Understanding The American People

An oldie brought back by request.

Sophie:  I wrote this after Beck's Restoring Honour rally in Washington when he was taking a lot of criticism from the left.  I like Beck, but I'm far from his biggest fan.  I think he has profound insights and is very prescient in many ways.  We disagree on some matters and issues, but none would interfere with my respect for his work.  At the time of this piece, the MSM and the Left were scratching their heads -- as they usually do -- wondering, "What are those Bible-clinging, bigoted, gun-toting, xenophobic, squirrel-eating, homophobic, dirt-eating, sexist, snake-dancing, Islamophobic, cousin-marrying, racist, truck-with-gun-rack-driving, Flat-Earthers, NASCAR loving people, who still stand and sing the National Anthem, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and believe in American Exceptionalism were up to?"

The disconnect was, to me, glaring.  I could see why Glenn Beck connected with Flyover America and the Pauline Kaels of Washington, DC., Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Franscisco couldn't.  The words wrote themselves.  The 2010 election (6 Senate seats, 63 House seats, 10 governors' mansions, and 680 legislative seats all taken away from Democrats came later.... but sugar on top...and chocolate sprinkles...and marshmallows...and pistachios...and Oreo crumbles...and chocolate chunks...and Reese's Pieces...and walnuts...and M&Ms...and chocolate whipped cream...and Irish coffee-flavoured whipped cream...and a cherry...no, make that three cherries...can never come too late when you have warned and warned and been dismissed and dismissed.

4 September  2010

It is ironic that the “smartest man in the world”, Obama, is utterly incapable of understanding the motivations, the innate moral compass, the rugged individualism, and the quiet nobility of the American people, who have always longed to be challenged to accomplish greater things and have forever arisen to the occasion.  For all of the mockery and ridicule heaped upon Glenn Beck, Beck actually gets America…and, that drives his enemies...and yours...crazy.

What does he get that the maligners of the Tea Party fail to understand ? Beck gets that there is a profound and exigent conviction emerging spontaneously across a broad swath of the American populace that the spectacular economic and political collapses of recent years were made possible -- even inevitable -- by a much longer Great Moral Decline, as Timothy Dalrymple opined. Americans' commitment to fundamental values and principles, anchored for most in the authority of religious texts, long served to fuel the engine and toughen the rails of our government and the economy. Yet now, it is feared that fealty is no longer potent and dispersive enough to propel the American free market and constrain the excesses and abuses in both the private and public sectors. In the words of Dr. Alveda King: "Our material gains seem to be going the way of our moral losses."

Beck also gets that Americans are, at their core, a people that root for the underdog and do have an instinct for fundamental fairness.  Whether one likes it or not, Beck IS connecting with the American public not on a level of hate, but on an intrinsic level - one where honour is honoured, virtue is noble, success is rewarded.  Faith, hope and charity are quintessential American values.  Yes, this country was founded on and continues to cherish rugged individualism, which some believe is selfish, but America has been the greatest force for good in the history of mankind.  The charity of Americans to one another and to lost souls in the deepest recesses of Africa or the densest jungles of Southeast Asia is without parallel.

Beck also gets that millions of Americans feel trapped upon this sinking ship of state with no confidence whatsoever in the present captain and crew, in the words of Patheos. The Republican party stands to benefit in the 2010 elections less because they have presented a compelling alternative than because, as in 2006, the public wants to express its deep displeasure and disgust with the present regime. Specific policies, programmes,  and politicians certainly played their part in bringing us to this pass. Yet, the deeper problems besetting America are moral and innate.  How else can we explain the hideous irresponsibility of Wall Street, the corruption at all levels of government, the greed of special interest groups, the laziness of some, and the lack of personal honour in many?  Solely placing a different party at the helm may not help matters much, especially if the crony capitalism practised by both main parties continues to metastasize. ALL of us are responsible for the present crisis, and yet NONE, alone, are capable of righting this listing ship. The speakers at the Restoring Honour Rally on the National Mall on 28 August 2010 spoke over and over of the need for a restoration of the individual and collective soul, a return to a Higher Power for those of faith, a rebuilding of the moral and spiritual character of our people.

