Sarah Palin's support around the time of that election was kind of an early symptom of the same issue that caused Drumpf's nomination/election. He's a major symptom and much "worse" than Palin, but they're definitely both symptoms of the same infection eating away at this democracy.
I always said that McCain inadvertently opened Palindora's Box by choosing her as a running mate and granting her relevance. Things may very well be different today if she was simply just an obscure governor of a small (population-wise) state.
