Don't try to lecture me on core principles or the founding fathers, for that matter. Part of the reason the tea party movement (which is not the only grassroots constituency) exists is because we've always been treated to lipservice on that very subject and no real action.
It was your cheerleading of Big Government Republicans that led to the tea party movement.
If folks like you actually demanded observance of those principles when it mattered, you'd have Republicans in government to this day.
Today, conveniently, every Republican is for small government in the face of Obama and the Democratic Congress. But what happened in the past is an important indicator of what will happen in the future if certain people are fortunate to get power.
It's your crowd and your old message that made Obama possible, and has enabled him to make the situation even worse than the mess George W. Bush started.
The country has changed since the 80s and 90s. If you want a future, you'd better start acknowledging it and not act like Sarah Palin and all she entails means anything to most Americans. That's fine if you feel like you can relate to her...that doesn't impress anyone else either.
In a country that already feels like the GOP pretends nobody else but their base lives in this country, selecting her as the leader is suicidal.
Politically, culturally, and intellectually, she is not what Americans want out of a President, she is not what conservatives need out of a leader, and her past involvement with McCain and the positions she took in that election diminished trust that can she can correct past mistakes of Republican leadership.