My Brother-in-Law Apologizes for His Obama Vote Now!

WELCOME TO THE SHRINE OF FLAMING CAPITALISM INSTAPUNDIT AND ANCHORESS READERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Readers: It was my pleasure to chat with many patriots who attended one of the local rallies as part of the Nationwide protest against socialized medicine and Cap-and-Tax today. The Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition organized rallies for all the congressional representatives’ offices, as well as those in front of Senators Boxer and Feinstein; this report is derived from my chats with the citizens in front of the Senators’ downtown San Diego offices. For some reason, Boxer’s office was the most popular agitation point.

We had about 150 civic-minded patriots who picketed the neighboring local offices of our senators. There was no significant counter-protest, just an Obama-Fly Girl and her photographer friend. I will have more to say on them later.

The title of today’s piece was from Maggie, who had a very inspiring sign that combined both of these themes:

Maggie made many important points in my conversation with her, including the fact that she blindly voted for a party, trusting her representatives to adequately represent her. “They cram through legislation in the dead of night, without reading the bills. Most people trusted their representative to work on their behalf, and now we our paying for our ignorance. Hopefully, it is not too late.”

It is also my experience with the Tea Parties since their inception in February of this year is that nearly everyone I talk to is disenchanted with their own political party. For example, the Wall Street Journal indicates the ranks of both Republicans and Democrats are thinning:

In the months since Barack Obama won the presidency, independent voters have rocketed to their highest number on record. Meanwhile, the ranks of Republicans and Democrats have thinned dramatically.

Independents hold the balance of power in the Obama era. That’s the conclusion of a recent, 165-page Pew Research Center survey that shows independent voters climbed to 39% from 30% of the electorate in the five months following the 2008 election. During that same time, Democratic identification fell to 33% from 39%, while Republicans fell four points to 22% — their lowest since post-Watergate.

Maggie went onto explain that her brother-in-law has lost is job, directly because of his employer scaling-back in anticipation of new taxes. “It seems the Obama adminstration and the current congress want to overwhelm the system, and break the backs of businesses and achievers. You can’t continuously accuse people making over $250,000 dollars in this economy of being wealthy — that is middle class in California, especially if you are operating a small business or have a family. I can’t understand why it isn’t obvious to politicians that in hard times, they have to cut back, too. And a recession is not time to burden our employers with a grand healthcare scheme.”

One of the most gratifying aspects of the Tea Party movement has been the obvious research and reading being done by the members of the Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition and our sister organizations. The depth of understanding of government processes has grown tremendously since the first Tea Parties on Feb. 27th of this year. It was obvious talking to the people at the rally today that they had done far more reading of the legislation than most of our representatives. Scott is an average American who was inspired to protest to protect the long term interest of his infant daughter Marley — and he is like me and many others there, looking out for our childrens’ futures.

“We are bankrupting the country with social prgrams, “said Scott, while pointing to his deficit-graph on his protest sign. “This is not some Republican matter — all of us are impacted by huge deficits and a bad economy. Our country will not remain our country if we don’t stop this massive government power-grab.”

Scott wanted to highlight the fact he felt that the Obama administration was using the Cloward Piven Strategy.. The Strategy was first elucidated in a 1966 issue of The Nation magazine by a pair of radical socialist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven; David Horowitz summarizes it as:

The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

It sure seems that way.

Scott indicated that he hadn’t voted in most election cycles, until this November. He didn’t care for Obama’s “spread-the-wealth” attitude. He says, like most of the citizens at this event, that he will look at each candidate during future elections — issue-by-issue, history-by-history, to determine who the financial conservatives would be.

Barbara and Joy also shares Scott’s disdain with the “weak push-back” of the GOP, and how citizen views’ do not seem to impact their representatives once they enter the Washington D.C. Beltway or to Sacaramento. Interestingly, one of the leading Tea Party Advocates, Michelle Malkin, makes many of the same points they did in her column today: Republicans: Clean your own house.

Barbara and Joy are not professional agitators — their first Tea Party was the Tax Day rally in April.However, they took the time to protest against government-run healthcare and went to Boxer’s office. Barbara shared her experience inside the Senator’s office:

“A man before us made it very clear to the staff member that there was deep concern about the type of requirements in the healthcare bill and the amount it would cost — and that Boxer’s California citizens were upset about the bill being pushed through during the dead of night”, explained Barbara. “The staff member listed politely, but didn’t take any notes. She obviously wasn’t aware of any of the concepts or ideas we expressed, and kept saying she would tell Boxer the next time she was in San Diego — and I can’t imagine Boxer coming here any time soon.”

Joy added, “We see so many czars, so may controls on citizens. There is no common sense, as a lot of this material is so illogical and not based on reality”.

Charles and Media shared a more scientific concern. “Scientific American’s most recent issue – July, 2009, has an article that calls for innovation and the development of new antibiotics,” explained Charles. “The number of dealth caused by staph infections is increasing rapidly, and we have to give pharmaceutical firms incentives to search for new antibiotics. This healthcare bill kills research and development incentives. (Link to the article is HERE)

One of our savvy citizens was doing a little state-oriented work today. Greg was gathering signatures for a proposition to have the state legislature meet only part time. All of the demonstrators signed that petition happily, as the less time the politicians are there, the less regulatory toxicity impacts our state.

