OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
RAPIDAN, Va. — On the very weekend America paused to remember all those whose sacrifices are the blood fruit of our freedom, rolling in like thunder, clad in black leather, was yet another red-white-and-blue bundle of American sacrifice and patriotism.
Just in time to ensure that no backyard barbecue anywhere in America was without joy, debate, rancor, confusion, fist-fights, something.
Back into our lives rode Sarah of Alaska, Maid of the Bering Sea, devoured, ogled and debated by the masses.
She is our modern Joan of Arc, dressed in black leather chaps, hunting camo or fishing boat slicker, unafraid to mount her steed, whether a Harley or a snow machine. She is a woman, bloody hands, capable of any man’s task — even that Holy Grail of politics with which no woman has ever been entrusted.
Unlike sister St. Joan, Sarah does not pass herself as a man. She can do any man’s work, without ceding an ounce of her gas station pin-up babe good looks.
But in most else, she shares with sister St. Joan. Driven by visions from God and destined for sainthood by way of a burning at the stake, Sarah is misunderstood here in her own lifetime.
This is why she submitted to a two-hour documentary about the life and times of Sarah Palin, an Arc-umentary that begins in the wilds of small town Alaska and ends — well, we don’t know yet.
In it, we will learn how she routed out the old boys club in Alaska. How she ferreted out corruption and went on a jihad against wasteful spending. All this while mothering a family — grizzly-style — and remaining the most popular governor in the U.S.
Maybe the story ends with her running a common-sense, intensely patriotic presidential campaign against an academic silk-stocking gasbag whose only apparent talent seems to be talking — and even that hasn’t been going so well lately.
Or, perhaps, the story ends with her selling her political views town to town, carny barker-style — enraging, entertaining and inspiring.
All we do know at this point is that Sarah of Alaska’s story has her rumbling into town on a Harley Davidson over the weekend, sparking grill-side feuds all across America on Memorial Day.
Is she going to run? Is she just selling her next book? Is she a modern-day founder midwifing America’s rebirth? Or, is she the false patriot that George Washington warned us about who would usurp our applause while betraying our values?
At this point, even those of us inclined to like her are not entirely sure what to make of her or what she is up to.
But we certainly love the way she enrages the media. She is loathed by all the right hate-filled people. She inspires fury among klepto-liberals who cannot abide dissenting opinion and would not lift a finger to protect other people’s freedom.
It is not what Sarah of Alaska would do for Washington that excites us, but rather what she would do to Washington.
And, if what we’ve got in the White House now is blue-chip educated, weepy liberal utopia, then whatever is the opposite of that we will take. And, at the moment, Sarah Palin fits that bill quite nicely.
If the liberals don’t burn her at the stake first.
• Charles Hurt’s column appears Wednesdays. He can be reached at charleshurt@live.com.
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