Republican activists in Iowa are decrying the Iowa Family Policy Center’s efforts to raise $100,000 to hire Sarah Palin for a speaking engagement, “recoiling at the thought of paying to land a politician’s speaking appearance.”
The conflict may hint at the divide between those who want to submit to a leader and those who don’t. For those who don’t, liberty is paramount and submitting to authority is always a humiliation – whether it be the will of a king or that of a traffic cop. Skeptical, they view leaders as functionaries – as civil servants.
Then there are those who submit to authority with pleasure, who take pride in royalty, who extol the qualities of strongmen, who defer to clergy and seek out gurus. Romantic, they view leaders as gifted and extraordinary, worthy of admiration if not worship.
Sarah Palin was elected by the former to the most powerful government post in Alaska, an office she recently quit in order to better serve – or be served by – the latter.
Pomp and circumstance are especially meaningful to those who want to submit. Otherwise, how would they know they are bowing down in front of the right idol?