I'm getting ready to make a belated entry in St. Paul, so I will be dark for most of tomorrow (as I have been for most of today tying up loose ends), but something about the Palin pregnancy controversy compels me to make a slightly provocative point that I also think aptly sums up the Republican identity in this week of GOP-centrism.
At its heart, the Republican Party is the party of regular people.
I don't mean this to come off as Average Joe chauvinism. This is not a point about income or wealth, though contrary to the stereotype of the GOP as the party of the rich, there is a strong argument to be made that we represent the Great American Middle in contrast to the Democrats' who represent the very rich/educated and the very poor/uneducated.
When I say regular, I mean regular in the sense of apolitical, well grounded in family and community, and as far away from a Beltway mindset as you can get.
Republican leaders at the national level have tended to tap into apolitical America more. Theirs are usually not the candidates who are scheming from birth to be President. They come to politics later in life after success in business, the military, or other worthwhile endeavors. If being a C-SPAN junkie were a prerequisite to being elected to Congress, we'd have veto-proof Democratic majorities in both chambers. If you upped that requirement to a Harvard degree, it'd be 80-20.
Nor would Democrats particularly dispute this. They claim the mantle of intellectual superiority as proof of their fitness to rule. They believe only those with the right "pedigree" should be elected President.
All of this brings me to Sarah Palin.