What Will It Be Next Year – Dependence Day or Independence Day?
Looking back on Independence Day weekend, I am reminded of everything our Founding Fathers fought for. I recently read Glenn Beck’s Common Sense and was blown away not only by the parallels between now and then but, also by the sheer lack of logic in DC over the past couple of decades.
America suffered from benign neglect and soft tyranny prior to the American Revolution. Our Founding Fathers were tired of taxation without representation and the obvious sentiment of the English King/government who only cared about padding his pockets and increasing his power, not the people he supposedly represented.
An underground movement began and there was no single leader, but several who were all involved in the name of freedom, liberty, and justice for all. They sacrificed life and limb to do what’s right for America and her citizens.
While celebrating our independence I was reminded that there is always the possibility that history can repeat itself. Our government is resembling the same soft tyranny that we fought to escape from. Many say they feel that the Constitution is an antiquated document; however, the document is more like a rule of law which takes into account the basic principles of human nature. I like using the analogy of business. As businesses grow and evolve they require standard operating procedures so that they run efficiently and effectively. Standard operating procedures are based upon lessons learned; much like our Constitution. As America grew and became more populated over the years, the soft tyranny from across the pond could no longer represent us, especially when their priorities were themselves. Through lessons learned, observations on human nature and government, our Founding Fathers saw the best way forward to make America the greatest country on Earth. It would be an absolute travesty if our country let the very republic and practice of democracy slip through our fingers due to our own apathy and complacency. All that our troops have fought for over the last 233 years would be lost.
I fear that America is becoming the frog in a pot and the temperature is being turned up gradually. Which means the frog will never realize it’s in hot water until it’s too late. As the greatest generation – those who fought in WWII – slowly leave us, baby boomers are confronted with an ever changing and challenging responsibility to our next generation. Much of the lessons learned through hardship and the traditional values are being lost. The next great generation (40 and younger) has to wake up soon lest our country be lost forever. Unfortunately, I see many of the younger generations being indoctrinated and deluded by political propaganda. I see children who are lazy and complacent and barely leave their house because Halo is more important to play than actual exercise and social interaction. Divorce rates are up because people run as soon as there is pain and troubles. We no longer live in a society of tough love but that of coddling and immediate gratification. If this sentiment persists there will be some very unpalatable changes to American culture – much of which is invariably being taken for granted today.
If we continue down this path we can expect Mommy Government to do everything from feeding us to changing our diapers. Gone will be the days of free enterprise, the entrepreneur, the days of choice in schools, and the choice of our own doctors. Gone will be the days of prosperity, America as a super-power, national security, and our entire American way of life. We could actually find ourselves waking up to a state-run radio or TV station. We will eat government regulated food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We can rest assured that we will motor down the government built highways in our government owned and regulated vehicles, making sure we aren’t leaving huge carbon footprints. Many of us will find ourselves working at a government job or a government contractor as the size of government grows and DC becomes the next metropolis. My weekly paycheck will be deposited into a government-run bank, and that government run bank will also control all of my car, home and student loans. My 401K will be regulated by the government after social security, medicare and medicaid fail. The stock markets will be run by the government who, after controlling all the financial institutions, will control the purse strings of this country. I will quit smoking because the government will control tobacco and eventually ban smoking nationwide. If my government car gives out on me and I get into an accident I will have to attend a government run hospital with government run health care. The government will provide questionnaires to receive the latest information on the public from the census, working on behalf of the government. My home will be government mandated with the passing of cap-and-tax, and I will not be able to sell it or build onto it if it doesn’t reach climate change standards. The light bulbs in my home will become a government requirement and the mercury in the allowable bulbs will kill those who break them. The government will run everything to the point that none of us will be able to take care of ourselves. The addiction ridden citizens of the USA will be “jonesing” for their government “crack” in the name of direction and entitlements. So I must ask, is this what our Founding Fathers fought for, is this what Americans wanted when they asked for “Change?”
