Howard Dean's primal scream. The so-called "S Factor". Al Franken tackling a heckler at a Dean Speech. Free speech zones. Wesley Clark's real military record. Media bias revealed.
These links and references all provide examples of hypocrisy and elitism in American politics today. Each example is another expression of the campaign to sway the American voter to embrace ideals he or she might not agree with.
The fact of the matter is that a vast number of politicians and media moguls, particularly those on the extreme Left, have forgotten that the American people aren’t so easily misled – or bullied, manipulated, and insulted into submission. In fact, the Left's antics in the last several years, particularly since the election of President George W. Bush, have soured many average Americans not only toward the Left but toward the Democratic Party in general.
A silent majority does exist. Despite what the cocktail-party radicals and tea-house elitists believe, Americans are extremely intelligent, well educated, well read, and extraordinarily attentive. The silent majority tends to fill a demographic of people aged between thirty and seventy years of age. These are mature people who want to keep the majority of their hard-earned wages, meaning that they would like to see their tax burden decrease. They have friends or acquaintances from varying belief systems or political persuasions and from most socioeconomic levels. They have sons, daughters, and grandchildren serving in the Armed Forces. Above all, they want to live and let live – and to do so with as little governmental interference as possible.
The silent majority is the heart and soul of America, and let me tell you something – they're watching.
Mostly, these people let political punditry roll off their backs. They're too busy living to worry overmuch about what some self-appointed expert is saying on the television. In fact, when the "experts" begin lecturing, many Americans just turn the TV off – they don't care for some damn fool with more money than sense spouting off about how he thinks they should conduct their lives. How would he know anything, sitting there in his expensive suit, or in his expensive shirt with the sleeves O-so-fashionably rolled up?
The fact is, the silent majority readily recognize someone who doesn't work hard for his or her money. They see the soft hands, the spa tans, the lack of firmness around mouth and eyes that denotes someone who has never had a real conviction in the whole of his life.
The majority of Americans work hard, play hard, and rest when they can. When a bunch of politicians shout slogans at one another from a podium, most Americans aren’t much interested – or at the very least they take the sloganeering with a healthy grain of salt.
But Americans do notice when they're derided, called names, belittled, pandered to and condescended to. People noticed the "S Factor" column I linked earlier. It angered them. The average man on the street didn't say anything; he just made note of it and moved on.
They heard Howard Dean's frustrated scream in Iowa, and they made note of that, too. Few people outside the media commented, but the consensus is obviously growing that the man is too unstable to lead this country.
Many people know Wesley Clark was recalled in disgrace. People remember he was accused of illegal participation in the Clinton Administration’s murderous attack on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco. People also note Clark’s endorsement by Bill "Slick Willy" Clinton himself. These associations all leave a distinctly bad taste in the mouths of decent, practical, hardworking Americans.
In fact, the alertness of the majority of Americans is enhanced these days, with our nation at war, and so many of our loved ones in uniformed service to the cause of justice and freedom. The Left can scream all it likes: "Not in my name;" "No blood for oil;" or "Bush lied," and it can scream until its throat cracks and bleeds, but the fact of the matter is that the average American thinks the screamers are all traitors or fools.
Many Americans have received letters and emails from their loved ones overseas. These Americans have compared the facts reported in the letters with the tales told by the mainstream media. These Americans note the quiet jubilation in those missives from their children and contrast it with the shrill and desperate cries of "quagmire" voiced by pacifist politicians and echoed by the media, and these Americans decided long ago the media and the politicians are lying.
On the other hand, these same Americans also watch the current Administration's actions with genuine skepticism. The average American feels that actions do speak louder than words, and they aren't very impressed with the President's domestic policies.
The fact is that most Americans just want to be left alone. They want to get up in the morning, do their work, and come home at night with as little intervention from the outside world as possible. Whatever the religious authorities and political pundits try to tell us, the typical American really doesn't care who is sleeping with whom and does not see the need to bother with imposing a legal definition on marriage. The average American is interested in healthcare only insofar as children, spouses, and selves are covered. Americans are glad to see tax cuts and rebates, because that means that they get a little of their own money back. But they detest those who haven't paid a penny of taxes themselves yet dare demand rebates nonetheless. Just whose money is it, anyway?
I will admit, however, that the average American does have two ultimately self-defining, rock-solid political stances: on abortion, and on gun control. On these two controversies, just about everyone has strong beliefs.
Polls show that most Americans – especially those who are themselves parents -- approve of the ban on partial-birth abortion. The reason for this may be as ridiculously simple as it is inexpressibly profound: ask a mother her reaction to what she has witnessed via ultrasound, and she'll tell you about the genuine miracle of the new human life growing within her womb -- and why it's so infinitely repugnant to drive a spike through the skull of any fetus.
Ask just about any man – and many women – about their positions on gun control. You'll hear wildly differing opinions, but from the majority of Americans, you'll hear that the Second Amendment means what it says – and that rather than pass new laws against gun-owners and guns, the government should crack down hard on gun-wielding criminals.
In short, politicians and media today have it all wrong. Moreover, the joke is on them.
Despite what these elitists think, people aren't stupid; they are aware, and they are watching. They recognize the extent to which the traditional politics of issues is giving way to a politics of absurdities -- and they are evermore less impressed.
This election year will be a very interesting one. In the end, no matter what, we will see the true mirror of ourselves: We The People will have the final say in the fate of our nation.
Politicians and media are warned: be authentic in what you say and do. Anything else will only lose you the American mind and heart. We the People of America expect principles. Try having some yourselves.
*****
Thanks go to Loren Bliss for great insight, fact-checking, and outstanding edits.
--Linda
Absolutely outstanding.
Posted by: Stephen Macklin at February 4, 2004 03:52 AM