Friday, April 2, 2010

Nobody's Listening


By Alan Caruba

"'There is an overall sense of frustration that no one is listening,'" pollster Scott Rasmussen said about a problem that has plagued the political party in power for decades." – Washington Times, April 2, 2010, "Independent voters turn from hopeful to angry."

The article examines the way Obama has lost the support of the great body of “independents”, people who do not identify themselves as either Democrat or Republican.

The polls, of course, all reflect the president’s falling approval rating, but the problem now for Americans is that it is clear the White House and a compliant Congress are not listening. Obama disparaged polls recently. He is not influenced by them. To put it another way, the public be damned.

Despite months of public protests of the healthcare bill and only because of a straight party-line vote (no Republican voted for it) the bill was passed and signed into law. The avalanche of lies told before and since about Obamacare has resulted in a law that only Obama’s core of supporters—Ronald Reagan used to call them Welfare Queens—still believe will benefit the nation.

Within days, Obama’s EPA director announced new regulations regarding auto mileage and the agency’s intent to regulate carbon dioxide, a natural gas essential to all life on Earth. There is now the likelihood that Congress will ram through the disastorous Cap-and-Trade Act, a tax on all energy use.

Despite the exposure of the biggest fraud of the modern era, "global warming", the Obama administration is pressing ahead with legislation based on it!

A general amnesty is likely, too, as Mexicans begin to stream across the border, fleeing the drug wars in that nation, and seeking asylum.

Dick Morris, the political commentator, notes correctly that a Republican controlled Congress can nullify Obamacare by refusing to fund it, but November looks further and further away at this point.

The other element at work is the way the bulk of the nation’s news media have utterly abandoned its most essential function; keeping an eye on government and revealing the truth about elected officials and dubious legislative proposals.

We have arrived at a point in this nation where the only reliable news to be found in the daily newspaper is in the sports section. At least the scores are accurate.

Meanwhile, the headlines everywhere today speak of new jobs added while also noting a stubborn 9.7 rate of unemployment and that is not likely to diminish any time soon. The only bright spot is that Obama can no longer blame this on the Bush administration.

When a nation’s press betrays it, the only remaining hope for any truth is to be found in the many news/opinion Internet sites and yet I am plagued by the same feeling expressed in Rasmussen’s comment that those in power are not listening and that the only option that remains to save the nation from them are the midterm elections.

In the interim, economic stagnation will be the rule.

Not everyone reads the conservative comment on the Internet and liberal websites like the Huffington Post are thriving. While the network news shows continue to lose viewers and Fox News continues to grow, the deliberate destruction of the nation’s economy continues.

One is forced to ask, does it matter when the entire governmental structure of the nation is now controlled by the machine politics of Chicago? By the lies about global warming? By more and more restrictions on real access to the nation’s natural resources?

There is, finally, the harm that results from the combination of a limited general knowledge of American and world history and an attention span that grows shorter week by week.

We are reaching the apogee of a lot of very bad decisions and failed government programs that suggest the worst is yet to come.

Everybody knows this, but what does that avail Americans when neither protests, nor recent elections of Republican governors and a new Republican Senator from Massachusetts leave us vulnerable to the increasingly rapid predation of Marxists?

© Alan Caruba, 2010

11 comments:

Ronbo said...

Alan:

The anarchists (really the Storm Trooper wing of the Progressive-Socialist movement) are said to be making serious plans to attack the Tea Parties on April 15th.

As I can personally state from my experience at several Tea Parties, a number of people carry guns.

I see here the potential for violence, because these contemporary anarchists are quite aggressive - I saw a small number of them (less than 50) in 2007 when they attacked the Orlando P.D. during the infamous Nazi march thru the downtown.

I can just imagine the violence a large number of them could do to the Tea Partiers.

Alan Caruba said...
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Anonymous said...

I'd not be surprised if a fair number of Tea Party folks have CHLs. That sort of guy won't have a lot of tolerance for somebody trying to intimidate his wife or girlfriend or kids.

Probably vary with the part of the country, but, "Shoot the leader and turn the herd," has been a saying for a long, long time.

Alan Caruba said...

I believe in self-defense, but I worry that a provocation could lead to innocent people being victims.

We haven't reached that stage yet and I hope we never do.

Alan Caruba said...
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Anonymous said...

From what I have read, the goons of SEIA and the Neo-Panthers are unconcerned about bystanders.

'Rat

Alan Caruba said...

Goons rarely are, Rat.

November cannot get here fast enough for me.

Carolyn said...

Mr. Caruba, I', afraid of a few different things. I agree with Ronbo, in that I see a potential for violence. Mostly started, and provoked by leftists, but which can boil over when enough angry people are in an area together. The other thing that is giving me fits, and I could be wrong(I sure hope I am!) that they will pass amnesty bill soon, believing that they will get all the new "citizen" votes for their re election in Novemeber. I really, Really don't believe they are going to give up their seats come election time,and even if acorn is supposedly disbanding, there are plenty of union thugs, black panthers and others who will vote for mickey mouse and dead people, contesting every contest. Mix that with any new immigrants, could it be the commies will get to stay in Washington? Please tell me I'm letting my imagination run away! Please!
God Bless you Mr. Caruba

Guy said...

I don't know of any CCW permit holders who would be foolish enough to discharge their weapon unless it was a clear case of self-defense. The rules are clear, and permit holders receive extensive training on the fine line between self-defense and an unjustified shooting. The legal aspects involved are covered in depth, and when the training is complete, permit holders know that an unjustified shooting will cost them their license, and probably several years of their life.

This, of course, makes them the among the safest and most responsible gun owners in America.

However, I certainly hope that anyone who plans to attend a Tea Party event and incite violence isn't stupid enough to cross that fine line. The training teaches permit holders that once the decision to fire is made, they should hit their target "center-of-mass" and keep shooting until the threat is neutralized.

Generally, not too many people will survive that...

Let's hope calm and reason will prevail, and the rights of the Tea Party members to assemble and speak their minds will be protected.

Alan Caruba said...

Yes, you are letting your imagination outpace your reasoning capacity.

I cannot think of a time in recent history when events spun out in such a scenario.

We are dealing with bullies, but a bit of push back will reveal they are cowards.

Carolyn said...

Thanks Mr. Caruba- for being a voice of reason!