Out of this miserable union....
“The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.”
---Jefferson Davis
Posted on 12/27/2009 4:39:47 AM PST by Kaslin
What is the overriding lesson learned about this year of promised “hope” and “change,” given the politics, public scandals and shifting social behavior that have permeated American pop culture?
I don't think Americans know yet what they want. But they are pretty clear on what they don't want.
They don't want Bush, they don't want a bailout of Wall Street banks or Detroit automakers, and they don't want Washington to try to spend its way to some minimal recovery.
They didn't want New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and, now, they don't seem to want House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid or U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D- Conn. – or a health-care-reform bill with a public option.
At least not this week.
The recession has impacted this confusion over our desires more than any other factor.
Typically, a recession is a time when people take stock of their lives; an economic crisis tends to remind people that they can cut out the things they realize they didn't need or pretended were not a problem.
People stop papering-over their problems with money – because, simply, they don't have the money.
They try to recollect the real meaning of their lives, to figure out what is important. Usually, they come back to the basics: family, faith, community, compassion.
That is why people beyond Washington look at two over-dressed White House party-crashers, or at staged beer-summits, as examples of what they never want to stand for.
Perhaps the most culturally representative political moment of this year was when Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashed President Obama’s first White House State Dinner. The excessive, fame-seeking, social-media-using wannabes uncovered this administration’s willingness to give staffers cover for no good reason – even if it was at the risk of throwing the guys that are supposed to protect you under the bus.
Perhaps the most politically representative moment of this administration was when the president went off his teleprompter for the first time and let racism out of the bag with one word: “Stupidly.” It came on the heels of the arrest of a black Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates, a presidential friend, by a white Cambridge, Mass., policeman.
While we probably remain some time away from relocating our cultural center, we are on the road way to doing so.
The “Tea Party” movement – born of frustration, maturing into an integral part of our politic fabric – is about reconnecting with the ideals of liberty and limited government.
While that movement caught both political parties by surprise, it really shouldn’t have. Throughout our history, Americans always cycle toward renewal when we feel disconnected from our leadership.
All of the renewed concern emanating from tea parties is not racism, as some pundits claim in order to dismiss the movement’s seriousness; it is a true concern about the government’s rising budget deficit and public debt and a reconnection with such ideas as a belief in hard work and a rejection of easy money.
Next, look for Democrats on the left to become just as disengaged as those on the right and in the middle; left-leaning true believers are less than thrilled with the health care reform efforts that have sputtered out of Congress.
Where are we headed?
Who knows – but we probably have been there before, and we’ll probably be back there again.
They want free everything, unlimited choices and no bill sent to them for anything they desire.
I believe the majority of Americans want a leader who represents the fundamental values of the nation as articulated by the founders and who can present a vision of how we can deal with our problems through limited government. Plus they want someone who believes in American exceptionalism. A modern day Reagan.
Unfortunately in the last election neither party offered that vision. George Bush presented himself as a conservative, but failed as a leader preferring to govern as a pragmatic politician. After 8 years of wars, climbing deficits, a failing economy, and no visible attempt by the President to fight his attackers, the American people had enough. McCain had no vision and Obama promised “hope and change”. Undefined “Hope and Change” sounded better that having another political hack with no vision. Had Palin not been on the ticket, the popular vote would not have been as close as it was.
A year later we know have a clear vision of “Hope and Change”. While the President remains personally popular (thanks to continued adoration by the mainstream media) there is an uneasiness about the direction and priorities of the President. The people know they don’t like this direction, but no one is offering a clearly articulated alternative that aligns with their core values.
In 1994 the Republicans came together and presented the “Contract for America”. It was a brilliantly composed alternative vision for the nation speaking to limited government. The opposition party energized an electorate uncomfortable with then President Clinton and captured majorities in both houses of Congress.
The 1980 and 1984 elections of Ronald Reagan plus the 1994 Congressional elections demonstrate the American people will respond to a conservative message. Unfortunately, while both parties talk core values, neither seems to really believe. Therefore we live in an era when the voters are forced to vote “against” rather than “for”.
Most people want honesty and truth, not lies everyday on the big media.
bump
What do Americans want? What Americans? Just what is an American? We are the world. We are all cultures, religions, beliefs, and races.
