Apparently, Governor Palin was once a member of a political party in Alaska that advocates secession from the United States of America, called the Alaska Independence Party.
Its platform calls for the defense of "states rights," to "seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution."
Remember that Barack Obama caught a great deal of heat for having a pastor who was harshly critical of America. For some reason though, Republicans don't seem to have a problem with Palin being part of an organization that outright calls for secession from the Union, a la Nation of Islam circa the 1960s. Now I don't really have much beef with the Nation. As a biracial Jew, I'm not exactly their kind of people, but I've seen them do enough good that the crazy things they say don't bother me all that much.
But the Nation of Islam actually has a more moderate line on secession than the Alaska Independence Party. The NOI holds secession as necessary only as long as it sees America as denying black people the rights afforded other citizens, while the AIP's pursuit of secession is unconditional. More disturbing perhaps, is the AIP's expressed view that they should "infiltrate" the major parties in order to achieve their goals (watch the end of this video).
Honestly they sound kind of like the Ron Paul crew -- spirited but harmless. But since conservatives (and Richard Cohen) tried to tie Obama to the NOI in order to argue against his fitness for office, shouldn't they be very concerned about Palin's direct ties to an organization that has "no use for America or her damned institutions," and in their own words puts Alaska, not "country," first?
UPDATE: Jake Tapper has Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, stating that Governor Palin was never officially a member of the Alaska Independence Party, although folks from the AIP are standing by their story that she was a member. However, Palin's husband Todd was a registered member of the AIP from 1995 to 2002, according to TPM.
--A. Serwer
