Great piece by Hugh Hewitt today on the Washington Examiner website. From Seventy percent of Americans know they’ve been conned (bold mine):
The new tools of communication and the ease of movement have unleashed a tumultuous era of politics driven by the demand that elites not attempt to speak for, or condescend to, average citizens. They will not quietly or passively be lectured to, or insulted by, the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg or any anchor on any network, any columnist in any paper, or any blogger on any Web site.
The people on the Mall and the millions more who watched the gathering with satisfaction rather than fear are quite simply sick of the left, and of its vast sneer toward the traditions, values and, yes, faith of the American middle class.
The American Enterprise Institute’s Arthur Brooks has quite accurately described America as a 70/30 nation, with the 70 percent presently massively underrepresented in the federal government, the Manhattan-Beltway media elite and academia.
The 70 percent is appalled by the placebo economics practiced by the president and the Congress over the past two years, shocked by its profligacy with the wealth of the republic, and sickened by the looting of the next generation’s opportunities.
The 70 percent did not want Obamacare, but it has been thrust upon them.
The 70 percent did not want federal judges to declare “game over” in the complex discussion of what marriage is and means.
The 70 percent want a fence on the border that works, and do not want their concern over unregulated immigration dismissed as nativisim.
The 70 percent are not ashamed of their belief in God, deeply resent being labeled bigots because they view ground zero as land that ought not to be exploited for “messaging” of any sort by any group, and are enraged by the scorn which they encounter everywhere in media except Fox News and talk radio.
The 70 percent believe that the federal government is remote and clueless, and that the Constitution’s principles of enumerated and limited powers and the sovereignty of the states are vibrant, important core values to the republic.
The 70 percent think Iran is in the grip of an evil, theocratic fascism, and that Israel is our true friend and ally deserving of our full-throated support.
Two years into what had been sold as a new politics and a new approach, the 70 percent are fully aware that they have been conned, suckered, and taken to the cleaners by a hyper-ideological amalgam of leftist public intellectuals, snarling bloggers, career politicians with limited abilities who are often corrupt, and a president wholly inexperienced in the management of complex problems who is in way over his head and prisoner to slogans and schemes that make for great campus debates — but for disaster in the real world.
I watched just a few minutes of Glen Beck being interviewed by Bill O’Reilly tonight. He asked Glen what surprised him the most about the rally.
He thought just a moment and then said the intensity of the hatred from the Left. Both he and Bill through it was going to get a lot worse.
Right after that, I turned to a Christian channel that showed Kay Arthur speaking to a group at a conference. Her entire talk (at least what I saw) was about the need for Christians to become more knowledgeable about the TRUTH of the Bible because she believes we are only beginning to see the beginning of deception and persecution.
I agreed with both but not so sure that is what I needed before going to sleep!
I think that one thing coming out of the Tea Party movement is a strong action on the part of conservatives and libertarians to force the Republican party into being conservative. Last year New York’s 23rd district had a special election, and the Republican party put up a candidate that the people said, “no that’s not what we want”. An independent candidate ran on a conservative message and it forced the Republican to drop out. The people spoke.
(Amazingly, the primaries for that district are next week, and the same players are back, but the independent is now running on the Republican ticket. Guess who’s going to win?)
Now forward to this year. “Establishment” candidates are losing primaries left and right because people really want Republicans to be conservative. Our district had five Republican candidates in the primary. The establishment, the local media and the retiring congressman endorsed one “safe” candidate, but the true conservative/libertarian smaller government/read the bills/liberty candidate soundly defeated all four other candidates because the people wanted it that way ( I know I did!).
I’m encouraged because ordinary people are doing what they need to do… act and vote. The media and the government don’t want to acknowledge and talk about it because they’ll have to deal with the ideas, and they lose in the public opinion about those ideas.
I have to say that I’m not as optimistic as David. I’ve hardly followed any politics as of late because I’m so thoroughly disgusted by the whole thing. When it was time to vote in the primary, I mostly listened to what David had to say, read one thing online, and voted. I’m not usually that uninformed, but the whole thing right now sickens me.
If the conservatives actually get in power and actually do something constructive, I might get excited. But my cynical meter has really gone up the past couple of years. 😐