As a direct result of the undermining of America and it’s people that has been steadily going on since about 1965. We are starting to see the result of years of multiculturalism, non discrimination, egalitarianism and globalism as our very fabric rips at the seams. Everything and everyone and all viewpoints are ‘equal’. Therefore if they are all equal they are all meaningless. Just like America.
We are approaching a situation where only a police state and tyrannical government can keep it all and us all in check. We have lost whatever hegemony and unity we ever had. Multiculturalism is not a strength only a Marxist lie that has been working wonders to destroy it all. I imagine we will never see a consensus on what Americans want or what America is ever again. At least not as one country.
Excellent point
You mean the guy that got us here in the first place? The Republican Bill clinton?
Out of this miserable union....
“The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.”
---Jefferson Davis
Others who live in the United States want the government to hold their hand from the cradle to the grave. I.e. when to eat, what to eat, where to live, when to go to the toilet, to wipe their butts for them, what kind of toilet paper to buy, free health care, and last but not least, steal from and rob more successful people than themselves through high taxes to give to them and pay the government for doing something that they are too sorry to do.
“Americans want the government to get off their backs and allow them to earn a living a living to the extent that their God given abilities take them.
Others who live in the United States want the government to hold their hand from the cradle to the grave. I.e. when to eat, what to eat, where to live, when to go to the toilet, to wipe their butts for them, what kind of toilet paper to buy, free health care, and last but not least, steal from and rob more successful people than themselves through high taxes to give to them and pay the government for doing something that they are too sorry to do. “
Afraid so- as I wrote here:
http://www.grouchyconservativepundits.com/index.php?topic=8869.new#new
I just don’t know how to call which way things will go, or what- if anything— we can do, no matter what.
The arrogant behavior tells you a lot about politicians- normally even the worst listen to blocks of voters— there has to be a reason they are confident they can ignore them.
Maybe it’s vote fraud, maybe it’s naturalizing 20-36 million illegal aliens ( who will bring along at least one more adult and a few children ), maybe it’s realizing that once HealthScare has the power of life & death, people will be beholden and cowed. Maybe it’s banking on the pure oppressive nature of the government, which in my opinion is becoming downright fascist.
DamnifIknow, anymore. Miss Emily & I are at sea, trying to figure out how to support ourselves, and survive personally.
I sure hope something turns up, to turn us around, because the direction we are going scares me to near to death....
It just beats the snot out of me, What To Do Next? The Republicans really are The Stupid ( and cowardly, and corrupt ) Party— the Dems, Evil, and too clever by half with our American Idol/Survivor! worshipping voters.
Far too many people are content if they get fed, laid, and entertained regularly— they can’t see the train wreck coming when all the bills come due, or “we run out of other people’s money...”
In my own family, my wife was a near-fanatical Sarah supporter from the first time she heard her speak ( I had been rooting for her for some time, but never mentioned it )— her brother?
An O-bot from the start. Businessman, father, not a bad guy, but a middle-aged hippy at heart, he’ll never admit his sole reason was “making me feel good about myself by voting for the cool new black dude.”
Even he seems to sense something amiss— at Christmas dinner, he was rambling on about the lack of transparency and “we don’t know who the Secretary of State even is....”
( Yeah, I know- can’t he read? )
I take this as “realizing I may have been fooled, but I really won’t admit it.”
Still, two siblings, same family, same educational background— poles apart.
Much like the damn country.
I wish we could break it up into
1)- Nanny-staters who want the government to take care of them, and
2)- the rest of us, who just want to be left alone— Hell, I’d embrace the gays & dopers if they were on board with that...
But unfortunately, the former group has to have the latter’s money, so it is not likely. Damn it.
“Others who live in the United States want the government to hold their hand from the cradle to the grave...”
and demand...with the gun of the IRS at our heads...that you and I and our children pay for it!!!!
And when the numbers of voters voting for serfdom surpasses the number voting for individual freedom, we are doomed.
I agree with you and if the trend continues 2010 will be when that theshold is reached. And unfortunately, i believe that the Democrat Party has reached the same conclusion.
We want God-fearing, constitutional loving, conservative embracing, Anerican born, brave Patriots as our leaders. Sadly we have dreck scoundrels instead in DC.
I think 2010 will be our last chance to slow the socialist tsunami, but unfortunately, it can’t be stopped forever. We need a reset, and sad to say another civil war to solve this. I don’t pray for war but I pray for intervention.
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