It is time for a movement to take back this great nation. We need several strong leaders who have the charisma, the common sense, and the real American spirit to drive this message home by going around the media bias and straight to the hearts of Americans. We have already begun and as people get more fed up with politics as usual the more we see the tea party movement grow. This is the next grassroots movement and it will change the minds of millions! This past July 4, although the media didn’t cover many, if any, of the protests they were all over the nation. I attended a smaller one briefly on the way to a cookout and fireworks. More and more people are becoming disenfranchised with the entire establishment and the government in general. It’s time for ‘we the people’ to take back the country.
Tea Party Photos & Videos from different locations over the weekend:
Go to Michelle Malkin’s site for streaming of the Dallas Tea Party which drew crowds up to 37,000!
Phoenix, AZ:
Boston, MA:
Denver, CO:
Fort Lauderdale, FL:
Houston, TX:
A Couple From Maryland:
New Mexico:
Rochester, NY:
Tulare, CA:
The Only Ones With Cajones in the GOP are Women; UPDATE: AUDIO ADDED (Under Excerpts)
Sarah Palin has been laying it on the line and with all the negative media attention she received last year, it shows that this woman knows she has nothing to lose and could care less what others think at this point. Her attitude is what is needed during this time of media propagandizing and kowtowing to the Democrats, especially Obama – it’s about time that somebody within the GOP actually stands on principle – not politics as usual, special interests, PC mumbo-jumbo, or money.
Palin has made statements regarding the North Korean missile threats and Obama’s budget cuts aimed at specific defense programs. Sarah has issued very poignant, concise, intelligent statements on Dr. Tiller and William Long (the military recruiter). She has vetoed some stimulus funds that had universal energy codes attached to them – something that Alaska certainly does not need. Sarah has also continued her fight for the gas pipeline. Governor Palin was most recently attending a rally in honor of Ronald Reagan, where son Michael Reagan, was the keynote speaker, in Anchorage. During a brief 17 minute introduction of Michael Reagan she made statements regarding the control government wants over not only the states, but us, as individuals. Have any GOP beltway hacks so much as inferred this?
Here is part of her speech:
“Since when can you get out of huge national debt by creating trillions of dollars of new debt?” Palin asked. “It all really is so backwards and skewed as to sound like absolute nonsense when some of this economic policy is explained.”
“We need to be aware of the creation of a fearful population, and fearful lawmakers, being led to believe that big government is the answer, to bail out the private sector, because then government gets to get in there and control it,” she said. “And mark my words, this is going to be next, I fear, bail out next debt-ridden states. Then government gets to get in there and control the people.”
“Some in Washington would approach our economic woes in ways that absolutely defy Economics 101, and they fly in the face of principles, providing opportunity for industrious Americans to succeed or to fail on their own accord,” she said. “Those principles it makes you wonder what the heck some in Washington are trying to accomplish here.”
Though the bulk of her remarks focused on government encroachment into the private sector, and praise for former President Reagan’s views on limited government, the former vice presidential candidate briefly touched on national security. She told the crowd that “the terrorists are still dead set against us” and that her son Track is still deployed in Iraq.
“It is war over there, so it will not be war over here,” she said. “And it had better still be our mission that we win, they lose.”She also pointed to the recent dismissal of another ethics complaint against her, one that accused the governor of having a conflict of interest for wearing a jacket to the opening of the Tesoro Iron Dog race in February that feautured the logo of the sponsor of her husband’s team. Palin has been forced to set up a legal defense fund to help pay for fees related to an onslaught of ethic complaints.
Palin said of the people who have filed the complaints: “Those are the folks who want to tell me, they want to tell you, to sit down and shut up. We will not do that. I just can’t, because I love my state. I love my country.”
Here’s a great quote that was left out since it was CNN that reported on it (just a little biased):
“I am just a mom; I’m a proud Alaskan hockey mom. I love my country, I’m concerned about my kids’ future and your kids’ future. I was raised where it is rugged, and you’ve got to be tough with dogged determination in order to survive sometimes.”
Governor Palin was introduced by Eddie Burke (a radio show host in Alaska) and he said the following:
“Pardon me Governor for saying this, but Barry Goldwater Jr. recently said ‘She is attractive, she is smart, she’s got the right message, and she doesn’t take crap from anyone.’”
