Straw That Breaks Joe Six Pack's Back (Americans FINALLY fed up? Deathcare™ maybe the tipping point)Straw That Breaks Joe Six Pack's Back
by John Hammer
August 06, 2009
For years I've wondered what it was going to take for the American people to get fed up.
The city, the county, the state and the federal government have all been taking away citizens' rights on a regular basis, without much opposition. A generation ago if you had told people that they would be prohibited from smoking in a building they owned, they would have thought you were crazy. Now it's true even in North Carolina. Soon if you build a house in Greensboro you may have to plant a tree in the front yard, whether you want to or not, and if the city has its way, the city – not the property owner – will decide how many and how big the windows are in a new building downtown.
Our country was founded by a group that didn't like the idea of being ruled by a government that did not allow them to participate. "No taxation without representation" was the slogan. But today it seems their descendants, and people from all over the world who have come to this nation searching for freedom, have been allowing themselves to be taxed and governed far more – even with representation – than seems reasonable.
Government has been growing steadily, but the push for the federal government to take over 16 percent of the economy in one fell swoop with a federalized health care plan may be the straw that breaks Joe Six Pack's back. I know they plan to phase it in while private insurance companies go belly up, but once we have the public option, the private health insurance industry has a death sentence and you can start counting the days.
In North Carolina, Gov. Beverly Perdue already has dismal approval ratings. She was elected about nine months ago and now her approval rating is 25 percent. That indicates that over half of the people who voted for her are not satisfied with the way she is governing, and she hasn't won over any folks who voted for Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.
The so-called Tea Party movement is gaining some respect.
One thing that is fascinating about the Tea Party movement is that it isn't being lead by big labor or big industry, and certainly isn't being led by the Republican Party or any other major player in American politics.
I know the woman who organized the Tax Day Tea Party in Phill G. McDonald Plaza and know that she is a mother who is very concerned about the world her children are going to grow up in. She is not any kind of political organizer. I also know some of the other people who have gotten involved and they don't have a lot of political experience but have become passionate about the direction this country is taking.
Certainly some leaders have sprung up, and it would be shocking if some elected officials didn't come from this group, but overall it is a true grassroots organization that gets the word out about events by email, Twitter, Facebook and websites, bypassing the mainstream media, which does its best to ignore anyone who doesn't think President Barack Hussein Obama will go down in history as one of America's best presidents.
It's not just notification of events, but also reporting on events that this movement has figured out how to do without mainstream media. Events are videotaped and the videos put on YouTube for anyone to watch. It's amazing how many people these days are bypassing the mainstream media for their news. With more and more primary sources available, people are discovering just how slanted the mainstream media is.
So the mainstream media can report that a few unruly protestors showed up, but when the video is posted showing hundreds or thousands of people, then the mainstream media – which is losing credibility daily – loses more.
It is like when the News & Record reported that 2,000 people attended the Sarah Palin rally at Elon University last fall. It was a ridiculously low crowd estimate, and those who were there knew it. But a couple of videos from different angles would have proved to those who weren't there that the News & Record was just trying to downplay the Republican vice presidential candidate.
The Tea Party movement, still in its infancy, is pretty remarkable. It will be interesting to see where it goes. The economy may pick up and the movement may fizzle out. But it appears the movement is going to have an effect on the passage of the government health care bill.
Congressmen and senators for the most part have been in Washington, DC – one of the most liberal cities in the nation – largely isolated from this movement. This month they are going to be home on break and they are already finding out that having a president trying, in one fell swoop, to nationalize much of the economy is just too much for many of their constituents.
No telling what's going to happen when they all get back to Washington.
http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-i-2009-08-06-198437.112113_Straw_That_Breaks_Joe_Six_Packs_Back.html
