Justifiably angry [Arrogance of those in power has fueled much discontent by average Americans]

WORLD ^ | Cal Thomas

[rhema]

Who wrote the following: “We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about ‘unthinkable things’ because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless”?

A “right-wing extremist” didn’t write these words, nor did a cable TV or radio talk show host. J. William Fulbright, the late Arkansas liberal Democratic senator and Bill Clinton mentor, wrote them in his 1966 book Arrogance of Power.

The arrogance of power and disdain for average Americans is what fueled much of the dissent expressed in town hall meetings. Growing numbers of people see a small cadre of government, academic, and media elites caring nothing about them, except when it comes to their tax dollars. Many, especially those who are conservative and even worse, religious, are viewed by these elites as enemies of progress and sophistication. They are mocked as NASCAR-loving, flag-waving, God-worshipping trailer trash. The people are getting the message and properly expressing themselves by peacefully (and loudly) assembling and petitioning government for a redress of their grievances.

The latest of many examples of government arrogance has come in New Hampshire, of all places, where the state motto is “Live Free or Die.” A state judge has ordered a girl who was being educated at home by her mother to begin attending a public school because of the “rigidity” of her mother’s religious views. The judge, Lucinda V. Sadler, said that the 10-year-old girl “needed to consider other worldviews as she matures.”

The case developed as part of what appears to be a nasty fight between the girl’s mother, Brenda Voydatch, and her father, Martin Kurowski. Kurowski filed a lawsuit asking the court to place his daughter, Amanda Kurowski, in public school. The father doesn’t share the mother’s religious views.

There are a number of issues in this case, not the least of which is the court’s attempt to define what represents an “extreme” religious view and what is more “mainstream.” A growing number of parents, including some in my family, homeschool their children. My personal experience is that these kids get a better education, are better adjusted, and easily gain entry into college because of their superior grades and seriousness of purpose, not to mention their character.

Another issue is the apparent one-way street constructed by Judge Sadler. If a Christian girl ought to go to public school to learn about other views (this presumes she does not know about them through study at home, reading a newspaper, or turning on the television), why shouldn’t the judge order a public school student to get a Christian-Jewish-Islamic-based education so that such a student might become acquainted with the Bible-Talmud-Koran? Many public school students used to be biblically literate before the ACLU and similar groups went to court to challenge the teaching of religious beliefs in the classroom.

Amanda’s mother retained the Alliance Defense Fund, the conservative legal alliance that works to defend religious liberty, but meanwhile the girl has been forced by the court to sit in a fifth-grade classroom, which is a violation of her and her mother’s conscience and the First Amendment.

In a letter to Henry Lee on Aug. 10, 1824, Thomas Jefferson wrote something that could be applied to the arrogant elites who have caused the rising anger in modern America: “Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depository of the public interests. . . .”

I’m on the side of the people. The New Hampshire judge and the Obama administration are on the side of the elites. And that’s why so many are justifiably angry.

[unixfox]

They have been put up on a pedestal. It’s time to knock them back down!

[paulycy]

[FourPeas]

Arrogance of Power is a good description of the policies of the Rahm/Obama/Soros Administration. I’m convinced such arrogance will not bend to discussions or pressure, but must be broken by decisive means. I can only hope overwhelming defeat in democratic elections will do it. I’m afraid it won’t.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Thomas:"Many, especially those who are conservative and even worse, religious, are viewed by these elites as enemies of progress and sophistication."

It's not the purpose of the government to change people's beliefs or lifestyle.
If someone wants to believe in the Bible, the flat earth theory, smoke cigars,
eat meat and eggs, drink Coca-cola, hunt deer, or whatever, it's not the business
of government or liberal elites appointed as "czars" to try to stop them.
We need to get away from the Nanny State and this Orwellian 1984 stuff.

There is nothing "normal" about being a secular humanist liberal busybody control freak living in Manhattan, Los Angeles, or Cambridge, Massachusetts, constantly
complaining obsessively that religious people in Middle America or the South are
the cause of your problems and trying to dream up ways to use government to
ban their lifestyle, culture, or beliefs. There is nothing "normal" about people like
this sitting around counting carbon footprints of other people obsessively,
constantly worrying, complaining and whining about their religious beliefs or tastes
in sports entertainment. Or feeling that they need to pass a special law to force
them to read about penguins, use mercury lightbulbs, or tax their sodas.

[rhema]

G. K. Chesterton knew whereof he spoke: “When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.”

[ishabibble]

Exactly, Cal, Exactly!!

[loveliberty2]

Thomas Jefferson's wisdom once again is proven timeless. America's Constitution, as originally intended, placed its trust in "We, the People," leaving all powers not specifically granted to the federal government to the states and to the people. It even made its own Amendment process a "people's" process in Article V.

Clearly this Administration has found yet a third way: ignore the Constitution, mistrust and ignore the wisdom of the people, pretend to be the friend of the downtrodden, and lay trillions of dollars in debt on future generations.