Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told attendees at the National Rifle Convention on Friday that those who fight to preserve America’s freedoms, the Second Amendment, while being ridiculed by the mainstream media and the Washington establishment keeps her optimistic and makes it easier for her to reload and never retreat.
“The Washington establishment sneers at you and you don’t give up,” Palin said. “The lamestream media just plain doesn’t get you and you don’t give you up, and you don’t retreat.”
Once again, Palin showed why her message not only resonates, but why she is such an effective messenger in an age when the media is fragmented.
Successful politicians are the ones who drive beat writers who cover them crazy by repeating the same lines at every event. George W. Bush, who won two terms as president, was famous for doing that. But in this age, when people do not actually have to go to campaign events or turn on the evening news to hear a politician speak, successful candidates have to not only have a consistent message. They have to have something that keeps audiences interested. With Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, a politician who keeps repeating the same message in their stump speech often becomes stale.
And again on Friday, Palin showed why she is not. She used a tin of chewing tobacco to again mock New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg like she did at CPAC with her Big Gulp. She quoted Shakespeare and securely made fun of herself for being known more for rallying and leading the troops more than discussing Shakespeare at an Ivy League debating society. She usually gets the optics right, like she did on Friday by wearing a “Women hunt” shirt from Under Armour.
But as always, the core of her message did not change. She heartily thanked the audience for their courage, convincing them that she is of them and a fighter for them.
She said “what keeps us optimistic,” “what keeps us reloading,” what “keeps us going” was the spirit of millions of Americans who just do not give up while the elites in the media and political establishment ridicule them for standing up for freedom and Second Amendment rights.
In every speech, Palin does something different, off-script, and unexpected while keeping her core message of free market populism for the working class consistent, ensuring the speech is covered while her message gets delivered to working class Americans who hear these in a way that elites who cover her and the establishment that scorns her do not because they are so removed from America’s working class.
She slammed the mainstream media for not covering Kermit Gosnell’s trial and Hollywood for promoting violence in its movies and using the profits to finance gun-grabbing campaigns. She said both institutions are not responsibly exercising their freedoms and helping freedom destroy itself.
Invoking John Adams and Margaret Thatcher, Palin said freedom will destroy itself if not exercised properly, and she said that is what is happening in Washington.
She said: “So we have to ask ourselves: Are we creating a culture can can live and thrive in freedom?”
Her message resonates with those who are loyal to her not because of who she is or her personality but because of what she fights for and what she is against.
Steve Flescher, a Conservatives4Palin editor who was at the convention, said what resonated with the crowd was her ability “to explain the left’s war on certain rights while exposing their knack for often hiding behind the First Amendment to excuse immoral behavior.”
“While giving the crowd a few fun tidbits to carry the conversation, she navigated through a much-needed adult conversation regarding the left’s war on responsibility,” he told Breitbart News. “She clearly understands that for every acknowledgment of rights received, there is a moral and ethical responsibility to bear.”
Flescher said that while “some in the GOP are going wobbly on issues from immigration to spending, Governor Palin strengthened the spine of the party by reinforcing the idea that not only is it imperative to live morally, it’s pretty darned cool, too.”
Michelle McCormick, a Texan and volunteer with the grassroots group Organize 4 Palin that works to elect candidates at the state and local levels, told Breitbart News she noticed that the women in the audience gave Palin an extremely hearty welcome, as they were the first to “jump to their feet when Palin walked on stage.”
She said that while other speakers like Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, Jeannine Pirro gave “wonderful remarks, each in their unique style, Palin demonstrated again her special way of connecting with an audience. Always conversational and making the audience feel drawn in.”
“One complaint from the audience: her speech was too short,” she told Breitbart News from the convention. “They wanted more. But unlike the other speakers, Palin kept to the 10 min-time limit. Some diva…”
And that’s another skill Palin has that cannot be bought or taught. She leaves the audience wanting more and provokes the media into covering her. In the end, the former Republican vice presidential nominee gets the last laugh when her ultimate message of free market populism resonates with working class Americans over the heads of the establishment class who scorns them as bitter clingers.
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