Beck also gets that what might be good for Europe does not automatically work for the United States. As Thomas Straubhaar of Der Spiegel wrote: "The settlers of the New World rejected everything, which included throwing out anything with a semblance of state authority. They fled Europe to find freedom. The sole shared goal of the settlers was to obtain individual freedom and live independently, which included the freedom to say what they wanted, believe what they wanted and write what they wanted". These voyagers, once oppressed, tired and poor, yearned to breathe free.  These persecuted, homeless, and tempest-tossed sought the golden door of freedom.  The state was seen as a way to facilitate this goal.  The state should not interfere in people's lives, aside from securing freedom, peace and security. Economic prosperity was seen as the responsibility of the individual.  Understanding that we are ultimately responsible for our own prosperity is what enrages us when we see a feckless, reckless government that is anything but responsible and seemingly takes every step possible to preclude prosperity.  If you take this fundamental belief away from citizenry, you are destroying the binds which interlink America's heterogeneous society. Removing this belief and pitting class against class, religion against religion, race against race, North v. South, East v. West, urban against rural, educated against uneducated will lead to conflicts between different sections of society.  The government’s insane declaration of war on the American people, which pits brother against brother, neighbour against neighbour, young against old is a fire in search of a spark.  Its victory promises to be Pyrrhic.

Beck also gets that during the very worst period in the 20th century – the Great Depression through the end of WWII – saw a people that refused to wallow in self-pity and chose to embrace hope for a brighter future.  It is no coincidence that the highest grossing movies in that period were not grainy, grayish, tales of woe.  They were movies that provided an escape, a parable to be applied in daily life, or tugged at the heartstrings in the name of family and friends, home and hearth.

Beck also gets that Americans can stand the truth.  Again, we look back to the most trying times in the history of this land – the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression and World War II.  Americans understood what was at risk.  Americans understood the risks because they understood the facts and were told the truth.   The best leaders do not strive to sugarcoat bad medicine.  While I have huge philosophical differences with FDR, he was a leader.  He chatted with Americans as if he was sitting on their porch in a rocking chair.  He leveled with them.  He could say to the public that the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself” because they understood the depth of the problems facing the country.  Compare Roosevelt to Obama...Roosevelt:  Your government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst without flinching and losing heart." Obama:  "We don't "always think clearly when we're scared".  Japan and Germany were our enemies.  Today, Obama considers Iran a friend with which to work and Americans are the real enemies.  But, moving along... When our leaders would rather spin and obfuscate, they are harming much more than their own credibility.    Sun Tzu wrote:  "If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt, if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete” and "He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared” and "If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."  Knowledge is power.  Truth is strength.  Our “betters” do us no favours with their paternalistic posture.  In fact, they cause great harm.  We cannot face our tasks if we are in the dark as to what they are.  We cannot conquer our challenges if we are oblivious.  If we are treated as imbecilic children, we cannot understand why some sacrifice today is necessary so that our children, like us, can inherit a better and stronger country than even that which was built by the giants of this nation – the learned, honourable men that created the best system of government ever devised and the men and women that fought, sacrificed, toiled, laboured and died to build this shining city on a hill.

Beck gets this, too.  His words are inspirational to many and he is connecting with Americans in the exact same way that Obama did in his campaign. Yes, I know that many find him clownish, but that is partisanship clouding judgement and understanding.  Reality is not changed by ridicule.  Only the dishonourable find restoring honour in our individual lives to be a dishonourable quest. Most Americans believe that there is a certain harshness in American life and a crassness in a culture that celebrates the inanity and gaucheness of the twits on Jersey Shore and the idiocy of Speidi. Our Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour. Our kids don't even say the Pledge.

