Sarah Palin - America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag

America by Heart

Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag

SARAH PALIN

Dedication

For Trig.

Im glad youre here.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

T HOMAS P AINE , F OUNDING F ATHER

Contents

An American Awakening

We the People

Why They Serve

America the Exceptional

Raising (Small-r) Republicans

The Rise of the Mama Grizzlies

Are We Really the Ones Weve Been Waiting For?

The Indispensable Support of Freedom

I Hear America Praying

Our North Star

Commonsense Constitutional Conservatism

An American Awakening

D o you love your freedom?!

The words rush out of me. Its a rhetorical question, of course. No one could look at this crowd of rowdy patriots waving American flags and chanting, USA! USA! and not know the answer. Whats most amazing is that its April 14, the day before Tax Day. Were in Boston, the home of the original American tax revolt. And everyone is in such a good mood. The crowd roars in the affirmative in answer to my question. And I look out on a sea of my fellow Americans: grandmas, college students, moms, dads, kids, veterans, people in business suitseven an aging hippie or two.

If you love your freedom, thank a vet. I ask all the men and women who have served or are serving our country in uniform to raise their hands. They wave, and the crowd explodes. God bless you guys! We thank you. Youre the reason we can be here today. We salute you!

The mainstream media has been working overtime to portray these Americans as angry and bigoted. But I look out and see happy facesfaces of all ages, genders, and hues. The Stars and Stripes is everywhere, rippling in the spring breeze from outstretched arms and attached to wheelchairs and strollers. Dozens of yellow Dont Tread on Me flags glow in the morning sun.

But its the hand-painted, homemade signs that say it all. Theyre everywhere. I see a young girl holding one that says, STOP Spending Money I Havent Earned Yet! I see a young man holding a placard that says simply, Im Privileged to Be an American. One guys sign jokes, I Can See November from My House! And an older lady holds up a copy of the Constitution with the message When All Else Fails, Read the Instructions.

And my personal favorite, held by a mom with a stroller: My Kid Is Not Your ATM.

What honest, heartfelt sentiments , I think. These people arent an angry mobtheyre Americans. Why do some feel the need to demonize them?

And then I see them, on the fringes of the crowd: the professionally printed signs held aloft by a few counter-protestors. What a difference. Unlike the humor, color, and variety of the hand-painted signs, the printed signs are all the same (with the exception of one guy, who, in an attempt at humoror at least distractionis holding up a life-size photo of Levi Johnstons centerfold). Written on those signs are the gripes of Washington special interest groups. The signs are held up by their hired stooges. And suddenly it comes to me: This is the central political struggle facing America today, being played out right here. With the exception of a few crackpots, the professionally printed signs all want something more from governmentmore for their union bosses, more for their special interest group, more for this government program or that.

In short, the people holding the uniformly printed signs have their hands out; Washington is spending away our kids future and they still want more. But the people holding the homemade signs are the ones paying the bills. If the mainstream media wasnt busy insinuating that theyre all racists and haters, it would have to acknowledge this fact. So the media keeps the coverage based on these patriots motives. But what these good, honest Americans are asking for isnt ugly and dangerous. Its right there, on their signs and their flags and their faces, young and old and black and white: They want their country back.

I mention to the crowd that, this year, the Tax Day that matters isnt April 15, but April 9. Thats the day the average American worker finally earns enough to pay his or her federal and state taxes, which means that the average American spends the first ninety-nine days of the year working for the government. The crowds roar of response tells me that these Americans are feeling overtaxed by Washington. But I can tell that it isnt just high taxes that have brought these Americans here. Something bigger is going on, something much bigger.

M y family and I have spent a lot of the past year traveling the country. Ive visited dozens of cities in more than half of the fifty states on a tour for my first book, Going Rogue , helping out candidates running for office, and promoting pro-American causes. My visit to Boston was the next-to-last stop of the Tea Party Express in a forty-four-city, three-week tour. I was there when the tour began, in the desert sands of Searchlight, Nevada, when more than ten thousand citizens turned out to take back their government. And I was there in Boston for one last rally before the tour ended on Tax Day in (where else, when the issue is taking back our government?) Washington, D.C.

Along the way, Ive talked to literally thousands of Americans from all across the country. Ive met with folks in their living rooms, at their businesses, and at boisterous, country-music-jammin rallies. Whats more, hundreds of people have sent me books, magazine articles, snippets of speeches, and their own comments with different takes on America.

What Ive learned from all this traveling and meeting and talking and reading is this: the spark of patriotic indignation that inspired the Americans who fought for our freedom and independence has been ignited once again! Americans are reawakening to the ideas, the principles, the habits of the heart, and disciplines of the mind that made America great. This isnt a political awakening. Its an American awakening. Its coming from real peoplenot politicos or inside-the-Beltway types. These are the Americans who grow our food, teach our children, run our small businesses, help out those less fortunate, and fight our wars. Theyve seen what is happening in America, so theyve decided to get involved. They feel like theyre losing something good and fundamental about their country, so theyve decided to take it back, because they love this country and are proud to be Americans!

One of my first clues to how real and how consequential this awakening is came from my own, independent-minded family. My uncle Ron and aunt Kate are businesspeople in Washington State. Theyre not particularly political; theyd never been intimately involved with any party or movement. So when I found out they had attended Tea Party meetings, in the very, very early stages of this peoples movement, I knew it was time to ask: Who are these participants? And I realized that the Tea Partiers are my uncle Ron and aunt Kate: normal Americans who havent necessarily been involved in national politics before but are turned on to this movement because they love America and they dont like what they see happening to her. Theyre so concerned about the path were on that theyve decided to get involved. And believe me; they may not have done this two years ago. But theyre doing it today.

Just like at the rally in Boston, taxing and spending are the most frequent subjects of Tea Partiers signs and speeches. But Americans are coming to understand that the irresponsible fiscal path were on is just a symptom of a more serious disease. People approach me all the time to tell me theyre worried that were losing whats best about our country. President Obama and the current Washington crowd have promised us a fundamental transformation of America. The Left seems to think that theres something wrong with Americanot something wrong with our policies or our government, but something wrong with our country and what we value. So theyre hell-bent on changing it. They dont seem to share the timeless values that so many of us hold dear: our belief in our God-given freedom, our faith in free markets, and our certainty that the truths of our American founding are the way to a more perfect union.