The many speeches by all stripe of politician invoking "the American people" as the sacred source of political power have taken on a mocking ring for many of us.
"The People! The People is a great beast!" (A. Hamilton)
"It has become an operating maxim; survival in office requires a political strategy for herding "the beast" in harmless directions or deflecting it from serious matters it may not understand. Now and then, to the general dismay of political office holders and elites, Hamilton's "beast" breaks loose and tramples the civility of the regular order. . . " (from W. Greider's "Who Will Tell the People")
Do the "tea parties" in their purest form ring true here?
And has the "Tea Party" movement been co-opted by those "political entities and elites" when they stand before us and with their hand at their vest, pronounce the movement as "good for the American People"?
Will the "American People" remain awake, or be yet again be mis-directed or deflected from what needs to be done?
