To understand McCain's choice of Sarah Palin, you have to understand Arizona and Arizonans. I wasn't born in Arizona, but since moving here I have come to love it.
Our greatest strength here in Arizona is our fiercely independent nature. Shortly after I moved here, Arizona lost their federal highway funds. Why? Arizona couldn't be bothered to fill out the paperwork.
In California, this would be a disaster of epic proportions. In Arizona, we didn't really care. We lost the matching funds? Oh, well, so people driving through our state on the way to California will hit a few more potholes. Screw 'em. We'll maintain 17 so people can get to Flagstaff and Tucson, and the 40 from Flagstaff to Kingman, but after that, if the federal government wants to make us fill out forms every year, they have to make them easier.
When you live in a state where 50% of the land is managed by the federal government, you get pretty cynical about the federal government's ability to manage things from thousands of miles away. If you ever forget, you merely need ask your local Native American what they think; its not just their land that is managed by the federal government, its their very lives. I never knew Navajo had so many curse words...
We were the last of the 48 states to actually become a state, in 1912. Which means we had years of being managed by the federal government as a "territory", so you can imagine how much that sucked.
Meanwhile, California, the state I was born in, has decided that poor people shouldn't be allowed to eat in fast food restaurants. "For their own good."
Now lets consider Alaska. Alaska has even more of the land and population controlled by the federal government, from even farther away. They also were a territory for a long time.
I think McCain met with Palin, and could tell in 5 minutes that she was a kindred spirit, a cowgirl.
Cowgirl Up, America! Screw the feds! Lock and Load!
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