…and not going to take it any longer? Victor Davis Hanson notes:
There is a populist anger out there, hard to calibrate exactly, but growing nonetheless. Here’s what I think people are saying: Wall Street gets bailed out, despite billions that the masters of the universe skimmed off. Meanwhile our retirement accounts are crashed. Then the government bails out those ‘homeowners’ who failed, often due to their own greed and foolishness, not those who played by the rules: so default on your over priced home that you should have never bought, and the fed is there to bail you out; put away $1,000 a month in your 401(k)—and tough luck.
No new taxes of course for “all of us” except the evil “them,” but rumors still somehow abound that health care benefits will be taxed, carbon emissions will be taxed, and even veterans will pay for their care via private accounts before drawing on VA resources. And why would not Obama resort to more bait and switch to pay for a $3.5 trillion budget—when that proverbial evil 5% simply does not have the wherewithal to make up for the 50% who pay no federal income tax at all?
This growing unease is a weird sort of prairie-fire populism, focused on both Wall Street and still more the government. (Who is worse, the AIG execs that praise capitalism, then want federal handouts to ensure their bonuses, or the incompetent and unethical government who feeds them the cash [”hope and change”?]—or we the poor fools who will keep working to pay for all this?)
Where it all leads I don’t know.
I don’t know, either – but I’m pretty certain that liberalism isn’t doing itself any favors right now. When Rasmussen for the first time in years picks up that GOPers are more favored than Democrats in the “generic” Congressional ballot, we’re clearly seeing a political whirlwind on the horizon. Will it actually benefit the GOP? Can’t say – people are still pretty ticked off at us, too. 2010 might be an excellent year to run as an Independent. Main thing – if a person is a smart politician, he won’t want to be identified in any way, shape or form with the Powers That Be in Washington at the moment.
I think what is happening is that people are, finally, getting fed up with it all – the lies coming out of Washington have gone from brazen to stupid. Its so obvious that, say, Dodd is lying to us about what is going on and what part he had in it – and the rest of them are only slightly less nauseating in their attitudes towards the people. When Obama tries to claim a populist mantle in this by grandly saying he’s responsible, people are seeing right through it – he’s saying he’s responsible as if he’s not, but willing to sacrifice himself for us and we’re supposed to think he’s such a swell guy for doing this…BS, Barry; we know that you really were responsible for it, and if you really wanted to take responsibility for it you’d be working for a repeal of your Spendulus so it could be re-written with a bit of honesty and common sense thrown in to the mix. Maybe on a re-do we can actually not pass the bill until everyone’s read it?
A little revolution, now and then, is a good thing. And we need it, dear people, we need it.
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