It has surprised me in recent years the sheer scale to which the Republican party no longer even bothers to try and pretend that they aren't the party of the rich white power elites, bought and paid for, purely to further the interests of said elites.

It has further surprised me how their core supporters, primarily the poor and utterly disenfranchised, seem to be completely okay with this.

But then, as you say, the Palin Phenomena surely teaches us that even if we imagine the most bizarre and unlikely thing in American politics, the reality is, something even weirder than that is probably already happening.