Let’s take a step back and review what these citizens discussed:

* Free market economy and taxes.
* The specific level of deficits and what it means for the long-term economy.
* Political strategies.
* State-specific solutions to long-term regulatory problems.
* The fact both major political parties contributed to this situation.
* Biology and the need for medical innovation.

Here is the response, in its entirety, by the opposition:

Scott went over and explained, in detail, the CBO and its projection of a 1 Trillion dollar cost over 10 years and its impact on her, her children, and the rest of the country. She merely stood there and held “OBAMA”, looking at him with the blend of condescension and arrogance inherent with Obama-supporters and ACORN staff. I must admit, the lack of respect and the total obviousness when faced with hard data was angering. When I noted that her sign didn’t even address the issue-at-hand, it just seemed to indicate a worship of Obama, only then did she manage a response — saying she was a Christian. Frankly, if you hold up Obama as the sole answer for anything, you are worshiping him — so, I rest my case. The Obama Fly Girl seems bedazzled by Obama’s smile, as noted by my blogging patron, the Anchoress.

*****************************************************

OTHER CALIFORNIA NUMBERS: Below is the list of attendance numbers and pertinent links I get for the other rallies in California through the day! Please contact me via SoCal-TRC if you have a website with details and pics of your California event.

The highlight was Palm Springs, where 150 people stood outside of Congresswoman Mary Bono’s office in 115 degree heat to protest against her “AYE” vote on the Cap and Trade bill.

Apple Valley: 100+ people, press (Boxer)
Bakersfield-: 40 (McCarthy, Costa)
Eureka/Humboldt-: 150+ Press
Chico: 80 people (Wally Herger)
Palm Springs: 150+ people Press (Bono)
Stockton: 16 (McNerney)
San Diego: 20 (Bilbray)
San Diego: 150 (Boxer, Feinstein)
Sacramento: 80 (Boxer)
San Bernadino: 70+ (Boxer, Baca)
Santa Rosa: 60 people (Woolsley)
Tulare: 150+ (Costa, Boxer, Feinstein)
Vista: 40 (Issa)

THANKS PATRIOTS!

Update: Concerned Bakersfield Tea Party Patriots encouraging Congressman McCarthy to vote NO on the Nationalized Health Care Bill.

Here is a link to today’s events nationally, courtesy of PJTV: Nationwide Protests Target ObamaCare: The People Say No to Gov’t Run Healthcare

*****************************************************
MUT notes:

* Because of aggressive environmental control, endangered fish regulations have created a California Dust Bow. There is 25% unemployment in Colusa County, and close to 20% levels throughout the Central Valley (a breadbasket of this country, I must add). Expect our next Tax Revolt events to be a push-back against environmental statism.

* Please contact the Blue Dog democrats and Senators (as well as wobbly Republicans) on the matters of Healthcare and Cap-and-Trade directly: click HERE for contact information.

* Rasmussen indicates Americans want no party of Obama’s healthcare plans, 50% Nay to 35% Aye. I can only hope this expression of discontent is more meaningful to our representatives than it was during the Cap-and-Trade vote.

****************************************************
MUT’s Money Links:

The Anchoress has a wonderful post today, that is a compendium of issues related to the issues we explored at the Tax Revolt Rally today (the full article is a must-read, click HERE). She discusses Obama fairly and with respect, in regard to the matter of children (the protection of whom is the inspiration for many of us Tea Party activists). Obama gave a speech to the NAAPC, and the concept was that we spend a lot of time telling our children how “special” they are, but don’t re-inforce that message by allowing them to really discover their uniqueness and individual genius by offering enough daily challenges and responsibilities. She also details the soft bigoyty displayed by Senator Boxer toward Harry Alford, President and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce.

MUT’s Money Quote:

President Obama’s highlighted remarks about the need to challenge our children, and to let them know that we expect more from them – that they should expect more of themselves – are very welcome. We all of us would do well to adopt a mindset of “no excuses” and to apply it both to ourselves and to our press, our churches and yes, our political leadership; I welcome the notion that a “no excuses” president might therefore stop blaming his predecessor or his nation nearly every time he steps up to a microphone, that a “no excuses” congress might admit they have erred terribly in their earmarks, their pork and their overall spending habits, and then enact a “no excuses” reformation of their own corrupt and greedy body, that a “no excuses” press might ask real questions about broken promises on transparency, lobbyists and much more, and that “no excuse” bishops, ministers, rabbis and other clerics might challenge the rest of us by displaying great fidelity and humility to the creeds in which they profess to lead their respective flocks.

“No excuses” does not have to mean “no compassion,” or “no reasonable consideration.” But it does draw a line, and increasingly lines and boundaries are blurred in America, the most dangerously blurred being the lines between government authority and individual thought and liberty.