I have an envelope sitting on my desk from Samaritan’s Purse, the organization founded by Franklin Graham; on the outside, the envelope references two of the many projects in which they’re involved:
Ministry in the Slums of Honduras
Feeding Families on the Alaska Frontier
Now, had you asked me in advance which of these two would get top billing, I would have figured from past experience that it would be Honduras, which sounds more exotic and a bigger deal. Past fundraising appeals from Franklin Graham, whether for Samaritan’s Purse or for his father’s ministry, have featured evangelistic work in places like India for just that reason. But no, Honduras is relegated to a small strip below the address window of the envelope. Most of the front of the envelope is taken up with the mission to Alaska.
Why? My best guess in two words: Sarah Palin.
Most of the right side of the front of the envelope, somewhere between a quarter and a third of the total space, is occupied by a picture of Graham standing next to Gov. Palin, both grinning (he looks very like his father in this shot), handing out a big box of food. The picture dominates the envelope; the eye goes first to Graham, looking down into the box, then moves immediately to the Governor, because she’s dressed in red and so stands out from the rest of the colors in the picture. The message in this one is very clear: Franklin Graham is allied with Sarah Palin—they’re working together to minister to the people of Alaska.
Lest you think I’m overemphasizing this, I’m not. Open the envelope and pull out the letter, the first thing you see is a different photo, filling the top half of the page, of Graham and Gov. Palin giving away another large box of food; the only major difference in composition is that Graham is significantly closer to the camera and therefore looms larger. Gov. Palin is still dead-center in the shot, and her red still draws the eye. The caption, at the top of the page, reads, “EMERGENCY FOOD: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and I delivered much-needed boxes of food to native families in the wilderness of western Alaska.” In the text of the letter, the governor’s office is mentioned in the second paragraph, she’s mentioned by name—and praised in strong terms—in the third, and the entire fourth paragraph is her praise of Samaritan’s Purse.
In other words, one of the main things this letter wants you to take away is that Gov. Palin loves Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse, and that they’re allies in ministry. This is, of course, a fundraising letter, so what this tells you is that Graham and his staff think that invoking her name is a good way to get people to give money—and that’s no small judgment, because these folks are past masters at this craft. When most folks think of Billy Graham, they don’t think of him as a fundraiser, but all those crusades cost a great deal of money; who exactly was responsible for raising it initially I don’t know, but over the years, that’s one of the areas at which the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has gotten very, very good. If they think Gov. Palin’s picture and imprimatur will help them raise money from the sort of folks who support them, they’re no doubt right.
Why does this matter? Well, besides the fact that Samaritan’s Purse is a good ministry that will do a great deal of good work with that money, it also matters because those same folks make up a sizable chunk of the Republican base—and for that matter, the Blue Dog wing of Democratic voters, many of whom now self-identify as Palin Democrats. The calculation of Franklin Graham and the development folks at Samaritan’s Purse with regard to Gov. Palin’s probable effect on their fundraising isn’t a political one, but it has political implications; at its root, it’s the same calculation Saxby Chambliss made when he invited Gov. Palin to be the closer for his campaign in the runoff election for Senate in Georgia: Sarah Palin has big coattails. She inspires a lot of people across this country, and if she supports someone or something, that will encourage many, many other folks to do the same—with votes, time, money, whatever. Whether it’s “Vote for Saxby” or “give money to Samaritan’s Purse,” if she says it, millions of people take it a lot more seriously than if someone else says it. That matters. It matters a lot.
This also matters because it’s a good gauge that all the Democratic efforts to smear this woman aren’t really working. Sure, they’re no doubt serving to fire up the Party faithful, but outside of the elite echo chambers where people pull out lines to convinced each other of things of which they’re both already convinced, when it comes to actually changing the minds of the citizenry, they aren’t taking root. For all the work the Democrat smear machine is putting into breaking her image as someone of high morals and ethics, that’s clearly how most people in this country think of her, or else her support wouldn’t be this useful to an evangelical ministry like Samaritan’s Purse; they clearly don’t see her as damaged goods, or they wouldn’t be parading her support the way they are.
One might also point out that it matters because it means that Graham and his staff have a better feel for the political realities in this country right now, even without trying, than the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the various other party organs that exist inside that great echo chamber of the DC-NY corridor. Were that not the case, the NRSC and NRCC would have hung on and waited for her to agree to attend their event (as she probably would have done) when she could do so at an appropriate point, rather than turning to Newt Gingrich as a speaker.
The bottom line is that this fundraising letter is just one more piece of evidence of Sarah Palin’s extraordinary appeal and connection to a vast swath of the American populace; Palin Power is a very real thing, and the folks at Samaritan’s Purse clearly judged it well worth their while to make a deliberate and intentional effort to tap into it. (Which, since she supports and appreciates their efforts, was an entirely appropriate and valid thing for them to do.) The sooner the national GOP starts doing so as well in an intelligent way—namely, without asking her to tap-dance to their tune for the privilege—the better off they’ll be.
Update: When I posted this, I was so focused on the letter that I wasn’t thinking about the trip it recounts, so I didn’t link to the post Joseph Russo put up on that trip at the time. That omission is now corrected. It’s particularly significant because that post sparked people to donate to Samaritan’s Purse in honor of Gov. Palin, which probably contributed to their decision to highlight the trip.
