Does anyone remember the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?
When Jeff Smith started his filibuster (this was in the days before the 60 vote rule) all the information getting to his town was from the Taylor machine. This meant that the average people only heard about a young upstart making charges against the well respected “Silver Knight” Joe Paine.
Eventually however when Smith’s boy rangers support him in their newspaper Boys life, the reality of the Taylor machine comes out in the violence against the children to suppress the paper. It caused people to realize something was wrong.
Over the last few months several things have happened that might be an indication that several sleeping giants might be coming together.
Item: The White House Attacks on Rush Limbaugh bring attention to him to the point cumulative in his speech at CPAC. The speech is televised not only on Fox, but on CNN exposing him to an audience that only knew his as a caricature of what he actually is. His audience has not only increased but he finds himself in other public panels where people actually have to deal with what he says rather than what other people say he does.
Item: Rick Santelli gives this rant online:
The Whitehouse and the media go after this guy, but his suggestion of Tea parties lead to hundreds of thousands of locally organized people in hundreds of cities all over the country protesting the government, notably without violence or property destruction. The media dismissed or insulted them with oral sex jokes. The Boston Globe didn’t even cover Boston’s. And yesterday the president who pretended he didn’t know about them attacked as hundreds protested in St. Louis where he was speaking.
There are now 500+ cities preparing to host teaparties on July 4th.
Item: The Culmination of Doug Kemic’s and friends attempts to shoehorn president Obama positions into Catholic acceptability comes as Notre Dame Invites him to not only give the commencement speech but to receive an honorary degree. The somehow unexpected scandal results in 350,000 people signing the petition protesting this. It becomes a cause celeb among believing Catholics, dozens of Bishops publicly come out against Fr. Jenkins’ position and his twisted logic on why the ultimate pro abortion president is an acceptable speaker at the most famous catholic institution in the nation. Finally Mary Ann Glendon, one of the most respected lay people in the American Church declines the Laetare Medal and attendance at the ceremony highlighting the moral choice for Catholics by example as the president finds the abortion question is still above his pay grade.
Item: Beauty pageants are kinda passe but A gay celebrity blogger chooses to inject politics into a question at the Miss USA pageant.
Miss Carrie Prejean echos the president’s position and loses. Hilton attacks her both on his blog and calls her a Cu** on MSNBC live (Norah O’Donnell notably not objecting). Miss Prejean stands by her opinions and offers pity and prayers for him. The media dives into the story. Suddenly Miss. Prejean’s is the face of traditional marriage and Perez Hilton is the face of Gay Marriage. Prejean comes out the winner and Miss USA becomes the 1919 Cincinnati Reds?
Item: A nice sunny day in New York is suddenly shaken by a low flying jet circling near NY buildings. People stream out paniced only to find out later that day that it was all a White House photo opt. Millions of New Yorkers who voted for president Obama are suddenly reminded of one of the worst day of their lives and even Olberman gets it.
I wrote on each of these events over the last few months, individually they are mistakes and oddities, combined in the first 100 days of an administration with a declining economy and now 60 votes it becomes a galvanizing and uniting force.
If the democrats are not worried they should be.
Update: I’m listening to Rush Limbaugh today and I’m hearing the same general idea that now is the time to strike. If that’s not an endorsement of an idea I’d like to know what is.
Update 2: Noticed I forgot to bold some items corrected. And it just hit me it will be very interesting when the president visits the Pope in July post ND. Particularly since he is still without a Vatican ambassador.
Update 3: Bill Whittle figured this out on November 6th:
So consider this, my fellows in arms:
On Tuesday, the Left – armed with the most attractive, eloquent, young, hip and charismatic candidate I have seen with my adult eyes, a candidate shielded by a media so overtly that it can never be such a shield again, who appeared after eight years of an historically unpopular President, in the midst of two undefended wars and at the time of the worst financial crisis since the Depression and whose praises were sung by every movie, television and musical icon without pause or challenge for 20 months… who ran against the oldest nominee in the country’s history, against a campaign rent with internal disarray and determined not to attack in the one area where attack could have succeeded, and who was out-spent no less than seven-to-one in a cycle where not a single debate question was unfavorable to his opponent – that historic victory, that perfect storm of opportunity…
Yielded a result of 53%
Folks, we are going to lick these people out of their boots.
There is much to do. That a man with such overt Marxist ideas and such a history of association with virulent anti-Americans can be elected President should make it crystal clear to each of us just how far we have let fall the moral tone of this Republic. The great lesson from Ronald Reagan was simply that we can and must gently educate as well as campaign, and explain our ideas with smiles on our faces and real joy in our hearts. For unlike the far-left radical who gained the Presidency on Tuesday, we start with 150 million of the most free and intelligent and hard-working people in the history of the Earth at our backs, with a philosophy that — unlike theirs, which has resulted in 100 million dead in unmarked graves — has liberated and enriched more people and created more joy than any nation or combination of nations in our history.
How can we lose this greater fight, my friends? How can we lose, unless we give up?(emphasis mine)
Update 4: This would have been item 6 if I had not been in bed when it happened. In fairness it is only an item because of the timing but it happening within 90 days of item 1-5 makes it more significant.
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