Thursday, August 12, 2010

Are the American People Finally At Their Boiling Point?


If I had a nickel for every time I've heard an American, over the past year, say "I've had it and I want to know what I can do about this government" I'd be a wealthy man. If you read the forums you'll see it, if you listen to talk radio you'll see it, and if you read blog comments you'll see it...the slow boil of anger and frustration of the American people has become more and more pronounced. And I would safe to say that probably the last four major issues tackled by Congress and the President have all gone against the vast majority of opinion in the country - it's been clear that the Federal government, in the past six months, has thrown the will of the people completely out the window.

And believe me, the fuse of a lot of people in this country has gotten shorter and shorter.

This article from Family Security Matters talks about the building rage in Americans. At the same time, I'd like to add that this is justified rage - in fact, some might say that this is calculated rage that the Obama administration has not only planned for but deliberately tried to engineer.

Whichever theory you want to buy in to, the fact of the matter is that the American people are not used to being pushed around - sure, we'll bend to a lot of circumstances and our tolerance level in comparison to others in this world is amazing, but when you finally cross that line with Americans, the heritage of the Wild Wild West comes out and I truly believe we are seeing that start to surface.

Even after all of the signs, even after all of the public displays at town halls and protests and rallies...I don't think many in Congress realize what they are stirring up. I have to say, I think it will become more clear to them. Soon.



Pressure is Building


Is America is at risk of boiling over? Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter for the President Reagan, now columnist for The Wall Street Journal, believes it is. I don’t like to think about it but the danger is there. Noonan is not the alarmist type. She’s even-tempered and intuitive about Americans, and that’s why she was able to write speeches for President Reagan that tapped the American psyche. When she writes something like this, I pay attention.

She says “Americans no longer assume that their children will have it better than they did. This is a huge break with the past, with assumptions and traditions that shaped us.” Do Americans think we’ve peaked? That we’re going downhill now?

She identified a gap between what our elites think our country needs and what ordinary Americans believe it needs. She claims there’s a “growing gulf between the country's thought leaders, as they're called—the political and media class, the universities—and those living what for lack of a better word we'll call normal lives on the ground in America. The two groups were agitated by different things, concerned about different things, had different focuses, different world views.”

She’s absolutely right. Americans have voted over and over on referenda that they want the federal government to control illegal immigration, but elites call them “xenophobic.” When citizens in the states vote against supporting illegal aliens in schools, hospitals, welfare offices, in bilingual programs and so forth, they’re called “racists.” She cites the situation in Arizona: “The point of view of our thought leaders is, in general, that borders that are essentially open are good, or not so bad. The point of view of those on the ground who are anxious about our nation's future, however, is different, more like: ‘We live in a welfare state and we've just expanded health care. Unemployment's up. Could we sort of calm down, stop illegal immigration, and absorb what we've got?’ No is, in essence, the answer.”


Nogales, Arizona border

Rather than closing the border, the Obama Administration sued Arizona for usurping the authority of Washington even though Washington was refusing to exercise that authority. Then a federal judge ruled that the Arizona law - even though it mirrors federal law - violates the US Constitution. Unbelievable.

Then there’s California’s Proposition 8. The elites say homosexuals have a constitutional right to marry each other. California’s citizens passed Proposition 8 in 2008 - an amendment to their state constitution restricting marriage to one man and one woman. Then a homosexual federal judge ruled last week that the amended California Constitution violates the US Constitution. As if George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson believed men had a right “marry” each other? As if ordinary Americans who have voted in thirty-four state referenda to preserve a basic, 5000-year-old human concept are “homophobic”?

Last week, the State of Missouri voted 71% that Washington cannot force them to buy health insurance from anyone. Congressional Democrats knew most Americans felt that way, but they voted to ram it down our throats anyway. US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pooh-poohed the Missouri vote, insisting that the “trend is turning” and Americans will soon embrace Obamacare.


You’re in La-La Land Harry.

Back in March of 2009, Texas Governor Rick Perry talked about secession in the face of the encroaching power of Washington. Several other states are discussing nullification - ignoring dictates from Washington - because they believe the Constitution doesn’t grant Congress or the President power to do what they want. Democrat Congressman Pete Stark told people at a “townhall” meeting in his district last week that “The federal government, yes, can do most anything in this country.”

Pampered radical students from the 60s and 70s are now running not only our universities and our mainstream media, but also our government. These dedicated followers of Saul Alinsky have taken over Washington. As Victor Davis Hanson puts it: “One walk across the Yale or Stanford campus circa 1975, and one could see pretty clearly what sort of culture that bunch would create when it came of age and was handed power.” They’re smugly imposing their bankrupt socialist policies on states and the states are rebelling.

There is indeed the “chasm” existing between the elites and the rest of us on the ground as Noonan describes. Ordinary Americans who know how things work in the real world because they actually keep the country running on the job sites every day have had enough. If citizens cannot use the democratic process to express their will without being thwarted and insulted by screwball federal judges at every turn, America will indeed boil over.

5 comments:

FreedomsWings said...

I agree Holger, it almost seems that Obama and the left are pushing people to get a reaction. And a strong enough reaction could open the door for them to take over more control, form some kind of police state and justify their claims that tea partiers and many conservatives are violent extremists. Which is why I think so many people out there with big voices like a Glenn Beck push so much for no violence. They know what that would mean. We would destroy ourselves in the end.

Findalis said...

The trouble is that most people only grumble and do not take action.

BTW, your email keeps rejecting mine. I keep getting a failure notice. Did I do something to warrant this? (I apologize in advance.)

Wollf Howlsatmoon said...

I just hope that the boiling point is reached this November. The elites need to be taught a lasting lesson, hopefully with the ballot box, not the ammunition box.

Holger Awakens said...

Freedoms Wings,

Thanks for stopping by! Great to see you here! And I do agree that there has been admirable call for restraint, but.... :)

Findalis,

My AOL and Blogger have been having a serious battle for months - if you are trying to email me while logged into blogger, you'll get the fatal error message - try it on your regular email and if that doesn't work, try HolgerAwakens@gmail.com

Sorry about that - it's been a total pain and AOL's answer is to send me a survey on how well they are doing.

Howlsatthemoon,

I agree that the ballot box is the place to take action. However, I am one that insists that the Marxists pay, at some point, for their attacks on this country and the Constitution - and I'm not talking about losing a seat or two in Congress. I'm talking trials, I'm talking real sentences, I'm talking deportation, and yes, I'm talking about more.

:Holger Danske

idahohunter said...

Holger I agree a price must be paid. Rule of law and all. But the price must be steep, lest others think they have a better plan. Cancer is cured two ways. Poison or knife, But left too long niether is effective. Nut cuttin' time.