I know predictions are risky in politics — but who wants to “play it safe?” Not me. So here it goes.
I think Sarah Palin is definitely going to build a national network for her presidential run in 2012. She has backing from some GOP elite, like William Kristol, for example. The GOP is desperately looking for people who can excite its base, and what we saw in 2008 is that Sarah Barracuda can do just that. But it’s the fascist-leaning part of the GOP’s base. And that is what she is going to build on. Remember those rallies during the presidential campaign? She brought the crowd to a fevered pitch where Obama was called “traitor” — and everything but a child of God – as my mother used to say.
So here is my prediction: she’s going to criss-cross the lower 48 and build up her storm troopers on a national level. Those in the GOP elite think this is the way to go. The more moderate still left in the GOP are a weak minority. The GOP has gone more and more to the far-right since the election of Obama. Witness the increasing shrillness of Rush Limbaugh — the self-proclaimed leader — of the GOP, Newt Gingrich and the others in the media blabosphere like Glenn Beck.
Why else would Obama-hater Jon Voight get such an enthusiastic response to his pseudo-religious and apocalyptic speech where he compared the president to Julius Caesar and then applauded all those bloviators who “stay on course to bring an end to this false prophet, Obama.” (Et tu Brute? Julius Caesar asks just before getting assassinated.) This is how low the GOP is stooping and Palin is gonna jump on that bandwagon. She has already greeted – as governor – a political party that wants Alaska to secede from the United States and has ties to neo-Nazi groups. Her husband is a member of that party.
Second prediction: Three areas Sarah Barracuda is going to attack the Obama administration and try to drum up support on: racism, role of government and the role of the United States in the world. These themes are dynamically intertwined and are the heart and soul of the ideology of the far-right and corporate power. Already attacks on the role of government are happening — using anti-Communism (i.e. everything the government plays a role in is “socialistic”) and racism. And on a new foreign policy — that Obama is making America “weak.” Militarism, racism and anti-Communism are a potent mix and standard fare for the pro-corporate far-right. Palin will do all that with her “family values” sex appeal.
They are doing everything in their power to limit and roll back the tremendous people’s victory last November and Sarah is going to try to be their gal to do it.
Third prediction: It will get ugly — but they won’t be successful.
Teresa Albano, talbano@pww.org, is editor of the People’s Weekly World.
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