Nick Gillespie: Is Sarah Palin Turning Libertarian?

Over the past weekend, writes Nick Gillespie, Sarah Palin was one of the main speakers at the Road to Majority meeting of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, a group of religious Republicans headed up by Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition. During her remarks, he notes, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate

sounded specifically libertarian notes, disdaining yet more intervention in the Middle East, giving absolution to Edward Snowden for leaking details of surveillance programs, and casting a pox on both Democrats and Republicans…. It doesn't matter if it's a Republican or a Democrat sitting atop of a bloated boot on your neck. With bloated government, everyone gets infected, and no party is immune."

Palin got her biggest applause when she finished that thought by declaring, "That's why, I tell you, I'm listening to those independents, those libertarians, who are saying, 'It is both sides of the aisle, the good ol' boys in the party on both sides of the aisle, they perpetuate the problem.'"

Yet, argues Gillespie,

Yet there's every reason to believe that Palin's newfound libertarianism is deeply misinformed, cynically superficial, or some mix of both.