Vincent Fiore
Rumblings among the electorate
By Vincent Fiore
Come what may in regards to President Obama's Health Care reform bill, what will most likely stand out in the process is the national rebellion against the bill's beltway intrusiveness.
Many on the Right have warned of the creeping hand of government for decades — a government that has methodically tightened its grip around a free nation. Through legislation and judicial fiat, the incremental confiscation of basic freedoms and the wealth that often enables those very freedoms, progressive policy has become the prime impediment to America's promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
What is happening across the country in town halls and the like is nothing short of a Main Street revolution. People of all political stripes are increasingly animated against their Congressional representatives, and through them the Obama administration.
To the dismay of the administration, the people have become, in a word, unmanageable. What the political class has grown used to is either a populace too consumed with their day-to-day lives to pay attention, or a callousness generated by ignorance that essentially says what is being discussed in Washington will have no consequences down the road for me, right? Wrong.
It is far worse. By creating a healthcare bill that governs one's life through a myriad of political decrees and absolutions, the Obama administration has went from the slow, grinding advance of statism — that principally started under the Roosevelt administration — to a headlong dash towards totalitarianism.
The Obama administration has gone from the inspirational "Yes we can" of the campaign season of 2008 to a more menacing message of "Do as I say." By rewarding the loyalty of a chosen few like the liberal activist group ACORN and big labor through legislation like the pork-bloated Stimulus Bill, Obama has truly turned a corner in American politics.
Though elected by a comfortable margin in 2008, the election did not create a mandate for sweeping — and in the mind of many — free market-killing legislation like the Stimulus Bill, "Cap and Trade," and the now-raging Health Care reform.
These were not the moderate to occasionally center-right policies that Obama championed as a candidate. While there was a factual record of Obama's liberal tendencies, there was scant proof — for most of the voting populace, it seemed — of his radical-ness. That has changed.
Those originally against — and many of those once-for Obama voters — now see just how consumed by power Obama and the Democratic Party have become. Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public have peered behind the mountain of power — and debt — that this administration has erected, and have decided to become engaged, and enraged. If ObamaCare passes in its present form, it will be against the will of the people, and the product of an authoritarian and contemptuous political class.
Further, whoever in Washington votes for something that is plainly anathema to most clear-thinking Americans can expect a tough road to re-election come 2010.
Maybe the election of a modern-day Stalinist was the best thing to happen to the United States, if only to get people to understand that America is governed with the consent of the governed. Maybe this will be the start of real participatory government, one where representatives actually listen to the will of their constituency.
Being unengaged because of time or a devil-may-care outlook is no longer an option, because while so many slept, Socialism found a home in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
What a happy occurrence it would be that the election of Barack Obama leads to the American citizen rejecting the heavy hand of government by instead pushing back — as we seem to be doing in genuine fear of ObamaCare — with the righteous hand of liberty.
© Vincent Fiore
August 17, 2009
Come what may in regards to President Obama's Health Care reform bill, what will most likely stand out in the process is the national rebellion against the bill's beltway intrusiveness.
Many on the Right have warned of the creeping hand of government for decades — a government that has methodically tightened its grip around a free nation. Through legislation and judicial fiat, the incremental confiscation of basic freedoms and the wealth that often enables those very freedoms, progressive policy has become the prime impediment to America's promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
What is happening across the country in town halls and the like is nothing short of a Main Street revolution. People of all political stripes are increasingly animated against their Congressional representatives, and through them the Obama administration.
To the dismay of the administration, the people have become, in a word, unmanageable. What the political class has grown used to is either a populace too consumed with their day-to-day lives to pay attention, or a callousness generated by ignorance that essentially says what is being discussed in Washington will have no consequences down the road for me, right? Wrong.
It is far worse. By creating a healthcare bill that governs one's life through a myriad of political decrees and absolutions, the Obama administration has went from the slow, grinding advance of statism — that principally started under the Roosevelt administration — to a headlong dash towards totalitarianism.
The Obama administration has gone from the inspirational "Yes we can" of the campaign season of 2008 to a more menacing message of "Do as I say." By rewarding the loyalty of a chosen few like the liberal activist group ACORN and big labor through legislation like the pork-bloated Stimulus Bill, Obama has truly turned a corner in American politics.
Though elected by a comfortable margin in 2008, the election did not create a mandate for sweeping — and in the mind of many — free market-killing legislation like the Stimulus Bill, "Cap and Trade," and the now-raging Health Care reform.
These were not the moderate to occasionally center-right policies that Obama championed as a candidate. While there was a factual record of Obama's liberal tendencies, there was scant proof — for most of the voting populace, it seemed — of his radical-ness. That has changed.
Those originally against — and many of those once-for Obama voters — now see just how consumed by power Obama and the Democratic Party have become. Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public have peered behind the mountain of power — and debt — that this administration has erected, and have decided to become engaged, and enraged. If ObamaCare passes in its present form, it will be against the will of the people, and the product of an authoritarian and contemptuous political class.
Further, whoever in Washington votes for something that is plainly anathema to most clear-thinking Americans can expect a tough road to re-election come 2010.
Maybe the election of a modern-day Stalinist was the best thing to happen to the United States, if only to get people to understand that America is governed with the consent of the governed. Maybe this will be the start of real participatory government, one where representatives actually listen to the will of their constituency.
Being unengaged because of time or a devil-may-care outlook is no longer an option, because while so many slept, Socialism found a home in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
What a happy occurrence it would be that the election of Barack Obama leads to the American citizen rejecting the heavy hand of government by instead pushing back — as we seem to be doing in genuine fear of ObamaCare — with the righteous hand of liberty.
© Vincent Fiore
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