CNN has a new poll out that says;
Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.
My first thought was; Holy Crap. This is a poll by an arm of the msm, virtually a state organ. How bad would a poll by an independent pollster be?
My second thought was; where is the tipping point? Where do we have to get to before the politicians sit up and take notice? Is there such a point at all? The dems certainly aren't acting like there is and the entrenched repubs are acting like someone pissed on their cornflakes (with some notable exceptions).
The more I thought about it the more astounded I became. 56 percent. That's an incredible and ultimately frightening number. That means that more than half of America looks on the government as an agent of oppression.
Those are Revolution numbers.
I read a lot, including a number of bloggers, both those I like and those I don't particularly care for. I have been doing so for a long time. I've been politically involved for most of my adult life. I've been watching and paying attention to the anger and feelings of disquiet and fear. I'm seeing everyday Americans talking openly about revolutionary ideas and plans for a coming collapse.
As a retired police officer I'm naturally skeptical of such talk. I've arrested a lot of felons over the years who said "They'll never take me alive". Ultimately none was serious. The consequences carried a cost higher than they were unwilling to pay. The risk/reward decision cycle was as obvious as it was inescapable.
I think our political class has made the same assumption about us, The American People. That ultimately the risks of open revolt carry a price we're unwilling to pay. I now think they're wrong.
Anyone who's read my rantings here knows that I have nothing but contempt for the left. I've stated more than once (as have the Sarge and the DO) that those on the left side of the aisle don't want a free America. They want a docile America. But, up until recently, I have harbored the belief that they at least knew their constituency and would ultimately act in their own best interest when their future employment was at risk.
I no longer believe that. Bore patch has a brilliant piece here;
http://borepatch.blogspot.com/2010/02/long-tail-of-internet-and-election-of.html
Pay particular attention to the part about the Gatekeepers.
Ed talks about Congress' numbers here;
http://thundertales.blogspot.com/2010/02/only-numbers.html
I'm a bit of a pessimist at heart. If something can go wrong it probably will. But I also have an optimist buried within me as well. I tend to look toward a brighter future and a belief that all problems are conquerable. I desperately want to believe that any revolution will be political. That the Tea party will bring the repubs back to their conservative roots. Borepatch's post seems to make that point and Ed has counseled me on maintaining my Republican registration and working within the system to find and promote true conservatives.
The optimist in me takes heart in such and sees a workable road plan for a better future for my grandchildren. The pessimist side of my personality (and admittedly the greater portion) sees the crumbling of American belief in The System and the potential for the dissolution of the fabric of society. Which is true? Is either?
More Americans describe themselves as conservative than liberal (by a wide margin). The Supreme Court is making some pretty good decisions. democrats are declining to run for re-election in growing numbers. Gun and ammo purchases, if not at an all time high must be pretty darn close. People are active and the Tea Parties are growing and gaining momentum. Bloggers are being heard and information that is being suppressed by the msm is widely available. People are reading and, more importantly, understanding.
Health care should have passed last August. Cap and Trade should now be law. Global Warming should be universally accepted and beyond reproach. Conservatism should be dead and buried. A liberal should have just been sworn in as the new senator from Massachusetts.
And yet, none of those things came to pass.
I ask myself. Why?
It is because there is a wellspring of goodness and virtue and love and stubbornness and good old fashioned Americanism in this country that cannot and will not die. pelosi cannot kill it, reid cannot kill it and damn sure obama cannot kill it. We have witnessed an unbridled and unrestrained war on the American people by a government hell bent on riding us down to the bowels of socialism with a smile on their faces and murder in their hearts.
Yet, here we remain. Unbowed, unrepentant, unconquered and ultimately unconquerable. Americans are without peer in the history of the world. We have done more with the blessings of Liberty than anyone else. Ever. We have taken the freedoms granted by God and enshrined on that Declaration and created the greatest country on Earth. We are hard working, generous to a fault and unafraid of challenges. In fact, Americans are never better that when faced with seemingly overwhelming odds.
The Revolutionary War. 1812. The Civil War. Civil Rights. Vietnam and the 60's. Jimmy Carter. The welfare state. The great depression. Every recession (what is it 12?). 911. Iraq. Afghanistan. The list is virtually endless.
Kick us and we will defend ourselves. Take away what we have and we will rebuild. Oppress us and we will pointedly remind you that we are a Free People and a Free People will always find a way to remain so. No matter the cost.
Tea parties and Town Halls and marches on D.C. People across the nation, of every stripe and hue, coming together with a common goal. Preservation of the American Way of Life.