Audio of her speech. (And yes, she does say “SCREW POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!!!”)
Michele Bachmann has also been incredibly outspoken over the last few months, especially regarding ACORN. She has been trying to pass legislation that would not allow ACORN or any other institution that receives tax payer funds, under investigation or indictment, to receive them, until all charges are officially dropped. This of course did not pass in the House, which is run by the Democrats – most likely because ACORN would have been affected and we know that dead voters always have positive effects for those trying to get elected in close races. Too many politicians would be indicted along with the dirty deeds of ACORN if this was ever investigated completely. However, Bachmann is starting a petition campaign to get this started and to end ACORN’s funding.
These are the types of people we need to keep our eye on and listen to. These are the politicians that are not afraid to speak their mind no matter what the repercussions, because they have character and believe in more than themselves – they believe in the individual; they believe in the USA.
Help out Michele and sign her petition here.
Liberals must also be noticing that the women on the right are the more involved, less fearful of the bunch – since they have to go after some of our women who aren’t even politicians, just pundits, bloggers, columnists and commentators, by writing an article about hate f***ing them… The tolerance of liberals never ceases to astound me.
Keep it up ladies!
Sonia, Sonia, Sonia… You Have Lotsa Splainin’ To Do
Sonia Sotomayor has another interesting court case that involved a teen blogger, a reputation as a bully among her peers, declaring the 2nd amendment is not a constitutional right, and after posting yesterday about La Raza, (in which I made no mention of a connection), we find out that she is in fact a member. La Raza in Spanish means The Race. The very essence of the group is racist.
The teen blogger case is very disturbing, mainly because it was a high school student who was denied the opportunity to run as class president because of a statement she made on the Internet about her teachers and the school administration calling them D* bags. What child doesn’t say nasty things from time to time when they get emotional or upset? Sotomayor’s ruling stated that the female student, who used the term after the school’s battle of the bands was canceled by faculty, would cause a possible disruption, and therefore was unable to run – hello?? Basic 1st amendment? It’s not like she yelled fire in a crowded movie theatre – we are talking about an angry Internet post of a term that is commonly used nowadays when people are upset. Being from Connecticut myself, I’m surprised I didn’t already know about this woman, granted she did not preside over my jurisdiction/county.
Sonia Sotomayor’s peers and co-workers have also made statements after her nomination claiming that she is a bully and quite abrasive in the work environment. Compared to other court justices on both sides of the aisle, most are very well respected and amiable. It’s important in any working environment to feel comfortable and not harassed – it would be very upsetting to learn that she tried to pressure or bully other SCOTUS members in the future, to make a decision to her liking.
Sonia has also ruled that the 2nd amendment was not a constitutional right in the past. I’m not sure why it would be an amendment in the constitution, and the 2nd one at that, if it wasn’t constitutional, but what do I know? It’s also my understanding that our constitution was established based on Jefferson’s Federalist Papers? Federalism did reign supreme in those days and that meant more state power…?
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayorruled in January 2009 that states do not have to obey the Second Amendment’s commandment that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
In Maloney v. Cuomo, Sotomayor signed an opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that said the Second Amendment does not protect individuals from having their right to keep and bear arms restricted by state governments.
The opinion said that the Second Amendment only restricted the federal government from infringing on an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. As justification for this position, the opinion cited the 1886 Supreme Court case of Presser v. Illinois.
“It is settled law, however, that the Second Amendment applies only to limitations the federal government seeks to impose on this right,” said the opinion. Quoting Presser, the court said, “it is a limitation only upon the power of Congress and the national government, and not upon that of the state.”
The final and most extreme issue coming to the forefront is her association with the radically liberal La Raza. I posted yesterday on other details about the SCOTUS nomination and in so doing, also mentioned the organization and provided a link with facts.
There are many immigrant groups joined in the overall “La Raza” movement. The most prominent and mainstream organization is the National Council de La Raza — the Council of “The Race”.
To most of the mainstream media, most members of Congress, and even many of their own members, the National Council of La Raza is no more than a Hispanic Rotary Club.
