Hard to Tell Where Palin Ends and the Tea Party Begins (and Vice Versa)

No one in recent memory has faced the left’s vitriol like Sarah Palin (not even George W. Bush). The over-the-top, asinine attacks she’s received have been so ubiquitous they need not even be relisted here. Just suffice it to say there is a genuine hatred of Palin throughout the MSM, the leadership of the Democrat Party, and the Republican Party establishment.

And don’t be fooled folks: they don’t hate her because of her convictions – although they despise her convictions – rather, they hate her because they can’t control her.

Fortunately, the hatred the left holds for Palin is more than overcome by the love conservatives and right-leaning Independents have for her. They see in her a refreshing image that dares cast certain issues in the prism of right and wrong, just and unjust, American and un-American, etc.

Perhaps as a group, the Tea Party has come closest to receiving the kind of vindictive normally reserved for Palin alone. There’s no doubt they’re hated as she is hated, and equally no doubt that the hatred is a result of the fact that the MSM, the leadership of the Democrat Party, and the Republican Party establishment can’t control them.

For example, during the push to get Tea Partiers to “compromise” (which is political speak for check your convictions at the door) and support Boehner 3.0, an angry John McCain took to the Senate floor and referred to Tea Party conservatives in the House as “hobbits,” Senator Lisa Murkowski , whom Alaskans foolishly elected over Joe Miller last year, referred to them as “absolutists,” and John Kerry, the haughty one, described them as a group “of extremists, who don’t understand the implications even of what they’re doing.”

(I’m not 100% sure, but I think Kerry said similar things about Vietnam combat vets who risked life and limb in a war he was able to extricate himself from via a number of wounds no one can prove he received.)

Anyway, lucid readers see that the MSM, the Democrat Party, and the Republican Party establishment loathe the fact that Tea Partiers continue to stand their ground.

Of course we can’t overlook the fact that there is a fear factor involved here as well. One of the reasons the left hates that which it can’t control is because leftists fear what they don’t dictate. Thus, no matter what they said in order to give an air of confidence during the recent debt ceiling negotiations in the House, the bottom line was that Speaker Boehner had the power to sink Obama’s ship had he locked arms with Tea Party conservatives and stood his ground. (The MSM, the Democrat leadership, and the Republican Party establishment all knew this.)

And all their mockery and dismissive language toward Palin notwithstanding, the left likewise knows that when she and the Tea Party lock arms, no one’s seat is safe during a primary or a general election. (The November 2010 elections proved this beyond the shadow of a doubt.) And Palin knows it too, thus, during the House battle over Boehner 3.0 she sent a message via Facebook in which she encouraged conservatives to stand their ground and warned the squeamish: “Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”

In other words, the message to new Republicans who ran as friends of the Tea Party but voted as friends of Obama is clear: Palin is coming and the Tea Party is coming with her.

From where I’m sitting, it’s hard to see where Palin ends and the Tea Party begins, or vice versa. And while that’s a great thing for conservatives, it’s going to drive the left insane.