Palin wanted to ban library books

By your logic all you need to function as an ideal "executive" is a good pollster. Obviously worked great during the many years of institutionalized racism in the South when the executives were simply "doing what the voters wanted." I think we should expect quite a bit more of our leaders than just being rubber stamps for the popular will.

Let's say a majority of voters want to put you in jail for your criminal lack of knowledge of something called the US Constitution. Would that be ethical? I say let's do it.

the government is supposed to uphold the constitution... banning books is not on the agenda!

Here's a hypothetical: You the governor of a state in the U.S., the super-majority of your voters want to enslave Black people. Please note that this would not be an illegal act, as no legally binding higher authority has prohibitions against slavery. In fact in this hypothetical the highest legal and judicial authorities patently endorse the chains of slavery. Unfortunately though, many of the more advanced and modern nations around the world, and even thousands of citizens in the U.S. (under the leadership of other governors) abhorr the practice. So their influence is not binding for you. Since "the exective should be doing what the voters want," as you said, then you must be for it. Let's see, has this happened at point in our history? Hmmm... Read closely please: banning books is clearly as aggressively immoral as slavery. Every single instance of banning books has become a lightning rod in history - yet another example of our worst behavior as human beings. I encourage you to consult the list of banned books throughout history, as promulgated by religious extremists nearly every single time, and determine the value of that previous statement for yourself. Here's one to start with: De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. It was banned by the Catholic Church, even more powerful in Europe at the time than Mayor Palin in her time. It was written by a man Nicolas Copernicus with a central premise that the Sun, not the Earth was the center of the solar system.

Then you must agree that we should have gotten out of Iraq.

No. The job of the executive is not to follow the will of the people, which changes with the wind. The executive is better informed about the issues than the "people," who rely on the media (who, by the way, are probably the least "liberal" group in society, or at least have been for the past eight years) who often get things wrong or at best distort things by oversimplifying them. The executive has to work on his/her own judgment and that of his/her advisers, and it is the judgment of the individual candidate that voters are electing. In the case of Governor Palin--or at least Mayor Palin--that judgement includes a total disregard for the first amendment (the cornerstone of American civil liberties) both in attempting to control freedom of expression in banning books from the public library and, more generally, attempting to destroy freedom of religion by forcing her own religious beliefs on the community. This does not bode well for a Vice President, who takes an oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States." There is no additional phrase in that oath that says "except for the first amendment."

"Yes. Parents should have the ultimate control over what their children are taught." was her response. The rest was me.