But the National Council of La Raza succeeded in raking in over $15.2 million in federal grants last year alone, of which $7.9 million was in U.S. Department of Education grants for Charter Schools, and undisclosed amounts were for get-out-the-vote efforts supporting La Raza political positions.
The Council of La Raza succeeded in having itself added to congressional hearings by Republican House and Senate leaders. And an anonymous senator even gave the Council of La Raza an extra $4 million in earmarked taxpayer money, supposedly for “housing reform,” while La Raza continues to lobby the Senate for virtual open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.
La Raza lies the real agenda of the La Raza movement, the agenda that led to those thousands of illegal immigrants in the streets of American cities, waving Mexican flags, brazenly defying our laws, and demanding concessions.
Key among the secondary organizations is the radical racist group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA), one of the most anti-American groups in the country, which has permeated U.S. campuses since the 1960s, and continues its push to carve a racist nation out of the American West.
Eeeegads we better watch it here!
Do You Live in a Freedom Loving State?
In a study conducted by George Mason University we finally get to see, for the first time, which states are liberty lovers and which are not.
It’s no wonder why I have broken out of the liberally indoctrinated mindset, and become more and more conservative over the past few years. I have lived in two of the most ”freedomless” states of the union; Connecticut (where I grew up) and Maryland (where I live now).
After having your freedoms trampled upon by intrusive laws and high tax rates, it’s no wonder that some may get angry and swing the opposite direction; politically!
It’s no surprise to me that the least free states are those that vote Democrat! I wish more people would wake up to this fact and actually care about the political landscape of the country. I know more people who choose not to vote than do! It’s time for these unaffiliated voters and apolitical citizens to get in the game, because the more government grows, the worse it’s going to get!
This study improves on prior attempts to score economic freedom for American states in three primary ways: (1) it includes measures of social and personal freedoms such as peaceable citizens’ rights to educate their own children, own and carry firearms, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure; (2) it includes far more variables, even on economic policies alone, than prior studies, and there are no missing data on any variable; and (3) it uses new, more accurate measurements of key variables, particularly state fiscal policies.
Here’s a look at how some of the states stack up:
We find that the freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending and middling levels of regulation and paternalism. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland. On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom. Regression analysis demonstrates that states enjoying more economic and personal freedom tend to attract substantially higher rates of internal net migration.
Democrats from blue states migrate to red states and never learn the lesson that voting for liberal hacks, causes the social messes we have today. But ideology and elitism continue to trump logic and common sense, and therefore, they bring their policies down to freedom-loving regions and change the voting and political landscape of states like North Carolina.
Peruse the rest of the study for yourself and see where your state stacks up!
The Establishment Hates Rocking the Boat
Many of us, who continue to read blogs and stay on top of political news, are aware of both the DNC and the RNC and what the parties have turned into.
Republicans and Democrats used to have clear differences between the two, but now they are just a blurred combination of one another. The point of the two party system was being able to have a choice; namely freedom.
The more I see how congress votes and what each representative or senator puts into their bills, the more I realize, at such a young age, that the government has become power hungry and spend happy. Congress couldn’t care less where the money comes from; the more “bacon” they bring home to their constituents and their special interests, the more money they receive in donations and campaign contributions as well as a little extra padding in their pockets.
We are being “represented” by an elite political class or, as I like to refer to it, the Politburo. This is a class of career politicians who have never worked outside of classrooms or as a lawyer or on their parent’s campaign. They have no idea what it is like to be average citizens in the United States working to live and living to work. Those of us who work 9-5 jobs day in and day out, just to make enough money to pay the bills, know what our priorities are and what really matters in this world. The political elite is reminiscent of the ‘popular’ clique in the high school I attended. It was mainly dependent on the income and social status of parents. Those whose parents belonged to a country club, played tennis, golfed, and went yachting were deemed ‘acceptable.’ However, regardless of your personality, looks, or good will if you didn’t measure up you were stuck in the middle rungs; never quite making it to the upper echelons of high school popularity. Many went on to ivy league schools, not because they were intelligent, but because they could afford it or they had connections. After spending 4 years hiding away in the bubble of elitism, some could quote text books or famous philosophers, while many were still incapable of doing anything. One thing was for sure; they never left their comfort zone to experience life in order to truly understand the difference between intelligence and wisdom; life-experience. Leadership tends to be a mixture of inherent characteristics as well as learned qualities through personal accomplishment and strife.
