Why would a cultural icon such as Palin ever want to go to the Senate and have to sit through hearings in some airless meeting room? Could you really imagine her in the Cabinet, stashed away in some cavernous federal building and dodging questions from School Transportation News?

And yet: Palin in the House of Representatives makes perfect sense. You don’t need much interest in government to land a starring role in the House these days. If you’re a Republican, it might actually get in the way.

The House now is a legislative body only in the way the Orioles are a major league baseball team: very marginally. The lower chamber is almost entirely performative, its hallways a giant green room. There’s a lot of shouting and tweeting and fundraising, but almost nothing in the way of lawmaking.

Good luck finding anyone at your local Safeway who can name more than one committee chair in the House, but chances are your teenager can tell you what “AOC” stands for or has seen the YouTube videos where Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert say outrageous things about Democrats and Nazis.