Something big is brewing out there. People are stirring. Perhaps the elections of 2006 and 2008 weren’t so bad if Americans can see now what happens when the left takes over government. A backlash is forming sooner and stronger than I expected. Though I’m not sure what will ultimately emerge, I sense that a major realignment is beginning.
Even more surprised are left/liberal Democrats, and let’s face it, that’s the only kind of Democrat left in the 21st century, so I’ll just call them Democrats from here on. They can’t understand what’s happening and they’re applying the same old formulas to counteract it. But it’s not working. They’re trying to spin it as a right-wing plot to hurt President Obama or orchestrated by greedy insurance companies. Local Republican organizations are trying to get out in front of the uprising, but it’s definitely a grassroots phenomenon.
Congressmen are afraid to meet their constituents. Traditional August town hall meetings in local districts are being cancelled. Some will answer questions only via “tele-town hall meetings” so they can hang up the phone when it get tough and their mealy-mouthed cowardice won’t be broadcast on YouTube. Others like Rep. Russ Carnahan D-MO bring union thugs to strong-arm angry voters against Obamacare or his “Cap and Trade” bill.
It’s clear that ordinary citizens are more familiar with the legislation than the congressmen elected to vote on it. Some, like Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, are indignant at voter insistence that they actually read the bills. Rookies like Nicki Tsongas D-MA say they won’t use the healthcare plan they want to impose on the rest of us. As Hotair.com says, “At least she’s honest.” Maine’s whole congressional delegation is wimping out, opting for the cowardly “telephone town hall,” and it looks like New Hampshire’s is too. Democrats are in shock. Anyone predicting this only two months ago would have been laughed at.With few exceptions, Republicans have been spineless since their defeat last November. Intimidated by Obama’s popularity, they withheld criticism until the uprising began. But I suspect it’s too late to get out in front of the parade and pretend to lead it, even though Democrats claim they started it. Wherever I go, people ask me who is out there to lead conservatives. I tell them I don’t know, but I’m confident leaders will emerge. Sometimes I suggest a current office-holder like little-known Congressman Thaddeus McCotter R-MI who has impressed me the few times I’ve heard him. He’s not an orator, but seems a confident, common-sense conservative. Maybe his low-key style will work after four years of slick speechifying. Too early to say though.
The rebellion has emerged during a curious coincidence of bubble-bursting with President Obama the biggest bubble. Many Obama voters, afflicted with white guilt, sought relief by voting for a black president. When his orchestrated remarks on the Henry Louis Gates incident backfired, his “racial healer” persona disintegrated.
Other voters fell in love with whatever it was Obama represented to them, but after seeing and hearing him every day for months, they’re realizing he’s not what they thought. He’s spending our money, our children’s money, and our grandchildren’s money while the economy gets worse. With Obamacare, he would control another 18% of it, spend another trillion or two we don’t have, and institute health-care rationing. Cap and Trade would raise energy prices 20%. Like a woman seduced by a character out of a romance novel who later discovers her paramour is a slick-talking opportunist who only wants her money, Americans are feeling a huge let-down. If it’s true that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” it explains the grassroots fury our congressmen and senators, who were riding Obama’s coattails, are seeing. Inflated by adoring media, Obama’s bubble rose so high and so fast, it was almost inevitable that it would crash and burn like the Hindenburg, but what will his collapse mean for our country?
Obama promised “change you can believe in” and people are seeing change all right - but they don’t believe in any of it. They’re declaring their dissatisfaction very loudly and they won’t shut up. Most of what Obama and Congress have done so far can be undone, albeit painfully, but should nationalized healthcare pass, it would likely become permanent.
This uprising will probably continue to strengthen, but will Republicans benefit? Maybe. They’re certainly trying to take advantage, but they had their chance back in 2000 and they muffed it. That’s still fresh in the public mind. What could emerge is an entirely new political movement.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