I was so incredibly appalled at what I saw and what I heard during the 2008 election cycle. I thought, based on character and integrity, the choice was obvious. I was wrong. The ticket had two very honorable, down-to-earth, decent human beings who, having made it through tremendous struggles, were overlooked due to race baiting, liberal media bias, propaganda, elitism, ivy league degrees, and the usual ‘Bush sucks’ sentiment.
One of my favorite books is the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery, and my favorite part of the story is when the Little Prince meets the Fox and discovers the meaning of friendship. The book teaches us what really matters after you tear away all of the materialistic aspects of the outside world. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential, is invisible to the eye.”
I know I’m not the only person in my age group to understand the Little Prince, but I am few and far between who actually applies it. What I have noticed during my young life thus far is the fact that those who appreciate honesty, morals, and ethics are usually those who have experienced something in their lives where they have been “enlightened” to a point where they have seen the “bottom” and know what it means to struggle. When people have to build their lives back up again or work like there’s no tomorrow to make it to the other side, they appreciate what so many others take for granted and they value those things that so many lose sight of; because, let’s face it, our society has become spoiled and we’ve lived beyond our means for too long.
Sarah Palin is the epitome of struggle and accomplishment. She represents the antithesis of the establishment and the elite. She is someone who you could sit down and have a heart-to-heart with and feel as though you have been friends for years. She is the quintessential Reagan type persona who so many have been waiting for. I feel funny saying that since I was only born in 1981, but I’ve done a bit of research 
I even have a $1,000,000 bill with Reagan’s face on it hanging in my cubicle. For all I know that $1,000,000 bill will be worth something soon due to all of this spending and the inevitable inflation!
Sarah Palin has fought her own machine and once you fight that monster under the bed it will keep coming after you for revenge. We saw that during the Alaska legislative session this past year in her attempt to nominate a decent conservative man as the next Attorney General. We also see it at the national level where Republicans continue to fear her and turn their noses up at her. The Republicans better be careful because the GOP’s approval rating is not doing too well either. When Sarah Palin releases her FEC filings for SarahPAC I whole-heartedly believe that we will hear the creaking of “old geriatric” jaws dropping around the beltway.
The DNC is just as bad and just as corrupt, if not more so. Obama is part of the Machine. He came from the most politically corrupt city in the nation; Chicago. He brought this style to Washington D.C. along with a slim resume and only 143 days of working experience in the Senate. I am doubtful that Obama can manage a hot-dog stand let alone the highest office in the land.
We have seen him sign legislation behind closed doors after he stated that he would make transparency a priority; and we have seen him sign over 18,000 earmarks within his first 100 days after he railed against them. We have seen him pay off his union buddies and not fire the head of the UAW but fire the head of GM. (The Union contributed nearly $400M to his campaign). We have seen him argue against Bush’s outrageous spending, but he has spent more than all presidents before him combined and in only 3 month’s time!
Barack Obama is not “change” or “hope.” He is the very essence of what it means to be establishment and beholden to lobbyists and special interests. Too many people were born yesterday in 2008, when it was obvious that the vitriol and hatred spewed towards Sarah Palin should have been reason and proof enough to vote for her ~ she isn’t the establishment and she isn’t in the pocket of the media, the lobbies, or anyone else. She scares the pants off of the Democrats, the Republicans, and the media for that very reason.
The D.C. elite have removed themselves so far from the purpose of their roles, as set forth in our constitution, that they all need to be thrown out as soon as humanly possible (2010). So let me start the chant “Throw the Bums Out.”
