To say that Sarah Palin shook things up by taking to Twitter to express her displeasure at the nonchalant nose-rubbing going on at the White House Correspondent's Dinner Saturday night would be an understatement.
It doesn't matter who you are. If you watched the White House Correspondent's Dinner and simultaneously possessed one shred of passion for the future of our country with regards to crony capitalism and corruption, it's pretty easy to determine the overwhelming consensus of the event. The media is supposed to exist to hold these people accountable. Instead, they choose to play dress up and throw themselves a "nerd prom" to schmooze with them. I thought it was pathetic, and many other ordinary Americans did as well.
Sarah Palin's tweet spoke for all of us. The "assclowns" threw themselves a party while the people they are all supposed to be serving are feeling the consequences of their good-old-boys networking.
Palin remains a top-trender on Twitter as liberals mindlessly rage-tweet her in response. Some alleged Republicans are buying into it as well. These are the same ones who believe that clumped voter-focus based on race or sex is better than promoting the ideals of conservatism to empower the individual. The only voter worth pandering to is the American, whatever the makeup.
These folks argue that the White House Correspondent's Dinner is a tradition. This is true. It was created in 1914 by grassroots journalists who responded to a rumor that the government would hand pick reporters to cover Woodrow Wilson's press conferences. This is pretty ironic when you consider the current state of affairs. The idea was to prevent the media from becoming state controlled. Unfortunately, that didn't work.
Now, it's a black-tie event celebrating the marriage of big media to big government. They party on with their contest of egos and sophisticated humor while the average American is recognized as the true butt of the joke.
Others double down. They avoid facing that sad reality by simply trying to portray Palin as a hypocrite claiming she had attended one of these events herself. Yes, she was invited, but she didn't attend because she opted to spend her time with a small group of pro-life activists.
Afterwards, Greta Van Susteren's husband explained that even though Palin opted to not take part in the event itself, she would stop in at the after parties. Predictably, every "assclown" reporter flocked to her immediately.
In addition to briefly attending the after-parties, Palin has in fact brilliantly infiltrated many similar high-profile venues. She attended Time magazine's most influential party the same year she was profiled by the magazine. She had a high-profile pizza date with Donald Trump. She attended a star-studded premiere of NBC's Stars Earn Stripes where her husband competed for military charity efforts.
So what?
A few cherry-picked high profile events filled with people who cannot help themselves from swarming around her on the rare occasions she does accept their invitation to one of their shows does not erase the fact that she indeed chooses to spend most of her public time in flyover country. In fact, it only proves that while they often condescend to her, she's got what it takes to hang with the self-proclaimed big boys. She simply does it on her terms, not theirs.
Palin has endured hectic traveling schedules to cross the heartland campaigning for dozens upon dozens of constitutionally conservative candidates for Congress -- which usually helps them to successfully cross the finish line.
She flew to Texas to prevent big money from buying the state's U.S. Senate primary in 2012. As a result, she helped put Ted Cruz in the Senate (as he willingly admits). She stood in hundred degree heat last summer in places like Belleville, Michigan and Cleveland, Missouri to talk to crowds of Tea Party Americans letting those good people know that she was there with them to help them stay engaged thereby, little by little, sending the ultimate message of displeasure to Washington D.C.
Despite which venue she chooses to use her very authentic way of engaging the masses, Sarah Palin has done the work and delivered the results to win the respect of the usual air-conditioned, cocktail-party elites in D.C. But instead of being grateful to her for doing the work that they've failed to do, they deliver more senseless ridicule which delivers nothing substantive in tackling our country's greatest problems -- problems created by D.C. politicians and their friends in the media all-too-ready to drive the getaway car.
They don't hate Palin because they think she lacks the moxy to play their game. Instead, they despise her refusal to follow the terms of their elitist rulebook.
Steve Flesher is a Contributing Editor at Conservatives4Palin
American Thinker
