Sarah Palin: "There's a whole army of patriotic Davids out there"

"There's a feeling that Ronald Reagan just had a bag of tricks, and if you studied his bag of tricks, you could sell the American people anything," Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson told Laura Ingraham on The O'Reilly Factor this evening, referring to the commentariat's lockstep narrative spin that President Obama's SOTU speech last week was remarkably "Reaganesque," based solely upon "optics" — a perceived tone of "Morning in America" optimism which eluded many of us here on the right side of the aisle — without any regard for content.

"There isn't one replacement for Reagan, but there are millions who believe in the great ideas that he espoused," Sarah Palin told her Young America's Foundation audience — and the world — in her keynote speech kicking off YAF's "Reagan 100 celebration" at President Reagan's Western White House Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara Friday evening:

There's a whole army of patriotic Davids out there across this great country ready to stand up and to speak out in defense of liberty, and these Davids aren't afraid to tell Goliath "don't tread on me."

She took an iconic Reagan text as her subject, as Byron York explains:

"A Time for Choosing" was Reagan's case for the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater, delivered a few days before the 1964 election. Speaking to a studio audience in Los Angeles, Reagan painted a stark choice between a government headed toward socialism and one dedicated to freedom. "This is the issue of this election," Reagan said. "Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."

"Does that sound familiar today?" asks York rhetorically:

Watch Reagan's speech … and you'll be struck both by the freshness of its message and the sternness of Reagan's delivery. This was not the soft-voiced grandfatherly man people remember from the White House years. This was Ronald Reagan in his prime — he was 53 at the time — delivering a hard-edged message.

It's also a message custom-fit for Sarah Palin.

And Palin delivered, finding a Reagan for our times not in a con man's bag of rhetorical tricks but in each one of us who believes in the Shining City:

So today there are a lot of people looking around, looking for the next Ronald Reagan, but he was one of a kind, and you're not going to find his kind again. And the Gipper wouldn't want us to spend our time on that anyway. He once put it "I'm not a great man, I just believe in great ideas. And our hero understood that the transmission of these great ideas to the next generation would ensure the survival and the success of liberty."

The New York Times had speculated that "Ms. Palin could use the opportunity to deliver a broadly conceived foreign policy speech that uses the turmoil in Egypt to advance an understanding of her national security beliefs that goes beyond her use of Twitter messages and Facebook posts." Again, she delivered: 

And know that we can have peace through strength, even as our allies, like our beloved Israel and others … look to our union for sense and for strength and know that we are a force for good in this world, and that is nothing to apologize for.

"Our beloved Israel" sends a message, loud and clear.

Update: Featured in "From Around the Web" at The New York Times (scroll down).

Update II: Ed Driscoll links:

Sarah Palin made an obvious Insta-reference in her speech on Friday, as Sissy Willis notes.

Update III: Editors' Pick at Conservatives 4 Palin. Thanks, Doug!

Update IV: Blog buddy Peter Ingemi at DaTech Guy's Blog connects the dots:

Can we assume that Sarah Palin reads Glenn Reynolds? (Some enterprising radio host should have him on his show.)

Update V: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link to our crosspost at Dan's. Update to the update: Now Michelle links here!

Update VI: Instapundit "Blog comment of the day" for Goomp's brilliant insight:

The idea that suppression of freedom will make human nature angelic is the fable of the leftists. Freedom as practiced for two hundred years in the USA produced the kindest most generous and most prosperous society the world has ever known.

Crossposted at Riehl World View, Cloven Not Crested and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[goomp]

The idea that suppression of freedom will make human nature angelic is the fable of the leftists. Freedom as practiced for two hundred years in the USA produced the kindest most generous and most prosperous society the world has ever known.

[John]

The idea that suppression of freedom will make human nature angelic is the fable of the leftists. Freedom as practiced for two hundred years in the USA produced the kindest most generous and most prosperous society the world has ever known.

However, the leftists do not see America that way. They see only the warts and refuse to recognize the good.

[bandit]

With God as your witness

[mightisright]

To the first comment. From your keyboard to God's ears.

[mariner]

If not to God's ears, at least to Glenn's. ;)

[Momo]

"However, the leftists do not see America that way. They see only the warts and refuse to recognize the good."

Or said another way, "Democrats blame America for faults and unfairness created by prior Democrats (e.g., slavery, the KKK, etc.)"

[Bonfire of the Idiocies]

"The idea that suppression of freedom will make human nature angelic is the fable of the leftists. Freedom as practiced for two hundred years in the USA produced the kindest most generous and most prosperous society the world has ever known."

This bears repeating a few million times. There are a sh*tload of fools in government, media and academia who don't seem to be able to wrap their rabid little minds around it.

[Will]

It does bear repeating & to that effect I've posted it on my Facebook page with proper attribution

[Veseng]

@momo: While the Democrats do tend to "... blame America for faults and unfairness created by prior Democrats.." They did not create slavery but did create segregation.

[Seerak]

The idea that suppression of freedom will make human nature angelic is the fable of the leftists. Freedom as practiced for two hundred years in the USA produced the kindest most generous and most prosperous society the world has ever known.

There is another fable that stands refuted by that fact: the notion that suppression of freedom is necessary in order to contain human nature's "base" elements.

(The error that is common to both fables, is the notion of human nature as being somehow "defective". Like the rest of nature, it cannot be "defective".... it just is.)

[Micha Elyi]

Last night a contestant on Millionaire bombed out when asked to choose which of these words is not in the Declaration of Independence: liberty, justice, freedom, peace.

"Freedom" is the correct answer. Why did the founding fathers emphasize liberty? Because freedom includes license and liberty does not.

[backhoe]

'There's a whole army of patriotic Davids out there across this great country ready to stand up and to speak out in defense of liberty, and these Davids aren't afraid to tell Goliath "don't tread on me."'

Sure are...

[Reputation Managers]

So today there are a lot of people looking around, looking for the next Ronald Reagan, but he was one of a kind, and you're not going to find his kind again.

[Cindy Margott]

The idea that suppression of freedom will make human nature angelic is the fable of the leftists.