The Real Person of the Year: It’s You, Again
It was the hundreds of thousands marching in tea parties across America. It was people using Facebook and Twitter to plan rallies and events. It was the political neophyte marching out into the political arena, not for glory and honor, but for the good of the country.
It was citizen journalists with limited resources who led exposes of Planned Parenthood and ACORN. The latter investigation even won the grudging admiration of Jon Stewart. Simply put, these and other grassroots actions succeeded while Republican leadership remains in shambles.
While Time extended its “love for you” to every person in the world, there’s no need to be so charitable. There are many countries around the world where the local “yous” haven’t done anything worthy of recognition. Just having a Facebook account isn’t enough for this. However, some “yous” beyond our borders did take a big step forward and take big risks for liberty. This summer’s Iranian protests of the reelection of madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were blocked out by the Iranian government. However, the youth of Iran leveraged Twitter and social networking to share the world. Their efforts didn’t succeed in changing Iran’s government, but they did strike a blow in what will be a long battle for liberty and blaze trails in fighting tyranny in the information age.
In America, the “people of the year” have quite a task before them. In the 2010 and 2012 elections, the number one task for newly active conservatives is to “get it right” and to elect leaders who will protect our liberty and seriously address our most pressing problems in a way the Republicans haven’t.
The importance of getting it right is crucial because the conservative surge will eventually shrink. As much as this statement may chafe both the nascent political activist and the longtime pro, it’s a fact of life.
We live in a republic, and the foundational idea of our republic is that we elect people to wisely carry out the business of government with as little intrusion into the life of the individual as possible. When last year Michelle Obama told people President Obama “will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed,” she showed that Obamas do not understand how America works.
America has never had a system of government that demanded constant involvement. Rather, the Founders created a system of checks and balances with a representative form of government that could allow the individual to focus his life on himself, his family, and his community, not Capitol Hill.
The left has an easy time establishing a permanent activist class. It’s not hard when the success of your policies means people will become dependent on your programs, and bureaucracies will be created that will overwhelmingly be made up of your political supporters. True liberty doesn’t create much bureaucracy.
The long-term success or failure of your noble actions in 2009 will depend on the leaders you bring to office. A few years ago, the grassroots conservatives stood up and forced from office an out-of-control, big-spending gubernatorial administration. Wise GOP bosses who hadn’t been able to defeat the Democratic executive anointed a candidate from on high and that candidate was elected.
However, did the activists get what they want? Were the hours spent in the hot sun and in all kinds of weather justified by the results of their hard work? The 2003 grassroots California recall effort led to the disastrous election of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Thus, while I applaud the people of the year, I offer a charge for all of us as we move into 2010 and 2012.
Get it right.
“The 2003 grassroots California recall effort led to the disastrous election of Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
I think this i a little simplistic. It’s like saying a cop is disastrous because he doesn’t stop a criminal from robbing a bank. It’s the criminal that is the problem. Not the cop.
Likewise the problem in California is the democratically dominated State Senate that has been on a spending spree for 50 years. You can’t blame Arnold Schwarzenegger for their voting record. Maybe he could have done better? Actually I don’t think so. The state is impossible to govern. Even Reagan didn’t do well as Governor of California.
My person of the year is the crotchety old bag who yelled, “Keep government out of my welfare!” To me, that is the most honest and accurate expression of the Tea Bagger movement – all in one ignorant, greedy, self-obsessed bark.
To all our fighting men in Iraq and afghanistan! Semper Fi.
What sentient person reads TIME magazine? I don’t know any.
No legitimate political movement has been so underreported by the media as the one presently occuring in the Tea Party movement that has swept across America. No legitimate political movement has been more mischaracterized or villified by the media when they do bother to acknowledge it, as the Tea Party movement.
Now, politicians are quietly scrambling to figure out how to ride the wave of this movement or crush it. And the media continues its mixture of ignore or villify.
Well, trust this…this movement is real; it’s grassroots; and it’s legitimate. If people in politics would quite trying to strategize a way to corral and lead the movement, instead of simply having the guts and convictions to abide by its more basic fundamentals, it wouldn’t be hard to ride the power and energy to a better America. That will happen.
In the meantime, keep ignoring this movement. Keep mischaracterizing its participants. Keep reducing us to simplified, emotional labels. We love it; it sustains us.
God Bless the America we are bringing back to Americans.
2. Now and then:
Thanks for the laff- a libtard hurling accusations of “ignorant, greedy and self-obsessed.” What a perfect encapsulation of leftism!
#2: My person of the year is the crotchety old bag who yelled, “Keep government out of my welfare!”
No tea partier with half a brain would say that. Sounds like an instigating plant to me.
Why do we keep hearing from the main stream (lame stream) media keep trying to convince us that the reason the Democrats lost in 1994 is because they did NOT pass Clinton’s health care initiative. I believe that was because they tried so hard and they are now trying harder when most real polls show the majority of the U.S. is against this or most any plan?
We will see soon in less than a year, and I for one would like to see 1994 compounded by 50%!
7. Kevin:
“No tea partier with half a brain” Right you are, there aren’t any.
A lot of people like to disparage the, “Tea Baggers”.
Well, about 236 years ago, there were many who disparaged the “Tea Party Indians”, Thomas Hutchinson included.
What happened? Well, about 1/3 of the population supported the eventual revolution, about 1/3 opposed it, and 1/3 stood and watched.
Same thing will happen this time, I hope. Win, lose, or draw, you can call me a tea bagger.
Oh, by the way, where did Hutchinson spend his later years?