We have seen throughout history the effects of the ruling class trumping democracy and none of those societies have ever ended peacefully and quietly. One of the more humble and honest of politicians said the following when asked to run for re-election:
“We draw our Presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
The media elite and the Politburo went after a woman’s family and continue to dump on her even after she lost the VP slot and has been quietly doing her job in faraway Alaska. People may find themselves asking why? The answer to me is blatantly obvious, but to others, maybe not. She is a threat to everything they hold dear; the very epicenter of their control and power. She stands true to her morals and principles and does not back down from them, nor does she feel ashamed. She cannot and will not be manipulated to play machine politics and kowtow to the good old boys. The people that the GOP prop-up in the media or select to give counter addresses are the people who won’t “rock the boat.”
The establishment wants to bring up non substantive stories about this woman’s family when Obama’s family is far from classy. He has an illegal aunt living in the slums of Boston, a half-brother in Kenya living on a $1/day in a hut, another half-brother just hospitalized for cholera, and another half-brother just detained and turned away by customs in the UK for sexually assaulting a 13 year-old girl. He was also born out of wedlock and has more half siblings than previously mentioned. Joe Biden’s daughter was recently caught on tape at the age of 27, snorting a bunch of cocaine and she has been arrested before for drug possession and obstructing the law. I’m curious as to why we didn’t hear about this in the media? How many people in this world have had family members who have made mistakes and gotten into trouble? Do we have control over family members? And at what point as a parent do you let your children make their own mistakes so they can learn and become responsible adults? I can’t choose my family but I can certainly choose my friends and associations. That’s the difference between Sarah and Obama. She didn’t choose to associate with domestic terrorists, radicals, or members of the Communist Party USA. She just had a daughter who made a mistake and suffered the consequences for it.
I take extreme offense to anyone who judges Sarah Palin based on the decisions made by her daughter. Take it from an unruly, rebellious child writing this opinion. My parents did the best they could with what they had. They taught me that doing drugs was bad, they didn’t let me go to parties that were unsupervised, and they told me about pre-marital sex. We spoke, we discussed, and they parented. I made my decisions accordingly. My parents never bent my elbow and forced me to drink, they never told me to hop in bed with someone, they never told me to put something up my nose to “feel good.“ Those were my decisions and I should be the one who is judged, not my parents. The only way that we truly learn is by being allowed to make our own mistakes and applying those lessons in the next phase of our lives.
Sarah Palin is fighting this bipartisan backlash from both sides of the aisle; from both political machines in her state of Alaska and the lower 48. She is the citizen pundit, the all-American politician, the person who is tired of the way things are and she decided she could make a difference by getting involved. I’m curious as to whether the elite have a pocket constitution or realize that only half of the founding fathers had a formal education. Ben Franklin and our first president, George Washington, were two of those men. They wrote about regular citizens representing the government and the fear we should have if the government ever became too powerful. Sarah Palin knows this and she believes in the founding principle of Federalism. If people would only open their eyes and their ears.
Rob Harrison from The Spyglass writes the following:
Gov. Palin is now in a difficult, though probably inevitable, position. She is opposed by a bi-partisan coalition of the machine politicians in Alaska, who oppose each other on policy but share a common higher loyalty to the old boys’ club and the perks and procedures to which they’re accustomed. Gov. Palin has the support of a strong majority of the Alaskan people, but only a minority of the state’s politicians. This has meant that the State Legislature has been in full foot-dragging mode through the entire session – a fact which they now intend, via the Democratic Party PR department (aka the MSM, specifically the New York Times), to blame on her.
That the MSM will coordinate with the Democratic/Republican machine in Alaska on this is, I believe, a sign of their deepest agenda here—not just their general bias against conservatives, but a deeper bias yet: as much as they bleat about “speaking truth to power,” they are not the outside critics of the machine that they pretend to be. Rather, they are a part of the machine. They are inside the corridors of power, that’s where they want to be, and they really have no true understanding or interest of the world outside those corridors.
This is true, I believe, even of the conservatives within the MSM; which is why a lot of the elite conservative writers have been almost as unfair to Gov. Palin as their liberal colleagues. If a Democratic version of Gov. Palin were ever to emerge, a true reformer who bucked the party machine, I don’t think the likes of Eleanor Clift and Paul Krugman would be any kinder to that individual than the likes of David Brooks and David Frum have been to Gov. Palin. The initial MSM reaction to the appointment of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to Hillary Clinton’s vacant seat in the U.S. Senate certainly supports that thought.
