Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said on Saturday that if Republicans abandon conservatives, conservatives may have to consider leaving the Republican Party.
Palin was responding on Fox News to a question from a viewer, Josh Painter, who asked if she and conservative talk radio host Mark Levin would be willing to form a “Freedom Party” if the GOP continues to let down conservatives.
“I love the name of that party,” Palin said on Fox News on Saturday. “If the GOP continues to back away from the planks in our platform, from the principles that built this party of Lincoln and of Reagan, then, yeah, more and more of us are going to start saying, ‘You know, what’s wrong with being independent?'”
Palin said that if Republicans vote for things like amnesty, “there will be a lot of us who start saying, ‘GOP, if you abandon us, we have nowhere else to go except to become more independent and not enlisted in one or the other private majority parties that rule in our nation.'”
She said that both national parties are “private parties” and nobody forces Americans to be “enlisted in either party.”
Palin’s remarks represent the frustrations of conservatives who note Republicans lose when they nominate moderate candidates in national elections. Tea Partiers, in particular, emphasize that House Republicans have the majority because of their support in the previous two elections, and their concerns should be embraced instead of ignored.
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