Going Rogue: An American Life (12 page)

The Miss Wasilla Scholarship paid my college tuition that fall. The following summer, I progressed to the next round and was crowned second runner-up and Miss Congeniality in the Miss Alaska Scholarship Pageant. I had to admit it was good tuition money, as well as a good testing ground for public speaking and issue advocacy, and I was happy to be even more involved in the community via this nontraditional adventure that took me out of my comfort zone. I went on to pay for two more years of college the same way.

Recenrly, my sister Molly unearrhed an old pageant video, a Q&A exchange with a judge that I had completely forgotten about. Molly laughed as she recounted the exchange about the fact that not much has changed, besides the ‘SOs pageant hair. JUDGE: Geraldine Ferraro recently became the first female vice presidential candidate reptesenting a major American political party. Do you think a woman can be vice president?

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ME: Yes. I believe a woman could be vice president. I believe a woman could be president.

JUDGE: Would you vore for a vice presidenrial or presidenrial candidare just because she was a woman?

ME: No, I would not vote for someone just because they were a woman. I would vote for the candidate that reflected my political beliefs and had strong character and family values. JUDGE: What do you think are Alaska’s best attributes?

ME: One of the best attributes of Alaska is its beauty, and everything that the great Alaska outdoors has to offer, from hunting and fishing to snowmachining in winter. And Alaska has amazing potential in drilling for oil on rhe North Slope. Bur unfortunarely some Oursiders don’t understand Alaska’s porential in developing our vasr narural
resources.

Thar exchange, a quarter century ago, now seems either

,

srrangely coincidental or a Providential signpost pointing toward my futute. And I don’t believe in coincidences.

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Idaho’s down-home feeling and gorgeous campus on the rolling hills of the Palouse helped lessen the homesickness I felt for Alaska. Childhood friends from the Carter and Carney families attended the University of Idaho with me, and even Chuck and Molly were fellow Vandals. They pledged Greek, so I enjoyed extended Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Alpha Phi families through them. But
I,
ever the independent, was proudly GDI. I was amazed when my education became an issue in the vice presidential campaign. “Well, look at that,” the pundits said, “she • 44

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Going Rogue

went to all those different schools, and it took her five years to graduate.”

Yes, it did take me five years because I paid my own way. Tilly and I came home to Alaska between semesters and worked so we could earn money to pay for the next term. Sometimes we had to take a semester off and work until we could afford tuition again. I remember when that was an honorable thing.

At VI, I lived in an all-girls dorm. I planned on a political science minor because I loved studying U.S. history and government and knew poli sci would mesh well with a journalism major. Although my family wasn’t political, and certainly not obsessively partisan, I registered to vote in 1982, at age eighteen, and proudly checked the Republican box on the registration form. I had tead both major party platforms, and the GOP just made sense for someone like me, a believer in individual rights and responsibilities rather than heavy-handed government; in freemarket principles that included reward for hard work; respect for equality; support for a strong military; and a belief that America is the best country on earth.

I looked forward to every poli sci lecture. I attributed my enthusiasm to patriotism and a fascination with current events. I was also eager because this was the 1980s and our studies centered on one of the most inspiring individuals ever to occupy the White House, President Ronald W. Reagan.

I was in high school the day Reagan took the oath of office. On the same day, minutes after he was sworn in, a band of Iranian militants released fifty-two Americans, after having held themand our national pride-hostage for 444 days. I had followed the Iran hostage crisis and remember wondeting why President Jimmy Carter didn’t act more decisively. From my high schooler’s ,perspective, I thought the question was, Why did he allow America to be humiliated and pushed around? The new president

SARAH

PALIN

being sworn in radiated confidence and optimism. The enemies of freedom rook notice. In years ro come people would ask, What did he have that Carter didn’t? To me the answer was obvious. He had a steel spine.

I appreciated Reagan’s passion and conviction, and the way he so plainly articulated his love for our country. Like millions of others, I related to him personally-he was one of us. I liked him, and I liked the fact that he was never aftaid ro call it as he
saw it.

During the previous decade, we seemed to have slid into a darket period as a country: Vietnam, Watergate, the energy crisis, the perception of environmental abuses,

Iran humiliation

(made worse by the abortive hostage rescue attempt). Reagan’s optimism resrored our faith in outselves. Yes, maybe our nation had veered off course, he seemed ro be saying, but not only could we right ourselves, America’s best days wete still ahead. As Reagan’s presidency unfolded, I also appreciated his focus on a handful of overarching themes, such as reining in the intrusiveness of government, building a strong national defense, and cutting taxes. I knew the previous administration had left a legacy of soaring unemployment, sky-high taxes, and rampant inflation. Reagan’s plan for growing out economy made
sense: reduce reliance on government by cutting taxes and put-
ting more money into the hands of the people who earned it. At the peak of Soviet military power, Democrats had retreated into an embarrassed pacifism, cutting defense projects and reducing our troop strength. But the new Republican president I was studying in school unabashedly set out to make the United States the strongest power in the world. Reagan’s plan for national defense was logical: ro build up out military while pursuing diplomacy with the Soviet Union. Critics derided him as a warmonger, but as the violent twentieth century came to an end, Reagan’s
Going Rogue position ultimately led to a climactic victory for freedom and peace with the collapse of the Iron Currain and the liberation of millions from the tyranny of Communism. Reagan won the Cold War withour firing a shot.

”America is still the abiding alternative to tyranny,” Reagan said. “That is our purpose in the world-nothing more and nothing less.” Ideas and speeches like that inspired me. I had always subscribed to concepts like Providence and purpose, that people aren’t just random collections of molecules stumbling aimlessly through hisrory. I believed-and still do-rhat each person has a destiny, a reason for being. So Reagan’s sense of national purpose resonated with me. His speeches on the subject evoked in me the sense of national pride I had felt even back at Eagle River Elementary School when I watched our astronauts explore the Final Frontier. As Reagan said, America was more than a place in the world; it was a world-changing
idea,
founded on a set ofprinciples that had weathered many storms. Reagan restored our faith that those principles would prove themselves again.

During semesters in college and summers back in Alaska, I interned at a couple of TV sporrs desks. I covered high school and college spores, putting ‘together packages and writing sports copy for many anchors, including the two guys who gave me a chanceJohn Hernandez and John Carpenter. On weekends during one season, I anchored the sports desk live. I loved the intensity of the newsroom, the deadlines, the adrenaline. Unmarried and with no kids, I spent hours and hours at the station. I felt I was on my way.

I also began paying more and more attention to the chatter from the news desk, especially at Anchorage’s NBC affiliate,

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SARAH

PALIN

KTUU.
It
was always politics first and everything except natural disasrers second.
In
Alaska, we don’t have big-league professional sports teams or many celebrities (except famous dog mushers), so for many up here politics is just another sport. So even as I covered sports, my interest in public policy and how it affected people continued ro grow.

In
Alaska, much of our local news involves natural resource issues, balancing human needs with environmental ones. The Alaska Consritution charges state government wirh managing natural resources “for abundance”-for equal access ro plentiful supplies-and that takes conscientious stewardship. For many in Alaska, being “green” isn’t abour wearing Birkensrocks and driving a hybrid; it’s about survival. Throughout this time, Todd and I continued ro see each other. Though miles apart during college, we wrote letters, made phone calls, and saw each other during vacations. But it was challenging trying ro stay together far apart.
It
was a huge relief when

I graduated, grabbed my diploma, and beat feer back ro Alaska, happy to be in the same state as Todd.