A Rising Anti-Government Tide

WaPo ^ | 5/22/2009 | Newt Gingrich

[SonOfDarkSkies]

Americans should look carefully at the anti-politician, anti-government mood exhibited in California this week. Just as Proposition 13 and the anti-tax movement of 1978 were the forerunners of the Reagan presidential victory, so the results of Tuesday's vote are a harbinger of things to come.

The repudiation of the California establishment in the series of initiative defeats could hardly have been more decisive. Five taxing and spending measures were rejected by 62.6 to 66.4 percent of the voters. That is a consistent majority of enormous potential. An even larger majority, 73.9 percent, approved the proposition limiting elected officials' salaries when there is a deficit.

This vote is the second great signal that the American people are getting fed up with corrupt politicians, arrogant bureaucrats, greedy interests and incompetent, destructive government.

The elites ridiculed or ignored the first harbinger of rebellion, the recent tea parties. While it will be harder to ignore this massive anti-tax, anti-spending vote, they will attempt to do just that.

[SonOfDarkSkies]

...the political machines in California and New York are wrecking the states' economies and driving out successful residents. But the machines don't care because all they want to do is own the wreckage.

Same can be said of Obama!

[x_plus_one]

Newt likes to talk to himself alot. Don’t trust him as far as you can throw him.

[ccmay]

And Gov. Sarah Palin, who cut her state’s budget by 30% this week without breaking a sweat, is poised to reap the benefit.

[Running On Empty]

Marking

[hoosier hick]

The really sad thing is that 76% didn’t even care enough to show up and vote....

hh

[Daveinyork]

I wish Newt had paid attention to the smaller government tide when he was Speaker.

[Truth29]

One way or another, Obama will bailout California. The Democrat/socialist solution to failing states and fleeing taxpayers is to tax nationally so that you cannot get away from the grasping hand of your own state government no matter where you move to within the US.

[RSmithOpt]

How about anti-irresponsibility, anti-taxation, anti socialism, anti-Mushroom / Manure Treatment Syndrome, instead of anti-government, anti-politician....gotta love the LA Slimes. /sarc

What a bunch of Dim Bulbs.

[pnh102]

The really sad thing is that 76% didn’t even care enough to show up and vote....

Considering that had these people shown up all of these measures would have passed I fail to see how this is a bad thing.

[kabar]

It is a good thing. Only those informed about the issue showed up. If this had been an ACORN issue, voter turnout would have been much higher.

[Adder]

Ahh, Newt sayin this...didn’t think it was WaPo...I am sure they are shocked SHOCKED at the CA vote results.

[Bernard]

An even larger majority, 73.9 percent, approved the proposition limiting elected officials' salaries when there is a deficit.

Even better, elected officils should be paid at all after 2 or 3 terms in the same office. Let's see how much their desire to serve the public holds up when they have to rely on the kindness of strangers in order to buy groceries.

[Travis T. OJustice]

Even better, elected officils should be paid at all after 2 or 3 terms in the same office. Let's see how much their desire to serve the public holds up when they have to rely on the kindness of strangers in order to buy groceries.

That already happens, what with lobbyists money and all. Their salary typically isn't what they live off of, there is already family money, or like John Edwards, ill-gotten money from cushy lawyer jobs where they can afford to go live high on the hog with a paltry 180,000 a year for a term or two.

[unixfox]

This vote is the second great signal that the American people are getting fed up with corrupt politicians, arrogant bureaucrats, greedy interests and incompetent, destructive government.

And when voting doesn't help? As has proven in the past that it doesn't. These people don't care about what the voters think, they are ignoring us on almost every issue. Simply put, THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU OR ME, THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT GETTING RE-ELECTED!

Drastic times DEMAND drastic measures. They brought the fight, I hope they are prepared to lose.

[randita]

This system of ruining communities on behalf of interest groups first appeared in Detroit. Bad government, bad politicians and bad policies drove a city that had, in 1950, the highest per capita income of any large American city to No. 62 in per capita income as of 2007. The population has declined from 1.8 million to fewer than 950,000. Recently, 1,800 homes were sold for under $10,000 each. The human cost of bad politics and bad government in Detroit is staggering.

None of us is insulated from the decay and corruption present in Detroit and other liberal run cities. We all pay the price (literally and figuratively) and because we pay, the degradation continues to exist. It's kind of like we supply the lifeblood to allow the cancer to grow and spread.

[Seruzawa]

Oh BS. There’s no call for less govt. The voters want big govt. They just don’t want to pay for it. Newt’s full of it.

Anyone who thinks that the Kalif voters are going to throw out the Rats is dreaming. They still want their bennies, you bet. They just expect that it be paid for magically.

