Mrs. Palin Goes to Washington?

By E M Barner | Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 | Politics

She’s intriguing and we at Bearing Drift aren’t the only folks who can’t stop talking about her.

Her positive image is easy to detail – and a perfect complement to McCain:
1) Maverick reformer who gets results
2) Middle class working hockey mom
3) Principled conservative feminist

The Obama camp would rather paint her as:
1) Inexperienced
2) Irresponsibly ambitious hick who has babies and doesn’t stay home to take care of them
3) Right wing religious extremist

Item 3 is most in the eye of the beholder. One side will love her for the same things that will make her a demon to the other — and the average voter will think both sides are much too ideological, if they consider those issues at all.

Item 2 on both lists is somewhat objective but subject to a lot of interpretation. She’s middle class by income — but definitely on the upper side of it. Even so, that puts her far closer to the average voter than any of the other three candidates. And, she has a lot of kids by modern American standards, but some people will probably always question her decision to run for national office while her family is so young (and moms seem to be doing the most questioning).

Item 1, however, is not so subjective. While the Obama camp likes to pick at her record, there isn’t much for them to object to. She did fire the gubernatorial cook and sell the jet on eBay. She did slash taxes in Wasilla. She did make statements opposing the Bridge to Nowhere. She did incur the wrath of her own party by exposing corruption. She did put the Alaska budget online – demonstrating the kind of transparency even Obama has advocated on the campaign trail. She has the highest approval ratings of any Governor — and that is all the more impressive in a small state where word travels fast and dishonest politicians have plagued the voters.

But what about experience? That matters for a President, doesn’t it? And a Vice President. Can the small town chick cut it? The monied elite hate the thought of an interloper – an outsider – intruding on their playground. They would love to have us believe that the Washington mystique is too much for little Mrs. Palin.

Perhaps they’ve mis-stated the question though. Maybe the better query would be: “Is she too much for them?” After all, they know how to handle the likes of Biden, Obama, and even McCain. But Palin? Her experience is of an entirely different kind.

In her speech, she quipped that a mayor was a lot like a community organizer – except with actual responsibilities. While it is quite appropriate to remind the country of her 18 (rather effective) months as Governor of tiny Alaska, Sarah Palin has experience the Washington insiders know nothing of. Most of them have never lived in a small town — and if they did, they escaped at the first opportunity. Palin relishes her roots and recognizes that they are her strength.

Alexis deTocqueville opined that American citizens learned democracy in their smallest communities. If you think about it, that’s what Palin has done. She didn’t start at the top — with a foray into national politics or even by using family money to secure a seat in the state legislature. Instead, she did what hundreds of thousands of moms (& dads) do: she joined the PTA and tried to make her kid’s school a better place.

What kind of experience do you get on the PTA? You learn people and personalities. You learn budgets and decision-making.

Then, she saw more things that need changing. Her small town of Wasilla labored under high taxes and good ole’ boy politics. This mama wasn’t going to take a back seat while her community suffered. Her fellow citizens choose her to be on their town council.

What kind of experience do you get on a town council? Legislative experience — up close and personal. You learn about the kind of compromise that serves the people and the kind of back-scratching that doesn’t. You see the things that matter up close in people’s daily lives and how public policy affects those things. You worry about funding for the school band and whether the teen mom down the street will be able to earn her diploma and get a decent job.

And you see more things that need changing. The way things have been isn’t good enough for the community you love and you know it can be better. But making it better is going to mean stepping on some egos. There will be people who won’t like you so much if you run for Mayor, Sarah, and however are you going to take care of the 3 kids and run Wasilla? But you run and your fellow citizens kick out an incumbent to give you a chance to do a better job.

What kind of experience do you get as a small town Mayor? Sarah’s got news for the Washington elites: a small town is a microcosm of the big, big world. In a small town, there are in groups and out groups. There are bullies and wimps. There are the politicians who think promises are made for breaking and the ones who can never seem to take a stand for fear that someone will like them the less for it. There’s apathy and there’s engagement. There are sweet stories and sad ones. The executive experience gained as Mayor of a small town is up close and personal. You know your employees – and you have to work with your council on the people’s business. You know you’ll have to look your neighbor in the eye at the grocery store and account for what you’ve done — and that’s far more difficult than looking in a camera lens in a studio. She gained that experience and passed that test and got re-elected.

But her Alaska was in trouble. Corrupt politicians were living off the people instead of working for the people. Something had to change — and Sarah knew that she could be the somebody who changed it. So, she talked to people and told them what she intended to do. They gave her a chance and she kept her promises as Governor of Alaska. She didn’t always play inside baseball with the legislators and I hear her approval rating isn’t so high with the Juneau good ole’ boys but the people of Alaska sure do love her.

We’ve seen what Washingtonian experience can do. Let’s give small town experience a chance. Although some might denigrate PTA credentials — I’ll take those over country club chic any day. Some might disdain local government — but it’s about time we had someone in Washington who understands exactly how public policy affects people’s daily lives. And some might think that being Governor of a small state is poor qualification for supporting the leader of the free world – but when it comes to sheer practical experience with democracy in action, I can’t think of anyone running who upstages her. Can you?

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