I am a similar age and I see the exact same thing.

But maybe Sarah Palin’s plan is to hit the road for a few years, meet the grassroots face of the conservative movement, sharpen her grasp of the issues by interacting with people day in and day out, and in this way get herself ready for 2012. In some ways, this kind of follows the model that Reagan followed in preparing for his own political career (so I guess being president of SAG is analogous to being governor of Alaska?). The Culture Gatekeepers are never going to approve of Sarah, but they never budged on Reagan, either. But that didn’t matter, because Reagan was able to speak over the heads of the gatekeepers directly to the public, who saw that despite what the pundits were saying, he was good enough to be given the keys to the White House. Likewise, if Sarah can demonstrate a mastery of the issues when she inevitably returns to the national spotlight, she has a chance to win over the undecideds, no matter what the likes of Jon Stewart, David Letterman, and Katie Couric say or do.

But she is right that people don’t understand how easily we could lose everything. It’s why I make darn sure my son understands the meaning of 1776 and 1942; absolutely nothing was certain about how things were going to turn out, and it required faith, strength, and courage to prevail. We must honor those who did what it took, and we must be prepared when our turn comes.

But there’s another thing: in a democracy, we get the government we deserve. I live in New Jersey, where we are about to re-elect Jon Corzine. Why? Because he spends zillions on advertising? What the heck is wrong with people?

And I too wish I could edit typos but we’re only human…unless your avatar is actually you!

It sounds odd but I think we have to turn our eyes away from Washington there is little we can do about there mad grab for power at this point. Now I’m not saying we surrender, quite the contrary, we need to focus on our state government’s ranging from city council’s to the government and fill every last seat with people of steel resolve who will not bow to an all powerful Federal government. That’s ultimately what this is about, state’s have to reclaim power and put this federal monster in check.

Rush played some Reagan quotes a few days ago. I keep thinking about this being our ‘rendezvous with destiny.’ I have the moments when I’m down but I refuse to give up or believe it’s over for the great experiment of the American republic.