[Erik Latranyi]

The *REAL* lesson here is that liberals are learning to not trust the voters.

In California, where so many are dependent on the state for assistance, they could not get those same people out to vote for these propositions in an off-year.

I assure you, if these props were run last fall, they would have won by large margins because so many of the riff-raff came out to vote for Obama.

Don’t take solace that some movement is underway here.

[Noumenon]

...the political machines in California and New York are wrecking the states' economies and driving out successful residents. But the machines don't care because all they want to do is own the wreckage.

This author gets it. As I have said, these monsters - and they ARE monsters, every last one of them - would rather rule in hell as barbarians sitting on top of a stinking heap of rubble and corpses than leave the rest of us alone to live in peace. How can I say such a thing? It's because the same ideas that have animated recent history's totalitarians and mass murderers now have a happy home in the White House.

That distant thunder you hear is war. War is coming.

[wastoute]

Newt, I suspect, is like most politicians. If he sees a number of citizens moving briskly down the street he will do anything he can to get to the head of the crowd and seem to be in charge. Hence his commercials on Gorebul Warming and other opportunities he has taken.

The dramatic sales of weapons and ammo tells the story. Millions of us are paying careful attention to what is going on and it is clear to us that the folly of the politicians will end badly. Personally I don't see any other exit. I hope there is one but don't see it. Meanwhile we sit and watch the trip wire (the 2nd A) and wait patiently for the "bus to hit the ditch". We don't need leaders now and folks like Newt can't grasp this. In fact we CAN'T have leaders now for Zero is already ramping up to detain them as terrorists. Be patient and watch.

Μολὼν λάβε

[Noumenon]

The 13th Amendment Abolished Slavery, The 16th Amendment Reinstated It

The Second Amendment will cast it back into the hell from which it came.

[nathanbedford]

There are three posts which anticipate the Gingrich article:

I draw two lessons from the voters repudiation of the elected class in California.

First, the referendum vote in California is a confirmation of the spirit which animated the tea parties across America. That spirit reflects a profound disillusionment with the fiscal governance of the country. It is a repudiation of excessive spending and it demonstrates that the people are not so foolish as to believe that unrestrained spending can continue without an ultimate reckoning in taxes. Hence, the left wing punditry which disparaged the tea parties as everything from racist to selfish and uninformed is simply wrong. Those who disregard the deeper meaning of the tea parties will find themselves on the same end of the political process where Arnold Schwarzenegger is now so isolated and repudiated.

Second, the referendum in California is the inevitable result of a class of politicians who exploited the producing class to pander for power to the nonproducing class. California has come to the breaking point in which the producing class is unwilling and unable to participate in a government that is so rigged against them. Again, these referenda in California are reflective of our national Commonwealth. Barak Obama and the Democrat party in charge of the national government are in the process of replicating the California experience across the entire nation. In other words, Obama is exploiting the producing class and pandering to the nonproducing class. The tea parties sense this and repudiated this. California has arrived at the breaking point prior in time to the nation as a whole because California has limits on its ability to create money. Despite the evidence of my own eyes as I witnessed the reception Obama received at Notre Dame, I nevertheless believe that the California/tea party mood of repudiation is growing, perhaps for now inchoate and subterranean in character, but liable to spring forth, perhaps on July 4, and visit real fear on to the Washington establishment.

...............................................................................................................................

There are so many parallels to be drawn from the California experience to the Obama power grab. Just as Democrats favored the government workers' unions in California at the expense of the taxpayers, so has Obama expropriated the property of the bondholders of Chrysler to favor the UAW.

The question is when will the national voters react so emphatically as have the California voters? Will the national voters wait until Obama has utterly bankrupted the country? Until he has utterly overturned all our foundations of private property? Until he succeeds in setting beleaguered class, group, or race against its oppressors in government?

Or will he succeed in co-opting institution after institution like our banks, motorcar companies, and healthcare providers until the entire system is utterly seduced and we no longer have a system recognizable as a free-market system or as a democracy or any identifiable group left that is ready to fight for them?

The matter came to a head in California only because there was no longer any way to postpone the reckoning. We are not nearly at that point nationally.

.........................................................................................................................

As the California bail out moves inexorably like a flesh eating bacteria onto the national stage, it offers Republicans an opportunity to halt the Obama juggernaut and save the Republic.

Recall that when Obama moved to bail out improvident mortgagors there was a spontaneous and general reaction by those who had behaved prudently who asked, why should we bail out these grifters? How will the people in Florida, for example, who are paying fantastic premiums for hurricane insurance and exploding property taxes feel when they find that they now must contribute to the folly of California? There will not be a governor or a mayor anywhere in America who does not clamor to get his snout into the trough. Not all the pigs can be equal at this trough and jealousies and resentments will inevitably spread and many will be directed at Obama.

