The Re-Establishment of America

American Thinker ^ | February 18, 2010 | Herbert E. Meyer

[neverdem]

America is on the verge of something unprecedented in history: the peaceful, Constitutional replacement of our country's entire political establishment.  This is what lies behind the decisions of so many elected officials, at every level, to step aside rather than fight for re-election.  And it explains how the Tea Party movement can exert so much political leverage without nominating its own candidates or even without formally choosing its own leaders.

Most of the time, we Americans don't pay much attention to politics.  We focus all of our energy on our jobs, our families, and our faith.  We work hard, play by the rules, and wish only to be left alone.  We love our country, consider ourselves blessed to be living here, and ask little from the men and women we elect except to keep from screwing things up.

But in just the last decade Americans were shocked by two catastrophes we hadn't imagined our political establishment would allow to happen.  The first was 9-11, when 19 terrorists successfully attacked our homeland, and by doing so revealed that for years al Qaeda and its allies had been waging holy war against us.  The second was the 2008 financial crash, which revealed that our economy is a house of cards built on a pile of debt so high we cannot possibly repay it.

Republicans blame Democrats, and Democrats blame Republicans.  To ordinary, non-political Americans -- who grasp intuitively, and correctly, that both parties share responsibility for these two catastrophes -- these politicians seem like children who've turned a party into a food fight.  And what do parents do when a children's party gets out of control?  They turn off the music, turn out the lights and send everyone home, including those few who weren't behaving badly and just got caught up in the melee.

Americans don't like getting tangled in the details of politics.  We prefer to stand back and see the big picture.  (Which, by the way, helps explain the extraordinary appeal of Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin. That's what they do, too.)  What the big picture is showing now is that our entire political establishment has failed.  These were the men and women, both Republicans and Democrats, we relied upon to focus on the details and by doing so to keep us safe from terrorists and to keep the world's most powerful economy from imploding.  And they blew it.  So we'll replace them with a wholly new establishment -- some of whom will be Republicans, others who will be Democrats, and a few Independents here and there -- and hope our next political establishment will get it right.

In the looming political battles, persona will matter more than policy.  As we move toward the 2010 elections, of course we'll ask candidates to outline their plans for how to improve our healthcare system, what to do about illegal immigration, how to bring down the unemployment rate, how to fight the war, and all the rest.  But what will determine who gets elected this year won't be a set of specific policies but something simpler, and in a way much deeper: A recognition among grass-roots voters across the political spectrum that character is more important than personality, that education isn't the same thing as judgment, and that expertise without common sense is dangerous.

Stand back from politics and you'll see the same re-establishment trend unfolding in other public arenas.  Americans have decided that the Mainstream Media has failed, and so we are replacing The New York Times, the television network news departments, and all the rest with an entirely new media including Fox News and websites like American Thinker and Lucianne.com.  Americans have decided that our country's education establishment has failed -- our kids are barely learning to read and write, let alone taught our country's history -- so we're seeing the rise of private schools, charter schools, and home-schooling.  Would anyone like to bet that within just a few years, we'll have a wholly new financial establishment on Wall Street to replace the greedy idiots who run it now?

The re-establishment of America won't be easy, and we'll make mistakes along the way.  Some of the new people will prove to be just as worthless as they ones they replaced.  And some very good people who now hold key positions in politics, the media, education and finance will be swept away by the avalanche.  That's too bad, but collateral damage is unavoidable.

No other country in history has ever attempted to replace its establishments so smoothly, so peacefully -- and so cheerfully -- as we are doing right now.  And it isn't likely that any other country ever will attempt something like this.  How exhilarating to realize that 234 years after our revolution, the United States is still the most dynamic, forward-looking, optimistic place on Earth.  Boy, what an exciting time to be an American.

Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council.  He is author of How to Analyze Information and The Cure for Poverty.

[grobdriver]

I don't believe that the special interests in this oligarchy/plutocracy will let go so easily

And don't forget their supporters in the form of the American Takers, eager for an Obama government to steal from the producers and give to them.

We may get rid of their political leaders, but the zombies remain among us.

[familyop]

More seriously, I wouldn’t vote for Obama due to personal principle. But I didn’t vote for any presidential candidate in the last election and probably won’t do so in the next.

There is one candidate for local government, though—a woman who promises to work against excessive local regulations and taxes while working for property rights. She might be honest about that. If so, and if she has a background supporting the rhetoric, she’ll get my vote and many others. We’ll poke at the regime of rackets every now and then to find out when it’s cracking.