You’re right again Rob. Here in the Bible Belt, it has been my experience that even people who aren’t particularly religious have a healthy respect for those who are. You won’t find very many self-professed atheists in these parts. If the Blue Dog Democrats truly understood the depths of contempt that the far left liberals have for God and Christians, they would never vote for them again.
The left wing of the Democrat party (and the elite Republicans, for that matter) attack Sarah Palin’s faith at their own peril.
It did my heart good to read your column.
I have never been particularly religious, but if I got a fundraising letter featuring Gov. Palin, I’d donate out of respect for, and support for her.
My thanks to both of you for your comments. Greg, I think we could also add trust in her judgment–that she wouldn’t allow her name to be used by an organization that wouldn’t spend the money well. (Aside, perhaps, from the GOP, but she’s doing what she can to fix that, too.)
georgiapeach, that’s been my experience too, even outside the Bible Belt in much of the rural West, even as irreligious as much of the West is. (The cities, of course, can be another matter.) That’s one of the reasons I think we may see a schism develop in both parties along that stress line; if anything could produce a real realignment in American politics, I think that would be it.
Maybe it’s just my perception Rob. But it sure seems like the liberals seem to congregate in urban areas. Maybe it’s because they neither like nor understand that “mountain spirit” that we talked about in another thread. We have had some pretty heated discussions along these lines on TeamSarah.
There are some people there who are still of the All Republicans good/All Democrats Bad mindset. But there are some, myself included, that believe that both parties have betrayed their bases to cater to the elites.
I don’t think we’re ever going to see much progress in this country until we toss our party affiliations aside and band together to take back what the politicians have taken from us. And what they are trying to take from us is our belief system and our way of life.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, georgiapeach. Way back before the campaigning even started, and I’m talking almost two years ago now, I asking “Who’s in the middle?” I didn’t necessarily mean moderate so much as not at either end screaming at the other end, if you get my drift. 😉 Because that’s what I’m sick of and I think a lot of the country also is.
In fact, I tend to believe that’s a large part of what got McCain nominated like he was. Rightly or wrongly, agree with his positions or not, he is one of those politions that will work in the middle.
Then he gave us Sarah. She echoes that ability to work with others while seeming to stand a lot more firm in what she personally believes. Everytime I read/see someone from the so-called political elite or media, regardless of which side they’re on, underestimate her I just shake my head at how out of touch they are with the rest of us.
And, Rob, I’ve really been enjoying your posts since C4S brought them to my attention. This one was especially great and to the point about Sarah’s, um, value. 🙂 I think even her supporters underestimate Sarah’s natural instincts to simply do the right things. In the long run, that is more valuable than gold.
Before 2008 BevBB, I was pretty much a partisan Democrat. But I had been watching the party being pulled to the left for a long time, and they finally went farther than I was willing to follow.
When the primaries first started, I was pretty much “anybody but Hillary”. But as I read and researched the candidates more, I was totally surprised to discover how much bi-partisan work she had actually done during her time in the Senate. I liked John McCain for much the same reason.
I figured out a long time ago that both parties have their hot-button wedge issues that they get in a lather about every two years, just in time for the elections, that they really have no intention of actually doing anything about. (Why should they? They’re going to milk those cows for as long as they can.)
I’ve pretty much come full circle now. I want a candidate who says what they mean, and mean what they say. I don’t care about party affiliation anymore, and I don’t want to hear about what they’re going to do. I want to know what they’ve done, because I want some evidence that they actually walk the walk. Sarah Palin fits that bill to a T.
BevBB, thanks; I think you have a good point there. People will always disagree, and in a lot of ways I’d rather deal with someone who takes an opposite stand from me on principle than with someone trying to stand in the middle because they don’t have any strong guiding principle; I just think we need to do so with humility.
georgiapeach, I agree, the Left tends to be concentrated in the cities; there are towns in the Rockies that tilt pretty heavily to the left, too–the big glamorous resort towns like Vail and Aspen–since rich liberals like scenery and skiing and that sort of thing as much as anyone; but I’ll tell you, they don’t mingle with the true locals. We had a few of those folks in Grand Lake (Tim Allen and Sting, most notably), but not enough to really skew the community; in places like Aspen, you have critical mass, and it introduces a really strange dynamic into the community.
Agreed too on the importance of the “what have they really done?” test; it’s the reason I thought all the snarky commentary on Gov. Palin’s supposed lack of experience was so ridiculous.
Rob,
I’m so glad to have found your blog. I received the same letter from Samaritan’s Purse that you did and it made me happy to see the photo. No matter if someone is religious, or a Christian, or a Jew, or a Sunday couch potato, Samaritan’s Purse does terrific work to those most in need in this world.
Seeing Sarah Palin giving of her self to help others goes so far beyond holding elected office. She’s a class act!
Thanks, Tricia; I agree with you completely. That’s one of the reasons I support Gov. Palin as much as I do, because I really get the sense that that’s still the reason she’s in politics at all, to have more opportunity to help people. Would that more of our politicians were that way.