Kathleen Parker is published in more newspapers than any other American columnist—and she recently declared her independence in a powerful column titled, appropriately, “Declaration of Independence.”
Viciously attacked from the far right after she dared to question Sarah Palin’s selection in '08, Parker has long been a smart, funny, skeptical voice from Main Street America. Like most Americans, she doesn’t appreciate being shoved into an ideological straitjacket—and she’s emblematic of the vast vital center of American life, who distrust the arrogance and intolerance of absolutists. Reason requires an independent perspective—and it is a message aided by a resilient sense of humor.