Republicans should seize this real indignation and ignite it.

I was delighted to read on another thread that Mitch McConnell through diligent opposition on the Senate floor has managed to isolate Obama even from his own party on the issue of funding Guantánamo and closing it down. Here is an issue more worthy of a patriots effort even than where to incarcerate these wretches. If we do not save the economy we will have neither Republic, democracy, capitalism nor defense. Republicans need an issue which they can seize and hurl it back into the teeth of the Manchurian Marxist.

Take a stand here, there will be no better issue and no cause more just.

[MrB]

Let’s use the 10th, and back it up with the 2nd.

Otherwise, we’ll just be a bunch of crispy critters.

[MrB]

You got it...

Historically, leftists/collectivists have always killed their ideological opponents in mass.

You see the drive to do so in this group as well - they want to incarcerate, use the law to punish, and label their political opposites as terrorists and enemies of the state.

In fact they are correct. We ARE enemies of “THE STATE”, when the State becomes an oppressive entity whose only object is to reduce us to absolute despotism (to paraphrase the Declaration).

[Oldpuppymax]

Hey Newt! The same thing happened in 1994. Republicans were given a landslide victory. And what did you do with it?? YOU BECAME DEMOCRATS!!! You began confiscating and spending other peoples money in an attempt to purchase power, votes and perpetual re-election. So do us a favor Newt. STFU. As a hypocrite, it is the least you can do, especially over Memorial Day weekend.

[OneWingedShark]

I’m waiting to see what happens when blood hits the water.

[calex59]

The really sad thing is that 76% didn’t even care enough to show up and vote.... Considering that had these people shown up all of these measures would have passed I fail to see how this is a bad thing.

They would have went down no matter the turn out. The polls, taken of all segments of voters, showed the props going down with numbers that almost matched the real numbers. How do you suppose they managed to poll the people who were going to vote and left the rest alone? They didn't, they polled across the board and found that all voters were pi**ed and wanted the props to fail. The fact that a large percentage didn't vote is indicative of all mid-term elections. Make no mistake, there is a revolt going on and it is spreading.

[hoosier hick]

Actually, I see things a little differently than many here. I thought the Republican congress did a good job dealling with Clinton after 1994. Without divided government, we never would have had the economy or budget surpluses that Clinton is so proud of. It was only after Bush was elected that the Republicans went really crazy spending money. In the absence of a single veto from Bush, I have to believe that they were doing exactly what he wanted them to do. It got even worse after the 2004 election....

hh

[Gritty]

The really sad thing is that 76% didn’t even care enough to show up and vote....

If people don't care, it's best if they don't show up. All they do is vote for the nearest demagogue and more "free" stuff.

[Clintonfatigued]

Could it really be true?

[neverdem]

Meanwhile we sit and watch the trip wire (the 2nd A) and wait patiently for the "bus to hit the ditch". We don't need leaders now and folks like Newt can't grasp this. In fact we CAN'T have leaders now for Zero is already ramping up to detain them as terrorists. Be patient and watch.

There doing nothing with the Second Amendment. Didn't you see the vote for concealed carry in the National Parks, etc. 105 rats in the House voted for it. The GOP had 2 defections, Castle from Delaware and Kirk from Illinois, no surprise. 27 rats in the Senate voted for it. The GOP had 1 defector, Alexander from TN, a surprise.

Nepalitano withdrew that idiot Homeland Security advisory guideline about veterans and conservatives fitting a terrorist profile last week. The left and bullies are all mouth and no gonads.

[sport]

The time is not right for them to strike. When they have all their ducks in a row, they wil strike. Make no mistake about that.

When will it be? I can’t say but obama does not have his personal army i/e. “security force” up and running yet. But he did by Executive Order transfer several millions of dollars to “asist” palestine “refugees” to re- locate to the United States. I would opine that these will make up a large segamen of his personal armed security force. Mndatory volunteer service does not kick in until October 2009. But, like the big bad wolf, he is coming. You can believe it or not. Your Choice.

As for the Homeland Security memo. It was never meant to be public knowledge i.e. published for the general public to see anyway. And the information they wanted descimanted has went out to those who supposed to get it.

[sport]

Agreed! Newt is just like the Clinton worshippers. If you are against crooks holding elected offices, against the Constitution being shredded, against crooked politicians stealing your hard earned tax dollars at the point of a gun if necessary to buy votes from paracites with, then you are anti-government.

Just as the old saying goes: Anytime you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on Paul’s support.

[neverdem]

I wish Newt had paid attention to the smaller government tide when he was Speaker.