Thus, Beck and his followers were sincere when they claimed that the Restoring Honour Rally was not political. It only will BECOME a political movement to the extent that it is slandered and excluded by the Left. There has been nothing more devastating to President Obama than the way in which his representatives, sycophants, and defenders have ridiculed the concerns of a broad swath of everyday Americans and hideously smeared them as racist, nativist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic.  In the cool temper of historical analysis, it will be the Left’s dismissal of the virtue and time-honoured values of the American people that will be recognised as the reason that Obama, once Icarus, burned brightly then fell to mediocrity.  It is not unreasonable to be concerned by runaway government spending, the strains of illegal immigration on our social safety nets, the unsustainable massive and unfunded liabilities, unacceptably high unemployment, the lynch mob mentality of some unions, the radicalism of many in government, the outright contempt for the average American expressed by many who control the government, the financial system, the educational system, the media, the think tanks and the salons where the only “TEA” served comes in china with scones and clotted cream on the side.  In a Constitutional Republic, those are reasonable concerns and legitimate grievances upon which to petition the government for redress.

What has the radical and militant left raging with fear is that they are being attacked at the foundations of their very power:  Their claim to race as the eternal trump card and their claim to be the sole champion of the oppressed, abhorred, unpopular, and different as their permanent model to constantly strive to transform a society that they imagine is unjust. The cornerstones of the Left’s moral "supremacy" are being eviscerated from below it.  Beck is connecting on a level that weds the principles of limited government with the moral causes of supporting the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable. The Left has profited from identity politics. All women, it has been said, should support Democrats because they are pro-choice and provide welfare. The problem is that not all women are consumed with abortion nor do they wish to be perpetual victims. Women's Rights today mean lower taxes and less regulation, too. Women own businesses. Women own more stock than men. Women are not stupid nor do they need patriarchal politicians "taking care" of them. Other groups are beginning to think in the same way. Yes, Democrats have been the champions of the poor, but after $16 trillion spent on the War on Poverty, the United States has the same level of poverty as it did two score and five years ago. The poor do not want to stay poor. They want to escape poverty. This can't happen when the cycle and chains of dependence are nearly impossible to break.  Most people want the self-worth that goes along with a job well done.  They want a job, not a welfare cheque.  They want self-respect, not food stamps.  They want respect from their elected leaders, not a pat on the head...or worse.

Obama ran on inspiration. He ran on unity. He ran on transcendence. He ran on being post-racial. He ran on post-partisanship. He ran on the future. He ran loftily challenging us to leave a better world for our children. He ran on hope. HE HAS NOT GOVERNED AS HE RAN.  Americans, including many that did not vote for him, had hoped that he could help harness the inner angels of We the People.  Instead, he has unleashed the outer demons of his coterie of handmaidens and henchmen onto We the People.   In addition to the dire economic conditions, Americans, who once had high hopes for Obama, are staggeringly depressed, deflated and disillusioned.

Whether they know it or not, the grassroots movement that began with a whisper of heat and has become a prairie fire that will consume all of those that stand in its way is what was once the hope and change of Obama’s campaign.

Americans have a need to connect with one another and want to strive to right this listing ship of state.  The man, woman or group that seizes this moment to make an indelible impression upon the hearts and minds of these people crying out for a restoration of honour in American government, business, and individual lives will lead the next American revolution.   Americans are searching in the wilderness for a shepherd.  They are seeking the next George Washington.  They are crying out for the next Greatest Generation.  Woe be the fool that stands in their way.

Demonise Beck, the Tea Party, and your fellow Americans at your own risk.  In closing, I return to Sun Tzu, "He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them."  We know these two things for certain:  Underestimate the tolerance, passion, morals, innate goodness, and patience of the American people and you will be defeated.

PS:  I am not a Christian, Conservative.  I don't often watch Beck and I have never been to a Tea Party event, but get what the people are saying and what the MSM couldn't grasp if their lives depended upon it.