technology. It is what our first people and our parents did. It worked, because they worked. We must be prudent and persistent and press for the people's right to responsibly develop God-given resources for the maximum benefit of the people.

Yeah, what a kook. Rugged individualism. Development of natural resources. Liberty from government control. State sovereignty (i.e., the U.S. Constitution s written). Government can't solve your problems. Prosperity comes from hard work. In other words, she spoke of all the things Big Media and Leftist Democrats despise. Here is the speech in its entirety.

Sarah Palin may not be the right candidate to defeat Amerika's favorite son Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Obama in 2012. However, she gets it. Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty or whoever else may have designs on the GOP nomination should read Palin's farewell speech and understand that Real America responds to those ideas. They don't want another stiff suit debating the manner in which our freedoms will be usurped. Real Americans want leaders with courage and conviction who will say "no" to evil and totalitarianism rather than negotiate the extent of freedom's loss. In other words, we need somebody who has a pair--even if that someone is a woman.