I don’t have much time to “analyze” Palin’s speech in Indianola (text here), Iowa and what it all means in terms of the political landscape.
But what jumped out at me is that she expressed one of the core principles of the Tea Party movement, that corporate interests are not necessarily our interests:
Now to be fair, some GOP candidates also raised mammoth amounts of cash, and we need to ask them, too: What, if anything, do their donors expect in return for their “investments”? We need to know this because our country can’t afford moretrillion-dollar “thank you” notes to campaign backers. It is an important question, and it cuts to the heart of our problem…. It’s because we believe in the free market. I believe in the free market, and that is why I detest crony capitalism. And Barack Obama has shown us cronyism on steroids. It will lead to our downfall if we don’t stop it now. It’s a root that grows our economic problems. Our unsustainable debt and our high unemployment numbers and a housing market that’s in the tank and a stagnant economy – these are all symptoms. Politicians are so focused on the symptoms and not the disease. We will not solve our economic problems until we confront the cronyism of our President and our permanent political class.So, this is why we must remember that the challenge is not simply to replace Obama in 2012. The real challenge is who and what we will replace him with. It’s not enough to just change up the uniform. If we don’t change the team and the game plan, we won’t save our country.
This view closely follows my own view, which is that for too long we have played into the Democratic narrative that Republicans are the party of big business. The reality is that Democrats too are the party of big business (with Big Labor), they just hide it better.
It’s the reason I see nothing inconsistent with being a plaintiff’s lawyer at heart and a Tea Party movement supporter.
I have seen for too long how the federalization of law has had negative effects on the ability of individuals to seek redress in state courts. Whether it is federal preemption of state common law in areas of importance to defrauded investors, or application of the Federal Arbitration Act regardless of state legislation to deprive investors of access to state courts, too often Republicans and Democrats come together in Congress and the federal courts in the service of big business over the individual and the ability of states to find their own ways.
It’s why I oppose federally mandated tort reform, which is a goal of the insurance industry, while I respect individual state’s rights to find their own way on tort reform.
You can’t have it both ways, opposing an intrusive national insurance mandate while supporting an intrusive national tort reform mandate.
I don’t know what the future holds for Palin, whether she will be a candidate or just a powerful voice against crony capitalism. I also don’t know whether the two are compatible. I am not convinced that even the Republican electorate is ready for the message. That’s for another day.
What I do know is that in attacking crony capitalism, Palin gave voice to those of us who refuse to buy into the Democratic narrative that the answer to Democratic union pandering is Republican big business pandering. It’s not about them, it’s about us.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY