Do we on the right still trust the American people?
We feel betrayed that anyone, let alone a significant chunk of the electorate, could believe that our belief that this country should control its borders is driven by racism, xenophobia, and a hatred of immigrants.
We feel betrayed by young people, who also have suffered greatly from these failed policies. They’ve been told that a college education was the ticket to a good life, and they’ve taken on crushing debt for jobs that don’t exist and may never exist. Their professors failed to teach them the skills to thrive in a competitive job market and overcome adversity, and yet they haven’t yet seemed to turn on them in outrage. No, instead, they turn to government, enticed by the promise of free birth control.
Anyway, since the election, we’ve been marinating in this very grim story: we, a bunch of Americans who love freedom and believed that we can live happy lives if the government will just get out of the way, got swamped by a growing swarm of voters who believe that government – the very same government who had disappointed them and failed them time and again – will solve their problems.
So… what’s our story to come back?
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Based on the results of the last election, hell no.
Kataklysmic on March 6, 2013 at 8:08 PM
53%, anyway….
ProfShadow on March 6, 2013 at 8:11 PM
I don’t have the answer but I’m getting pretty pissed off at the prospect of being forced into collectivism against my will by a bunch of idiots and moochers.
The progressive agenda should be declared illegal and its pushers thrown in jail.
Contrary to Liberals, we don’t seek to force anyone to live our way under our rules. I don’t care if Leftists want to live a Leftist life, I draw the line though at forcing me to.
Forcing all Americans to live under Liberal governance is similar to forced unionism.
It also reminds me of the scene in Saving Private Ryan where the US soldier runs across the Nazi they had previously taken prisoner and then released. They get into a fight and the bigger, stringer German gets control of a knife and as he overpowers the American he slowly pushes a knife through his heart as he says “shhhh” to the US soldier implying that he should just stop resisting the inevitable, his death.
Liberalism is evil and immoral and I will never submit to it.
Charlemagne on March 6, 2013 at 8:15 PM
That is a perfect paragraph and a perfect expression of self. Well said.
jake-the-goose on March 6, 2013 at 8:22 PM
The American people? Heck, I don’t even trust most of the pinkos that post on HA. Or you, Geraghty. It’s all about limited government until its their own pet little cause comes up. Then, they want the big government to come in and tell other people what to do so as to comply with their wants. *spit*
besser tot als rot on March 6, 2013 at 8:23 PM
We have to because if we don’t trust them, how are they gonna trust us?
thebrokenrattle on March 6, 2013 at 8:35 PM
Maybe this right here is the problem?
The free market is not a measure of trust in your fellow man, but a profound lack of trust in his willingness to act in anything but his own self-interest.
Lady. People aren’t chocolates. Do you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. But I don’t find them half as annoying as I find naive bubble-headed optimists who walk around vomiting sunshine.
The founders didn’t trust people. If they did we wouldn’t have three separate branches of government watching each other. If they did there wouldn’t be a Second Amendment. If they did they would have gone with a popular Democracy rather than a Republic. If they trusted people there wouldn’t be any need for a constitution that supersedes all laws of the land.
They didn’t trust people, nor should we. We should trust that people will NOT act in a virtuous and civic manner without a great deal of social pressure to do so. We should not trust the left, as the idiot Republican brigade constantly does. We should not trust that those taking government cheese will still want to engage in honest labor. We should not trust that single mothers will not use the incentives to basically pop out children for a living and use Uncle Sam as a surrogate daddy. We should not trust that the Muslims and Socialists will act as good and loyal citizens when their allegiance is given to a belief system that is intent on destroying the country. We should not trust academia, we should not trust the media, we should not trust the school system.
The problem is that we trust too much.
sharrukin on March 6, 2013 at 8:41 PM
That was the worst part of the election on a personal level. I always had faith in the American people to do the right thing. Now I never will again.
vityas on March 6, 2013 at 8:42 PM
Trust but verify.
thebrokenrattle on March 6, 2013 at 8:46 PM
Trust them? You thought they would fall over backward and vote for Romney? The people have to have something to believe in and if conservatives can do nothing more than direct them to support the Republican party, then what do you expect?
rickv404 on March 6, 2013 at 8:49 PM
Hear, hear!
Stoic Patriot on March 6, 2013 at 8:57 PM
No.
We elected an unqualified, half-retarded leftist as our President, and then re-elected him after his harshest critics were vindicated, and the overwhelming evidence indicates that a substantial percentage of his support comes from people who couldn’t pass a high school civics class, if high schools still taught civics.
They don’t know his policies and don’t care. Many of them openly declare that they voted for this piece of garbage solely based on their perception of the color of his skin.
No.
Jaibones on March 6, 2013 at 8:58 PM
HELL NO, and I say that as a former libertarian.
We have deliberately and now repeatedly chosen, well past the margins of fraud, someone who is not fit to run a burger stand or lead a single squad to steer the greatest economy and mightiest military power on earth.
This is all besides the utter rejection of not only the moral base our nation was founded on (which as one founder observed immediately renders us unfit) but just about any hint of morals whatsoever.
The consequences of our foolhardiness will be felt worldwide for decades if not centuries.
MelonCollie on March 6, 2013 at 9:07 PM
That’s not exactly true. We force prostitutes to hide their profession, we force drug addicts out of jobs and threaten to jail them if they don’t sober up, we force gay people to forfeit any Social Security and benefits when they die rather than it going to a gay spouse, we are trying to get women to stop aborting babies, etc, etc.
John the Libertarian on March 6, 2013 at 9:11 PM
nobar on March 6, 2013 at 9:13 PM
Funny how out of all your list of complaints, only the last one is even remotely a conservative stance and the rest is your losertarian whining.
MelonCollie on March 6, 2013 at 9:14 PM
Too many on the right are ready right now to abandon the principles of Democracy. They’re already turning almost monarchist.
When the grassroots can’t seem to bring itself to care enough to shed the yoke of establishment Ayatollahs who’ve repeatedly lied to them – what else can you conclude but that the right has become willing slaves to a bunch of evil oligarchs.
The right has become irrelevant, allowing themselves to be led by the nose by idiots like Tokyo Rove and Centralized Healthcare advocates such as Willard Romney McDole.
The right … unwilling to breed – yet unwilling to give up their position as the majority. Being a part of the “right” means being a bit daft.
The right … unwilling to give up 32 ounce sodas – yet WILLING to spend BILLIONS of dollars on a futile drug war that shifts the consequences of personal conduct from the person committing the conduct – and onto the shoulders of innocent heros like Brian Terry.
The right – is laughable at this point in time.
Sadly – this is the condition we find ourselves in.
HondaV65 on March 6, 2013 at 9:22 PM
And that’s really, I think, what the issue is. The constitution was designed as a legal preventative. We shouldn’t have to trust voters because there should be no way that laws are passed that violate the constitution.
You said it very well. This is a representative republic, not a democracy. There is a reason it is that way.
It failed at preventing what it was designed to prevent.
hisfrogness on March 6, 2013 at 9:23 PM
http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/03/06/obama-and-one-party-rule/?singlepage=true
this sounds right to me. Aristocracy is a modal condition…the odd bird is a democratic republic
r keller on March 6, 2013 at 9:26 PM
I love this – you LOSE the election because you ran a Socialist against a Marxist and then you BLAME the system for failing you?
YOU … LOOK IN THE MIRROR … YOU’RE THE ONE THAT FAILED.
You keep accepting lackluster candidates who have no fire or principles.
You’re in the abyss – and you’ll stay there till you wise up – which will be a long time. Enjoy the darkness you earned it.
HondaV65 on March 6, 2013 at 9:27 PM
I trust Americans. I don’t trust America-haters, such as Barky, the ineligible, criminal dog-eating retard and his pathetic, lowlife supporters. They hate America and want only to fundamentally deform this nation (which they have done) to turn this into the American Socialist Superstate. I want a national divorce from those America-hating scumbags.
If our Constitution were operative then the scummy and lowlife nature of the leftists wouldn’t matter since their lowlife politicians would be limited in what damage they could do … but since our Constitution has been rendered null and void by these evolutionary errors the only solution is a divorce so that an American Republic can be set up for those who actually love America. The left can stay in their A.S.S. and live in the hellhole they have fashioned. And Benedict Roberts has to stay in the A.S.S. where he belongs – the treasonous dirtball …
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on March 6, 2013 at 9:30 PM
You said it very well. This is a representative republic, not a democracy. There is a reason it is that way.
