Posted on 09/07/2009 7:12:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Congress returns this week, and here's hoping that its members, Democrats in particular, learned a little something from this summer's town hall meetings. The lesson to be drawn from these occasionally raucous events is that America is on the verge of--or already knee-deep in--one of those moments that periodically roil the country and rearrange our preconceived notions about public life. And not a moment too soon.
Popular outbursts serve as a check on, and corrective to, our elites' behavior. The people know things the elites forget or don't want to remember. The political class is supposed to serve the people, not the other way around. As Gerald Ford said after assuming the presidency on August 9, 1974, "Here the people rule."
For a while now, the message from Washington has been that we know what's good for the public, whether the public likes it or not. One after another, both parties have attempted to foist a series of grand reforms on a skeptical populace--in areas ranging from Social Security and immigration to energy and health care. Politicians have made decisions affecting millions of lives without accountability and oversight. The upshot has been more government, more debt, and--coming soon to a 1040 form near you--more taxes. No wonder the public is anxious.
It should hardly come as a surprise that the public views American elites with suspicion and disdain. Ordinary Americans have a point when they assign blame for the current mess to Wall Street CEOs, federal regulators, corrupt politicians, and gullible reporters. When Americans
look at the economic landscape, they see dismal growth, high unemployment, and large deficits. But when they listen to the president and Congress, they hear that "stimulus"--borrowing ever more from tomorrow to spend today--will work like some kind of magic cure. They hear that this perilous moment is the time to build a "new foundation" with even more expenditures and taxes through "cap-and-trade" and Obamacare. It's as if spending and debt are no problem; as if it's fine that the federal government--which failed in its fundamental duties to build guardrails for the financial system--owns large chunks of that system; as if the political, financial, and think-tank elites have proven themselves worthy of the public's trust.
Two issues are at the center of the present discontent. The first is the state of public finances. The activists and other concerned citizens who showed up at the first tea parties last spring weren't protesting Obamacare (yet). They were protesting Obama's bailouts, budgets, and deficits. Obama's expansion of the state is an offense to liberty, but also to equity. People understand that as the government grows, they will have less opportunity to dispose of their income as they see fit. So the deficit is more than a number or a "structural imbalance." It's a symbol of unrestrained and irresponsible governance.
The second thing that is motivating the new public outcry is a sense of estrangement from political decisionmaking. The worry that Obamacare will result in fewer personal choices and more government fiat is legitimate. That's what Obamacare is set up to do. The debate is not merely a matter of which inputs will produce--voilà!--the desired outcomes, as the Obamacrats think. It's about freedom and responsibility. It's about a family's ability to control its fate, an individual's ability to shape his nation's future.
Rather than examine the reasoning and emotions behind the public expressions of concern, however, the president and his allies in Congress and the media have dismissed the opposition as crazy, misinformed, cynical, and artificial. To the contrary: In 1985, Irving Kristol wrote that the public activism of the Reagan era "is no kind of blind rebellion against good constitutional government. It is rather an effort to bring our governing elites to their senses." That's a fair description, it seems to us, of the public activism on display at town hall meetings across the country over the last month.
As for the elites, especially the liberal elite: They remain deaf, dumb, and blind.
Our ‘servants’ are breathlessly anticipating the day when they can retreat to the safe confines of DC, with the moat filled, the drawbridge raised, and the gates tightly shut....
Hopefully some of them will see the outlines of pitchforks in the glare of torchlight, off on the near horizon....
Let’s take back America. It is time to use our voices and our activism.
Keep your money (except for FR), even supposedly friendly non-profits begin to be all about the money. Politics has become all about money and power, way worse than it has ever been and we need to tell them that politics is all about Americans and the American people.
True story. One of my son’s best friends in high school went to Yale, became a lawyer and went on to live in Berkley where he’s involved in all kinds of community action(s). They ran into each other on Facebook recently and started talking politics.
As the debate continued my son said something about the constitution and his old friend said “ I went to Yale and I know the constitution, what do you know about the constitution? “ My son typed back “I swore to defend the constitution with my life- do you really think I chose not to learn what it means?”
I was enlightened by this exchange- it encapsulates the elite viewpoint!
I assume your son’s friend is a liberal and the majority of liberals have no idea what’s in the constitution
Oh he’s beyond liberal- he’s become a devoted leftist. His assumption that because he went to Yale means he’s uniquely qualified to discuss the constitution is the very definition of elite!
Funny thing- this fellow’s brother is a libertarian- he and my son are in frequent contact.
He is nothing but an uninformed elitist snob and Yale didn’t help him much
All the GOP members in the house voted against the stimulus, they voted against cap & tax, and most are on record that they will vote against 0bamacare. The conservatives are voting the way we want them to. Why kick them out???
The way to really win is: Kick the rats out in the general election and remove rino's in the primaries.
We will lose our freedom and our lives, that is why we need to vote ALL of the incumbents out of office. It won't happen but it should. The RINOs are as much at fault for the persent state of things as are the democrats, are you forgetting who was in the majority from 2001 until 2006? That's right, Republicans. Fat lot of good it did us because RINOs, such as the designated loser, McCain, compromised on everything, they "reached across the aisle" and screwed us.
They are hemming an hawing now about "compromise" once again, now that we have beaten the dems on health care the RINOs want to "compromise". Vote them out, everyone we can vote out and vote anyone in.
Unfortunately the majority of Americans won't, we will most likely see a large win for republicans and that will once again make them feel secure in the knowledge that they can continue to dilute our party and values with their left wing BS, because RINOs are every bit as left wing as are dimwits, they just hide it better.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.