Palin 2012

I hope Sarah Palin runs for president.

I really do. A Palin presidential run is exactly what the Republican Party needs.

Her campaign could finally free Republicans of the teabaggers and Glenn Beck worshippers long enough for them to nominate a viable presidential candidate – hopefully one that brings intellectualism back to the forefront of the Republican platform.

When Ronald Reagan first rallied the religious right, he probably didn’t realize that he was selling the Republican soul to the devil.

Shortly after Reagan left his post as Governor of California in 1975, Christian fundamentalism made its way into American politics. In 1977, James Dobson founded Focus on the Family. Two years later the Rev. Jerry Falwell established the Moral Majority organization, warning the country that “Satan had mobilized his forces to destroy America.”

In 1988, Rev. Pat Robertson started the Christian Coalition.

The GOP has happily milked the support of these major evangelical organizations and the religious right that they represent for decades. But, in doing so, they have set themselves up for failure.

Even Reagan recognized the potential danger of alienating certain segments of the Republican Party with religion, saying “as to the ... issues that draw on the deep springs of morality and emotion, let us decide that we can disagree among ourselves as Republicans and tolerate the disagreement.”

But his party has been a far cry from the party of tolerance. The Republican you’re-either-with-us-or-you’re-not mentality has the effect of alienating people like Sen. Jim Jeffords, who left the party for independent status in 2001, and Sen. Arlen Specter, who crossed the aisle earlier this year. Moderates have become less and less welcome. Olympia Snowe has described the experience as sometimes feeling like she’s a cast member of “Survivor,” “often get[ing] the distinct feeling that you’re no longer welcome in the tribe.”

Demographic trends like growing minority populations and the coming-of-voting-age of a generation much more likely to support things such as gay marriage than their elders mean that if Republicans want to win future elections, they need to divorce the religious right and end their marriage of convenience.

Sarah Palin is the woman for the job. She’s the embodiment of socially conservative populism. If you don’t believe me, just watch some YouTube clips of fans at Palin book signings fumble answering questions like “What specific policies of hers do you support?”

In fact, she is overwhelmingly supported by loyal followers of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh – while 17 percent of Republicans polled by the Washington Post said they would vote for her if their state’s primary or caucus were held today, she has the support of 45 percent of regular Limbaugh listeners and a third of Beck’s audience.

Palin, should she run, would attract the votes of the religious right and the ultra-conservative fringes of the party, those who worship talking heads like Beck.

This would allow other Republican candidates freedom from the need to pander to Focus on the Family and return to the pre-Reagan days of a diversity of ideas and figures within the Republican party.