In the meantime, my personal spending will be focused only on becoming more self-sufficient and on the hobby of producing a couple of items of good use. Before long, there won’t be much spending here at all. ...generates too much in the way of business and revenues for grabby busybodies.

[familyop]

You’ll probably see agreement in the comment that I was writing at the same time, right after yours. :-) Sadly, I believe that it’s time for all good Americans to toughen up enough to practice the austerity of our ancestors. Choke the revenues of the “zombies,” perhaps? The various levels of government are already running low. Don’t buy much except for the tools of self-sufficiency while pushing the government to go ahead and spend—in other words, a general slowdown on our part and intensifying debt crunch for the zombies.

Most of the zombies now are paid either directly or indirectly by the government. They’ve had money and time to be politically involved so far. With their personal incomes cut, those zombies won’t have the money, time or strength for politics. ...looks like it’s going to happen anyway.

Oh, there’s plenty of work to do for ourselves and no reason to continue struggling solely as slaves for those zombies (nearly the only ones on the highways now during holidays). ...just make enough from them to survive and become more self-sufficient and productive.

Even some of the younger liberals around me aren’t so liberal in every way any more. They’re not happy with their elected Democrat politicians. Disgusted with rental lives, some of them are stocked up on food and have travel trailers on their get-out-of-Dodge lots. They’re sticking closer with their girlfriends/boyfriends/wives/husbands.

Due to what they’ve learned about false environmentalists killing potential competition, their greenie attitudes have turned more toward survivalism. They’re ready to build, when the Ponzi schemes end. And as a group, the young men (mostly twenties and thirties) among them are picking up all kinds of technical/mechanical experience from working cheap odd jobs during the recent building-for-debt scheme.

To the zombies, having a neighbor who makes steel castings as a hobby, for example, is a nightmare that they haven’t regulated against, yet (unless he sells the castings before prime time). ...the “arrogant male,” “Neanderthal.” To most of the rest of us, though, it will be a salvation.

[wasp69]

Whether it has the courage necessary to finish, is yet to be seen.

Ordinary, every day, salt of the earth people are riled up. Once you get that part of the population riled up, you have the effort and attention of people who finish what they start.

I don't think it will be courage that they lack, nor the will to see the job through.

[ExTexasRedhead]

PING

[Chuckster]

Boy, what an exciting time to be an American.

Oh, it is that alright. A little frightening too.

[freekitty]

Good article.

[x_plus_one]

Or until we get nuked by the Russians who have no respect for diversity or non-whites. They would rather have a nuclear exchange than give the world up to a Pan-Arab caliphate supported by the Obamistas.

America is living the nightmare of social degeneration with no observable global consequences. Don't think we are an island; the Russians are not amused by our africanization. They are not afraid to nuke a sleeping giant.

[familyop]

Russia has a few military friends in its Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO: members listed below). Iran has "observer" status in the organization.

The following excerpts are from the CIA World Factbook

Russia

Religions:
Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006 est.)
note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy of over seven decades of Soviet rule

Kazakhstan

Religions:
Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%

Kyrgyzstan

Religions:
Muslim 75%, Russian Orthodox 20%, other 5%

Tajikistan

Religions:
Sunni Muslim 85%, Shia Muslim 5%, other 10% (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan

Religions:
Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%

Belarus

Background:
Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion remain in place.

Religions:
Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997 est.)

Armenia

Religions:
Armenian Apostolic 94.7%, other Christian 4%, Yezidi (monotheist with elements of nature worship) 1.3%

[No One Special]

On the day Jim Robinson declares a truce, this article deserves a bump. All Americans have a chance to re-establish America. Some of us might even live to see it become better than it's ever been in our lifetimes.

The re-establishment of America won't be easy, and we'll make mistakes along the way. Some of the new people will prove to be just as worthless as they ones they replaced. And some very good people who now hold key positions in politics, the media, education and finance will be swept away by the avalanche. That's too bad, but collateral damage is unavoidable.

No other country in history has ever attempted to replace its establishments so smoothly, so peacefully -- and so cheerfully -- as we are doing right now. And it isn't likely that any other country ever will attempt something like this. How exhilarating to realize that 234 years after our revolution, the United States is still the most dynamic, forward-looking, optimistic place on Earth. Boy, what an exciting time to be an American.

[Night Hides Not]

This strikes fear in to the heart of every Liberal. Taxpayers Revolting.

A slight edit, not that I'm disagreeing with you:

This strikes fear in to the heart of every Incumbent. Taxpayers Revolting.