Authoritarian Palin Politics

The Times published a damning article on Sarah Palin yesterday, and it quickly shot up to the top emailed story. It is a little lengthy, but it did a good job of not repeating the usual information that plagues articles critical of the governor. The overall sense that I walked away with from teh article was that Palin has more similarities to the current administration than I previously realized. My number one concern is that she has surrounded her administration with secrecy, even to the point of using private email addresses for state business (which removes information on governance from the public view). There are also repeated stories of administrators being released under suspicious circumstances. I am concerned that she is one who silences those with whom she disagrees and presents a totally different face to the public. Evidence of this is her insistance on using social issues to gain votes (even when running for mayor of a 9000 person town!) rather than discussing relevant issues to her constituents. I think she is a politician of the sickest order. Our country has suffered under bad foreign policy and diplomacy over the last eight years because of a leader unwilling to foster critical debate. This has been one of the central promises of the Obama campaign- open debate! He is made fun of for having a huge foreign policy team, but at least he is interested in including a number of people in his decision making process. Sarah Palin has sought to increase government action at the cost of representation of people. This is fundamentally opposed to the system of government put in place by our forefathers. Look for yourself!

I am distressed at her rise to fame, and concerned that the American people are not carefully enough combing her record. I encourage everyone to do some research from all sorts of sources! Contrast journalistic accounts of her with her public personae! It is truly alarming!