Thread by @DavidNeiwert

1) A thread about Sarah Palin, who in many ways was the key figure in the transformation of the Republican Party into the know-nothing, anti-science, conspiracy-theory-loving, cultishly authoritarian Party of Trump it is today. W/ video.

2) I've been thinking a lot about Palin in no small part because of the way Trump-hating Republicans like @MeghanMcCain are rewriting history by trying to blame Barack Obama for Trump, because apparently _he_, not the GOP, stoked America's culture wars when he was president.

3) Let's be clear: the GOP has been stoking these culture wars as a means of winning election since at least the days of Ronald Reagan and his presidency. But they embraced it openly beginning in 1992 with Pat Buchanan's "cultural war" speech.

4) This M.O. never ceased configuring Republican politics in the ensuing years, notably during the Bush years. But unquestionably the person who most made these culture the entire raison d'être of the GOP was John McCain's 2008 running mate, Sarah Palin.

journalism.org/2008/11/20/sar…

5) I became intimately familiar while on assignment in Alaska to examine Palin's connections to the extremist right, mainly the "Patriot"/militia movement, during her time on the Wasilla city council and then as the city's mayor. She had a fondness for the John Birch Society.

6) Our story ran in early October, but it unfortunately didn't make it onto the radar of the national media. Still, it remained a solid story that revealed a great deal about the political creature McCain and his campaign had unleashed.

salon.com/2008/10/10/pal…

7) It emerged later that Palin had watched my appearance on CNN to promote the piece and had gone nuts, creating a huge fight within the campaign that she lost, thereby inspiring her to infamously 'go rogue' for the duration. Guess I did my part.

crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/…

8) However, this extremism had of course already bubbled up during the campaign -- reflected not just in her red-meat speeches but in the effect she had on crowds. This report from Al Jazeera still haunts me.

9) The key here is that after the election, Palin didn't tone down the extremism, but rather stepped it up. She was one of the first figures from the GOP establishment to embrace the "Birther" conspiracy theories.

10) Of course, we also know who not only followed suit, but launched his entire political career on the back of this fraudulent and racist conspiracy theory.

11) Palin also played a key role in the increasing radicalization of the GOP, particularly through her connections to the Tea Party, which quickly became a major conduit for "Patriot"-style and Christian nationalist extremism.

dneiwert.blogspot.com/2010/04/video-…

12) Palin also did a lot to pave the way for the gobbledygook word-salad rhetorical style that has been Trump's hallmark.

13) By 2014, though, Palin's political style had deteriorated into maudlin and seemingly intoxicated delivery, and she became a serious embarrassment. Her speech to the Western Conservative Summit that year was a real humdinger.

14) Who, after all, could forget "God doesn't drive parked cars"?

15) Palin was the proto-Trump, and the culture wars waged by Republicans he stoked to democracy-threatening levels were already fully inflamed by the time he arrived on the scene, thanks to Palin. John McCain made this happen. It's too late for excuses.

thedenverchannel.com/news/national/…

16) Palin has become something of a national joke now, dancing in a rainbow bear costume on 'The Masked Singer' to 'Baby Got Back.' But the nightmarish irony hit like lightning that night (March 11) the moment her segment ended: Trump addressed the nation on the coronavirus.

17) Trump's narcissism dwarfs Palin's, but the politics of authoritarian and cultish faux "patriotism" is the same -- if anything, it's gone on steroids during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's a recipe for disaster and 100,000 dead.