Out in the Wilderness, Finally Some Light

As I sit lost in the deep dark wilderness for conservatives called the State of Maryland, I can not help but see a light through the extremely overgrown cover of trees. Now, I certainly hold no hope that Maryland will ever see the error of its political ways (Democrats out-register Republicans more than 2-1). We, conservative Marylanders, will always remain lost, living hermit lives just hoping that we bump into another of our kind. However, there is hope for those who feel the conservative movement in the United States needs a grassroots awakening.

Before August of this year, very few Americans could probably even point to Alaska on a map (thanks to our "education" system – but I digress); let alone name the governor of the state. Out of that deep Alaskan wilderness has come that light of hope for our movement. I stress the use of "our" movement, because it’s going to take the grassroots conservatives to regain our position in American politics, whether that’s steering the Republican Party or battling that "education" system that indoctrinates our children on the tenants of socialism.

Now, some so-called conservative pundits would disagree with our movement and its representatives. They have been called elites by many. I call them corrupted by the very same system that they claim to want to reform. Let me speak clearly and concisely, but it is important to understand this: the founders advocated a political system based on the citizen. It was the citizen who voted, but more importantly it was the citizen who served. So, when a mother of five decided to further impact and improve her children’s lives by joining the PTA, she took that first step as a citizen to serve the people. She joined our movement that very day.

Those within the system that criticize her do not like her pedigree. It goes beyond her education resume and even beyond her small town roots. It is a destructive force that these critics are tapping and then using to destroy this citizen servant. She has not "grown up" in their system. She is not blessed by those supporters of this corrupted system. As much as those in the system think George W. Bush is stupid or incompetent, he is at least blessed or was blessed by that crowd. To recite the mantra of the day, she is the wind of change. She scares them, those on both the right and the left. She will destroy the incumbent system, if she can retain her principles of the citizen servant, the way that our founders intended. She took two out in the 2006 Alaskan Gubernatorial Election.

I can not help but be hopeful. We have not had a likeable, sharp, articulate, nationally recognizable figurehead since Ronald Reagan. By the way, Peggy, she is a Reaganite. I am not sure how with your vaulted education and intellect that you can not see Reagan’s (or should I say: your own) rhetoric in her words and more importantly her actions. Newt Gingrich may have been that Congressional hope that we all sought, but he was never deemed to be likeable. He was a Goldwater-type political figure. George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush are hardly conservatives.
So, we have been lost without a crusader or a leader; not one to follow, but one that allows us to see the glimmer of hope through the darkness. I do not want to sound like the sycophant followers of Senator Obama or even sound like we are seeking a messianic figure. To do so, we would be sucked into the very system and corrupted by it. I am just confident that should things not go her way in 2008 that Governor Sarah Palin will return to that deep wilderness of Alaska with a very strong following of our fellow members, those that value the grassroots cause and seek citizen servants to return Washington and our overall political system to those it is supposed to represent: We, the People.

(Andrew Emerick is a conservative activist from Maryland.)