Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has always been an intensely independent woman. So it should come as no surprise that her decision to resign as governor befuddled many, especially political elites.
The chattering class stands ready to write off her political future, spouting their usual insults, calling Palin “a quitter,” “politically tone-deaf” and “Caribou Barbie.” The reality is, each of these characterizations misses the mark. If they truly reflected any political figure, one would expect his or her career to fizzle in a matter of days.
To the contrary, Palin deflects the baseless nastiness with poise and experiences a massive surge of support. Hercharisma inspires a base that is committed and highly engaged. The strongest evidence of her populist power is found online.
Since her announcement, Palin has gained over 30,000 friends on Facebook and thousands of followers on Twitter. These measurements are just a snapshot of her potential as a revolutionary political force online. Palin could very well hold the key to reaching conservative activists in the same way that Barack Obama connected with liberal activists throughmy.BarackObama.comduring the presidential campaign.
Palin’s values of faith, family, and service resonate with everyday Americans in ways few on the Right can match. She offers a charismatic model of feminine leadership – one that champions traditional values with style and moxie. Months after the 2008 election, her success and ability to influence national politics has endured.
A growing conservative foil to President Obama’s Organizing for America can be found among burgeoning online communities like TeamSarah.org. Founded just ten months ago, Team Sarah has grown into a leading conservative online presence with over 70,000 members that garners over one million pageviews a month.
Far more than just a fan club, Team Sarah members are committed activists who want to make a difference for their families and nation. Already they have organized grassroots lobbying campaigns, TEA Parties, and even launched successful fundraising efforts for SarahPAC and Palin’s legal defense fund.
Their activism is truly a grassroots effort, undertaken with energy and enthusiasm. Most importantly, their efforts spring from individual initiative with little direction from inside the Beltway.
These results are powerfully reminiscent of the success of my.BarackObama.com in laying the grassroots foundation for the Obama presidential campaign. Before Obama could afford to send “official” field staff to primary states like Maryland and Virginia, hundreds of activists had already built an impressive field operation of their own, complete with phone banks, canvassing, and offices.
These efforts came together after Obama supporters met online and decided to take action in their own communities on behalf of the Obama agenda. Without that foundation, the Obama campaign would have been far behind in building their grassroots network for an effective campaign. Online activists made the difference in achieving offline electoral success.
While Governor Palin has not yet revealed her future plans, there is abundant evidence that her leadership already inspires a broad range of activists, from independents to conservatives and centrist Democrats.
It would be a natural extension of that leadership to enroll millions of activists and donors for her cause. Whether it is a presidential campaign or another national endeavor to advance issues close to her heart, Palin has the opportunity to become a potent political force by capitalizing on the energy of existing online networks like Team Sarah.
Her appeal has gone over the heads of the elites and their criticisms, and it has attracted a vast grassroots movement that is not going away. Their headquarters are found on the internet. Sarah Palin as an important force in American politics is a virtual certainty.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is co-founder of Team Sarah, a diverse coalition of Americans dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process.
