Sarah Palin and the Tea Party

A year and a half ago I wondered who Sarah Palin was. I don’t think the answer is any easier now than it was back then. Few have become such a relevant national figure so quickly. Soon after she fell out of favor, and when criticism grew stronger, she resigned from her post as governor of Alaska. Leaving your position when you’re going through a bad moment is not a good precedent for somebody flirting with the idea of being a candidate for the U.S. presidency. Her indifference toward work has played a dirty trick on her.

Now she’s back in the spotlight due to a great speech at the convention of a grassroots movement, i.e., a populist-driven political movement, called the Tea Party, where she declared that the U.S. is ready for a revolution. This movement was born as an anti-tax protest in response to the massive Bush-Obama bailouts and the employment stimulus packages, causing stimulation to be seen nowhere but in their fancy names. Now, the movement has become — for a significant portion of the country — the vehicle of expression for the discontent over the runaway growth of the federal government’s increasing power over the lives of citizens.

It is very interesting since its origin lies in the fact that people from completely different backgrounds have pooled their indignation, which is understandable when we look at the combined effects of the economic crisis, increasing taxes and government spending. It’s a movement with a political tradition that distrusts power, which is what gave birth to the country and hasn’t died yet. This movement has the sympathy of one-third of the country and has just created a political action committee, the name given to organizations aimed at raising money and supporting certain candidates. So it looks like the Tea Party can play an important role in U.S. politics.

The Tea Party is a renovation movement, with that kind of political renovation that only the United States, the most democratic country in the world by far, can offer. But it’s also a deep-rooted movement in the American political scene. Not only was it named after the Boston Tea Party — the spark that ignited the American Revolution — but it has precedents in the Whiskey Rebellion, the resistance to Jefferson’s Embargo, riots against the “Abominable Tariff” and against Lincoln [the New York Draft Riots], and the movement of the Old Right against the New Deal. This movement was born in a historical moment with timely and precise ideas and enough tradition to leave an indelible mark in U.S. history.