It failed at preventing what it was designed to prevent.
hisfrogness on March 6, 2013 at 9:23 PM
We were warned about this turn of events…
The left targeted the family and the private virtues it promoted, and the modern right is embarrassed to be seen as its defender. The leftists knew exactly what they were doing and they have achieved that victory through decades of undermining.
sharrukin on March 6, 2013 at 9:33 PM
What “American people”? Both Democrats and Republicans “insourced” a new populace via massive illegal immigration. They brought in millions upon millions of people who don’t give a flying **** about America beyond its ability to service them in their capacity as economic tourists.
A nation requires citizens who care about it, who take a particular, patriotic form of interest in its maintenance and in its future. Many younger people have seen that anyone can come to America and use it for their own purposes while at the same time having contempt for it. America can easily and readily be used by anyone – like a wh0re. It can be used by people who have no respect for it, no interest in its tenuous greatness and who don’t give a **** about it. And America’s august leadership in DC has enthusiastically enabled this 100%. Seeing that, many younger Americans conclude that there’s no reason to care about or respect their country. That’s for suckers and idiots.
American children are taught nothing but disdain for America’s history and for the allegedly evil white people who largely created and built it. Anti-white hatred is marbled into every aspect of American society from the media to academia to government. White kids are taught to hate themselves while non-white kids are taught to hate whites and to love themselves for historical events from hundreds of years ago that they had nothing to do with. They’re taught to hate the country they reside in and to love globalized socialism and PC orthodoxy above all else.
So I ask “What American people?” There is no American nation anymore. Just a bunch of selfish identity groups who want to carve a hunk off of the dying superpower before there’s nothing but bones left. Why shouldn’t they elect a president who feels the same way?
Django on March 6, 2013 at 9:44 PM
Distrust might be warranted, but not on the basis that they simply and predictably chose Dem over Dem Lite.
ddrintn on March 6, 2013 at 9:50 PM
LOL!
“LOOK IN THE MIRROR!!!”….coming from somebody that doesn’t know the first thing about me, who I am, what my beliefs are….who I voted for in the primaries…you sure have a lot of moxie!
My very valid point remains despite your tantrum. The constitution was designed to prevent government taking over everything. It’s not my fault Wickard vs Filburn happened…is it? No, despite your assertions…I don’t think I’m personally responsible for that one.
And I’m a Libertarian, D!ckhead.
hisfrogness on March 6, 2013 at 9:52 PM
Yep.
ddrintn on March 6, 2013 at 9:52 PM
At this point, no, we don’t trust the people, but democratic-republic is still the best form of government. I know many people who are otherwise intelligent but vote Democrat because of identity. If it gets bad enough, these will be the first ones to switch, and I think there are enough of them to get the GOP back in control.
Right now they just don’t get it.
WisCon on March 6, 2013 at 11:54 PM
BS. We want the people to own their retirement accounts, with which they can do whatever they wish. And we want to eliminate the death tax so that any heirs receive their inheritance sans tax. Try again.
And I think everyone agrees that it is a legitimate action of the government, no matter how limited that you want it to be, to prohibit people from killing each other (except perhaps in consensual euthanasia).
besser tot als rot on March 7, 2013 at 12:03 AM
Well, a constitutional republic is the best form of government. And we used to have a constitutional republic, which protected the minority, with the individual being the smallest minority – the minority of one. We’ve almost completely devolved to mob rule at this point, unfortunately.
besser tot als rot on March 7, 2013 at 12:06 AM
You don’t know the half of it. The person you’re responding to voted for Obama, lol.
xblade on March 7, 2013 at 2:11 AM
Says the Obama voter…
Alberta_Patriot on March 7, 2013 at 2:37 AM
Let’s review: Appx. 40% of eligible Americans are regisatered to vote, and out of that number perhaps 38% actually do vote. Most voters don’t know squat about their candidates no matter what party they are registered with, and most just do as their party leaders COMMAND them to do.
Out of all registered voters less than 2% do a thing at the grass roots level.
Do I still trust the American people? Heck NO!
Drones, urban assault vehicles, hollow tip ammo for Social Security employees, … what more do you need to see in order to understand the democrats, along with their GOP supporters, are the EXTREMISTS working to TERRORIZE us into submission?
EVERYONE needs to get involved if you want things to change. Find your local Patriot group, attend a few of their meetings, ask questions, learn what the 0bamaGanda media is hiding from you, then go make a sign and hit the upcoming protests!
If not you, who?
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”. Plato
DannoJyd on March 7, 2013 at 4:15 AM