Posted on 04/02/2011 9:06:20 AM PDT by Twotone
Has the wind gone out of the sails of the small-government movement? Is the Tea Party going through a hangover?
You can find some evidence for these propositions. In Washington, Democrats such as former party chairman Howard Dean gleefully anticipate a government shutdown, and Sen. Charles Schumer thinks he can drive a wedge between Speaker John Boehner and “extremist” tea partiers.
In state capitals, some new Republican governors are getting hostile receptions to their plans for cutting spending and curtailing the power of public-employee unions.
In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich has only 30 percent approval, according to a Quinnipiac poll. Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett, easily elected last November, has negative ratings as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Keeping our powder dry.
Writing the Tea Party off is a bit premature and unwise. And there is no doubt that the popularity of some of the new Rep governors will go down as they make the tough decisions. So be it. We are in a fight for our survival. This is not a time for polls or the faint of heart.
Christie’s polls went down when he took on the unions and then popped back up. We are in a struggle to the death of either communism or America.
Pray for America
The screamer gleefully anticipated his candidacy for President, and "Swiftboat" Kerry's victory, as well.
Americans don't get their news or views from the Rat media anymore, and crazy Howard will be sorely disappointed.
“Democrats such as former party chairman Howard Dean gleefully anticipate a government shutdown,”
I did not know Dean joined the Tea Party movement.
And the MSM polling shills go on down to the union hall to conduct the polls.
If the Tea Party folks think that laying off government workers will restore former prosperity to their States, then they better stop drinking the koolaid and take another look at the effect of the loss of millions of jobs and their tax revenue that have been exported.
LOL, good one!
Unfortunately some Americans DO still get their news from the mainstream media. My mother, a lifelong Republican, leaves her tv turned on all day on either CNN or NBC or ABC. In the 2008 election she told me that the Republians were just ‘horrible’ & voted for Obama. I can barely talk to her any more, because she will not listen to any other view. She has the groupthink of R’s being mean, heartless & racist.
The Republicans need to be out there at every possible moment & present the very rational actions they’ve taken. After all, & Barone’s article expresses this, when people get the details without the emotion, they agree with us.
Get out of the beltway a little Mike and you’l see the fire might be burning even brighter. Don’ mistake a little lull in the action for a full retreat.
My TEA party on Staten Island has had a schism that saw all of 12 people leave the board. When the president asked for volunteers to take their place we got 3 for each one that left. Our plans to take over the Republican county Committee are going great and we had no trouble filling a bus for Washington this Wednesday. And we elected a Republican and “corrected the people’s 2008 mistake.”
So Mike we are doing just fine and if anything more fired up then we were last year.
I was at a town hall meeting with our PA state senator a few weeks ago, and it was attended by 60+ people without any mailers, only notice was posted on the senator's web site.
There were a few union hacks but 95% were either TEA party or gonna be TEA party people.
I guarantee you, none of these people were polled about Corbett, and if he is getting heat from the right, it's because things are moving in the right direction {but slowly, and we don't have patience}.
The superintendent of the local school district was at the meeting and I complained the district budget wasn't on-line, he said he didn't know that, and it is now on line.
Going to these meetings is a pain in the neck, but since most people work, it's up to retired folks to invest the time, it's "our job" to keep an eye on these critters, 'cause our kids and grand-kids can't, but will get sent the bill.
The union leadership with their media co-conspirators are a tough opponent to beat. But win we must.
I hope those amongst us who are articulate in speech, handy with the written word would become immersed in a public relations campaign to influence public opinion for our side. Write opinion pieces, call local radio/TV shows, speak out in the coffee group, bridge games, poker tables - be heard, be convincing - and play it smart!!
The press won’t make that case. Republicans and tea partiers need to do it themselves.
(Michael Barone)
He’s right. We did send a message but we still need to press on, put our shoulder to the wheel and work for change.
Just showing up ain’t gonna cut it.
No.....wait.....that was yesterday.
In fact, that is the one absolutely necessary thing to restore prosperity.
I love articles like this. The conservative base is smoking mad, many on the left are ignoring the smell. This movement will take time. Three words of advice, patience, patience, patience. I know we live in difficult times, so did our founding fathers. Donate to Free Republic.
Michael Barone is actually in agreement. He’s just saying we have we got part of what we want and now we have to make sure it sticks.
Do the states have a choice? They must balance their budgets. Can they afford to have bloated public sector employment? Where do you think the money comes from to pay their salaries and benefits?
If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.
It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?
Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods. Consider California, which has the highest budget deficit in the history of the states. The not-so Golden State now has an incredible 2.4 million government employees—twice as many as people at work in manufacturing. New Jersey has just under two-and-a-half as many government employees as manufacturers. Florida's ratio is more than 3 to 1. So is New York's.
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