He did. Remember when the GOP and Newt got the blame for shutting down the gov't. How did we get a balanced budget and welfare reform?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Dick Cheney/John Bolton 2012

[neverdem]

The time is not right for them to strike. When they have all their ducks in a row, they wil strike. Make no mistake about that.

When will it be? I can’t say but obama does not have his personal army i/e. “security force” up and running yet. But he did by Executive Order transfer several millions of dollars to “asist” palestine “refugees” to re- locate to the United States. I would opine that these will make up a large segamen of his personal armed security force. Mndatory volunteer service does not kick in until October 2009. But, like the big bad wolf, he is coming. You can believe it or not. Your Choice.

Domestic affairs won't develop in a vacuum. Russia is getting more froggy. Jihadis watch our domestic affairs. The tea parties will develop their own momentum. Their economic policies will make it worse. If they can't do it before Nov. 2010, it could be too late.

[SeattleBruce]

“Anyone who thinks that the Kalif voters are going to throw out the Rats is dreaming. They still want their bennies, you bet. They just expect that it be paid for magically.”

Do you think people will continue that song and dance when the US Government pulls a California with their deeper and deeper debt?

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Don’t trust him as far as you can throw him.

Perhaps there is something he put in the article that you actually disagree with, as opposed to the fact that he wrote it?

[dsutah]

Wow! What an interesting and well-thought-out post! I had to read it out slowly, in order to absorb it. But after reading it all, I’m impressed, I must say!

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

The voters want big govt.

Colin Powell?!! I didn't even know you were a Freeper!

[SeattleBruce]

“So do us a favor Newt. STFU.”

OK, maybe things didn’t go nearly as well as we conservatives would have hoped in the aftermath of ‘94, but was that *all* Newt’s fault?

“So do us a favor Newt. STFU.”

Is *that* your strategy for the future?

[SeattleBruce]

“It was only after Bush was elected that the Republicans went really crazy spending money. In the absence of a single veto from Bush, I have to believe that they were doing exactly what he wanted them to do. It got even worse after the 2004 election....”
+++++++++++++

Some of the deficit spending can be blamed on 9/11 and the wars. However, the Rs had 6 years to figure it out on the financial side and did a horrid job. It horrified true conservatives. That said the socialists were unified and determined (as always.)

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

And what did you do with it?? YOU BECAME DEMOCRATS!!! You began confiscating and spending other peoples money in an attempt to purchase power, votes and perpetual re-election

This is simply not true about Newt. He gave up his seat just after the 1998 elections, and the GOP was still holding the line on spending, which is why the budget actually was balanced when Bush took office in 2001. That is when the GOP turned into big spenders.

[nathanbedford]

Thanks very much.

[PhilDragoo]

nathanbedford: Republicans should seize this real indignation and ignite it.

As Offenhauser triumphed by packing more horses into every cubic inch, so, too, with your mechanics, nathanbedford.

I add two points:

1) In the American Revolution, a third led, a third opposed, a third were inert.

2) When the people lead, Newt Gingrich will run out in front.

God love 'im.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[sinanju]

I read a pretty good article stating that it’s looking more and more likely that Obama is NOT going to bail out CA.

It stated that CA’s congressional delegation is, while huge, quite divided and fractious and that quite a few of the CA repubs do not want a bailout and that, most importantly, the Dem congresscritters of other states are not going to stand by and watch CA being favored at the expense of everybody else.

Cali dems have been getting subtle and not-so-subtle signals from their colleagues that this is a non-starter.

As for Obama, he can’t do anything major if congress is not there to do it for him.

[Lancey Howard]

I wish Newt had paid attention to the smaller government tide when he was Speaker.

Actually, he did.

Newt was doing fairly well in the mid '90s and then he went and blew it when he blinked during the "government shutdown" fiasco. He had Clinton right where he wanted him and then he inexplicably caved. I suspect the Democrat DC press corps managed to con Gingrich into believing that Americans "blamed" him for the looming shutdown, as if normal, working, taxpaying, traditional American families actually gave a rat's ass if the government "shut down".

I don't know if Newt can ever fully recover from that major disappointment. My jaw hit the floor in amazement when I heard he had caved. I swear, we were about to win that battle.

Of course, Newt's hand may have been forced by Republican cowards in the House at that time.

[dragnet2]

The really sad thing is that 76% didn’t even care enough to show up and vote..

Waddaya talking about? It worked out perfect without them.

[nathanbedford]

That indictment against Newt Gingrich will not lie for the reasons expressed by others on this thread such as:Lucius Cornelius Sulla ; neverdem; Seattle Bruce.

It seems to be a pattern of every thread, the libel against Gingrich is asserted and it takes a score of posts for the truth to pull its boots on.