You can guess how I misread that at first. More recreation, that’s what I say.

And that may indeed be the key. PJ O’Rourke claims that in America, whoever has the most fun at politics tends to win. Because our opponents seem to enjoy their anger, actually seek it out, we forget that it’s fun for them (Gad, what sickos). Contrast that to everyone having a good time with pleasant people at Tea Parties. Ticked? Sure. Enraged? Hell no, we’re lovin’ it.

Don’t hunker down angry. Rise up cheering. We knock off as many as we can this round. Then we come back for more. We should be grateful they put out as many good targets for us as they have. Pour me another Guinness. (Or perhaps something more retro would be better, such as a stiffish brandy-and-soda or an Old Fashioned)

http://www.itsnotyourseatlisa.com/

betsybounds, I truly hope that people are beginning to pine for freedom. I know the Tea Party is.

I’ve seen too much apathy in politics to have faith in the American people fighting for it, though. I see this whole period of massive public outrage as temporary.

Terrye: Actually, I kind of liked it and while it is true that the Republicans need to earn back the trust of the voters, it is also true that they never sucked as bad as the people running the show right now.

This attitude earned us what we’ve gotten over the past 40 years. Sorry if I’m jumping on you unfairly. After being disappointed in 1994, and having hopes in 2000, I’m afraid the “they’re better than the other guys” attitude is really going to screw us another time.

It hurts to see all this rage and hard-won attention turning into nothing more than “Meh. It’s a start. Better than the other guys.”

Who knows, I could be dead wrong, maybe we’re able to sustain this kind of political pressure 2 years from now. I don’t think it’s possible that far removed from Obama/Pelosi/Reid’s lawmaking-spree, but I pray that my thinking is wrong.

blah blah

Actually, I kind of liked it and while it is true that the Republicans need to earn back the trust of the voters, it is also true that they never sucked as bad as the people running the show right now.

I will say, though, that thus has it ever been. I’m not persuaded that the Republicans’ solutions are in demand. I don’t think anyone, at this point, knows what those solutions even are, and that’s despite the new program. But that probably doesn’t matter, as I’ve suggested.

And I’m pretty sure that the Democrats’ solutions are NOT in demand.

I’m not sure that I agree that the right focus is the economy. A couple of years ago, I went with some friends here in town to an early Tea Party rally, and people were exercised about government spending. I said then, to a number of people at the rally, that we need to remember that it’s only incidentally about the spending. The truth is, then as now, that it’s about the freedom.

I think people know this, and I think that at some elemental level, they are prepared to act on it. I think they know it goes beyond the economy. The economy is for sure a marker, but it’s only a marker. “Taxed enough already” ultimately, and taken to its logical conclusion, means “No longer free.”

What we TEA Partiers and those of like mind have to do is keep the pressure on. We all know the e-mail addresses of our representatives. We know their fax numbers and their telephone numbers. We know where their local offices are and how to contact them and picket them. These have to be our weapons for keeping the pressure on. I am dreaming that in January I will be able to send faxes or e-mails to John Koster and Dino Rossi and know that they may actually read them.

The Pledge may not be all that people hoped for, but I don’t want to make the perfect the enemy of the possible. Gallup says there are 44% Democrats, 40% Republicans and 16% Independents. Republicans cannot govern unless at least 11% of the Independents buy into their program. It is hard to accept but those are the statistics.

kaba, I’m with you, but all that you outline will take time and can only be done in steps. So many agencies, bureaus, and departments that need to be done away with. Each one, however, has a vocal constituency that will fight very hard against change. I would like to see a reform of Social Security that would change the way benfits are calculated. Doing that and gradually increasing the retirement ages would make a big difference.
I don’t know if Medicare has a solution other than means testing. Getting serious about stopping fraud would help, but it’s not the full answer. There are 77 years of New Deal, Great Society, and other Progressive programs to deal with. It’s going to be a long slog.

Their job right now is to get elected. The Republican leadership has offered precious little help… and I suspect the candidates know all too well who their true friends are.

No doubt we will get some weathervanes and turncoats; we always do. But hopefully we’ll get some serious, righteous people who mean it when they say “Taxed Enough Already”.

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
(go, Sean Bielat!)

I agree with you 100%, up until “first thing we need to do…” — which, of course I agree with that, too, but here’s the rub: That will happen, almost regardless of what the Republicans do.

The Democratic party is locked in with corruption. Their policy answers end up like ObamaCare – overreach coupled with terrible sausage-making. And it misses the right focus, which is the economy.

Their economic solutions are worse. More taxes? More bailouts? Seriously?

The only thing Americans really care about right now is the economy. And none of the traditional Democratic solutions are going to satiate that, rather, they’re going to piss everyone off more.

So the Republicans are back in November, and at worse we get political deadlock. Assuming the economy doesn’t magically fix itself in 2 years, 2012 will be another wave.

So I go back to the original point. Republicans have huge momentum right now, and their solutions are in demand. Why are we beating around the bush?

As we used to say when I was a kid and things needed to be done again, “we have to take it over.”