Palin's political movement

McClatchey:

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While it's too early to call it a campaign, Palin's brand of common sense conservatism crackles with the energy of a burgeoning political movement.

In "The Way Forward," the title of the final chapter of her memoir, she says that her persona and her political philosophy are based on common sense that were last espoused by Reagan, her political idol. The role of government, Palin writes, "is not to perfect us, but to protect us."

Some, like Doug McKinnis, see Palin's political philosophy as a stand against what he describes as "government control, dependence on the government and loss of liberty."

McKinnis, a 48-year-old commercial pilot from Palin's Alaska hometown, Wasilla, was visiting his mother in Pennsylvania when he learned that Palin was signing books. He dropped by the Sam's Club with his "Alaskans Love Sarah" sign.

"The way I see things going in our country, there are two lines," McKinnis said. The line he waited in outside the Palin event represents "liberty, freedom, independence and a constitutional government."

The other line is just the opposite, McKinnis said. "I want to be in the line of freedom, and I think Sarah Palin is a voice for freedom."

Palin appears to have tapped into a powerful strain of populism fueled by dissatisfaction with the economy and by fear that the Democratic Party that's running the country is made up of elites who aren't listening, said Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics at Drake University in Iowa.

"A populist is against big, period," Goldford said. "The populist basically says, 'Look, big labor, big business, big government, they're all trying to screw me, the little guy.' That populism that she's tapped into, it's partly a politics of resentment. She's very much somebody who bristles with all sorts of resentments."

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I think Mark Steyn says it better, ""Climate change" and "health care" are different ends of the same stick: They're both all-purpose pretexts for regulating every aspect of your life...." I don't call that populism. I call it a pro freedom agenda. It is an anti control freak agenda.