This day I declare than I am an optimist, certain of a brighter future for my grandchildren. Maybe you believe that such a statement proves me to be delusional. I am missing the bigger picture. Monetary collapse. The erosion of our civil liberties. Spending and debt beyond the ken of even Keynes. The war on the second Amendment. Political Correctness.
Delusional? Maybe but I refuse to let the pessimist in me decide. In the final tally, where heart and courage are measured, I believe we will overcome. I have my money on us and I think we're a sure thing.
Do we have a way to go? Damn yippee skip we do. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, hard work and sacrifice. But we have taken the measure of the enemy and we know what must be done. I believe we will.
Don't think so? Attend a Tea Party and ask them if they've quit. Ask them if they're going to roll over and take it in the butt. Ask them if they're ready to give up their freedoms. Go to my Warrior Roll and tell them they're dinosaurs and losers and don't know what they're talking about and find out just how fast they'll hand you your ass. A beaten people do not act that way.
While I acknowledge that civil disobedience and even an open revolt may very well be needed I no longer consider such either inevitable or the end of The Republic. In my heart I believe a political solution is still possible. If not then from the ashes we will rebuild, better than before.
As for pelosi, reid and obama? They don't stand a chance. Really, they never did. They are fighting against the fiercest and freest people in history. They will go down as what they are. Usurpers and liars and deceivers and history will surely damn them.
I am an Optimist.
Six
6 comments:
I'm as uneasy with the fringes of the left as I am with some of the loosely defined Libertarians who I meet here in Orange County California. I hear their scorn, however, what they haven't done very well is to give us a vision of what they see for the future that sees promise and hard work.
I find it really really hard to believe a person tell me they're a conservative, when in the next breath they tell me that they've got crushing credit card bills and horrible debt. I kid you not, one "conservative" told me he never took heed to his wife's spending until he opened a bill. They were paying 5k a month in interest alone. What's conservative in that? And yet, that seems to be the dividing line for us who have saved and scrimped. I have nothing in common with those types of "conservatives" at all.
I'm happiest when I'm the type of conservative I grew up as (not here in "The OC," which mixes heavy doses of religion, and a denial of personal debt into their politics), but in the farmlands, where there was a streak of decency in how we lived, and how we held to our word.
I'm an optimist too. But I think right now --when there is so much to revolt against, being an optimist and a person with a positive vision of what this nation can be is a bit like being a fish swimming upstream. People are angry now, and optimists have to weather a lot.
I hear you Kanani. I think true Conservatives are trying to find a place to lay their heads. I spent a bit of time growing up in Missouri and I think I understand what you're saying. "Country Club" Republicanism is a large contributor to how we've gotten to where we are now. It's also much of what the Tea Party movement is fighting against. Ascendant Conservatism will ultimately have to look a lot like that basic farmland decency you remember. The say one thing and do another crowd pushed me out of the Republican party a while ago. Ed talked me down and convinced me that change had to come from within but that change must come or I'll leave again and for good.
I've been reading too many of the "Civil War II's coming/sharpen your knives boys" blogs lately. I have got to lay off that stuff. It makes me morose.
Interesting post, and I think I'll probably put up another post in reply.
In the meantime, I agree with your thoughts on how people won't take to the streets. I'm frankly nervous when I hear the Threepers. I hope that there aren't 3% of the people willing to contest the political order with powder and lead on the village green. I very much doubt that you'd get another ten percent to support them.
I also think that it doesn't matter. Something's changed, and IMHO it's the biggest political shift in the general public since Civil Rights. The current Political Order thinks that they can ram anything through, no matter how unpopular or illegitimate the process, and the country will be stuck with it. Those days are over.
Great post.
Thanks BP. Yeah, the Threepers were exactly who I was thinking about. I think they're wrong for the same reason that the politicians are wrong. They consistently sell the American People short.
Yes, you're right. I feel as though there are a lot of us old line conservatives who still give generously of heart, but find ourselves up against an outlook that is rather morose and hopeless. And I think it's on both the left and the right.
For instance, I was trying to get together a booster club for the Boys and Girls Club. The B&G charges nothing for the teen program, because they want teens to come in. It's a wonderful thing. I asked several so-called OC Libertarians who are regulars on a blog that dissects politics, if they would help. They said the weren't "booster types." While they can tell me what they hate, they can't tell me what they like.
And they don't like to leave their computers for long!
Oh, my. Now, what kind of conservative is that?
Ack, I don't have time for them! There's so much good living still, and I intend to live it!
It's the folks like you who will be the ones who actually change things Kanani. The talkers and pretenders will be forgotten.
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