Thomas Sowell also wrote an opinion entitled “Not One of Us,” in which he expresses the need to embrace Sarah Palin and explains why it is that those who are part of the Republican Elite have trouble doing just that.
Pragmatism tells you nothing about extremism. But the conservative intellectuals who seize upon President Obama’s pragmatism to give him the benefit of the doubt are obviously bending over backward for some reason.
With Governor Palin, it is just the opposite. The conservative intelligentsia who react against her have remarkably little to say that will stand up to scrutiny. People who actually dealt with her, before she became a national figure, have expressed how much they were impressed by her intelligence.
Governor Palin’s “inexperience” is a talking point that might have some plausibility if it were not for the fact that Barack Obama has far less experience in actually making policies than Sarah Palin has. Joe Biden has had decades of experience in being both consistently wrong and consistently a source of asinine statements.
Governor Palin’s candidacy for the vice presidency was what galvanized grass roots Republicans in a way that John McCain never did. But there was something about her that turned even some conservative intellectuals against her and provoked visceral anger and hatred from liberal intellectuals.
Perhaps the best way to try to understand these reactions is to recall what Eleanor Roosevelt said when she first saw Whittaker Chambers, who had accused Alger Hiss of being a spy for the Soviet Union. Upon seeing the slouching, overweight, and disheveled Chambers, she said, “He’s not one of us.”
The trim, erect, and impeccably dressed Alger Hiss, with his Ivy League and New Deal pedigree, clearly was “one of us.” As it turned out, he was also a liar and a spy for the Soviet Union. Not only did a jury decide that at the time, the opening of the secret files of the Soviet Union in its last days added more evidence of his guilt.
The Hiss-Chambers confrontation of more than half a century ago produced the same kind of visceral polarization that Governor Sarah Palin provokes today.
[...]
Why did it matter so much to so many people which of two previously little-known men was telling the truth? Because what was on trial was not one man but a whole vision of the world and a way of life.
Governor Sarah Palin is both a challenge and an affront to that vision and that way of life– an overdue challenge, much as Chambers’ challenge was overdue.
Whether Governor Palin runs for national office again is something that only time will tell. But the Republicans need a candidate who is neither one of the country club Republicans nor– worse yet– the sort of person who appeals to the intelligentsia.
The recent Rasmussen Polls only further drive home Sowell’s point when we see that the elite Politburo had an overwhelmingly unfavorable view of the recent Tea Party protests that took place across the nation. Governor Sarah Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, actually attended one in Wasilla, AK, and Governor Palin, herself, applauded the efforts of the protesters and even mentioned them in her 45 minute Pro-Life Speech last Thursday in Evansville, IN.
These Tea Parties show the disparity between the elite and the working class of America, the engine of the economy and the majority of this nation’s citizens. The Tea Parties are the embodiment of what most Americans desire of their government, which is representation, ethics, reform, principles, and their own interests served; not the ego of a politician or the pockets of the lobbyists.
But maybe it’s not best listening to someone from the states. Maybe it’s better to hear similar dislike and apathy toward the elite establishment from across the pond to further grasp that this concept and this problem is not exclusive only to us.
The New Snobs of Labour have gathered this week in Manchester for their party get-together. Snobbish? You bet. Our country is now governed by an elite that denies being elite. Our ruling class flaunts its state education, yet attended the best comprehensives in the land.
Of course, David Cameron’s cocooned background (Eton and Oxford) isn’t ideal preparation to lead the country, but David Miliband didn’t exactly grow up on a council estate either. Nor did I. However, like all those from the genuine middle I grew up around those who did. We went to school with them. We still see them. We couldn’t avoid seeing them even if we wanted to.
But for the new ruling class, which we might call the New Labour core vote, those from council estates are, knife crime aftermaths aside, invisible.
“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cant’ have both.” ~ Louis D. Brandeis
