Posted on 05/12/2012 5:39:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
When relationships go bad, an early warning sign is that one side doesn't really hear what the other is saying. That's certainly the case today in the relationship between voters and America's political class.
Many in Washington, D.C., took comfort over the past year in polling data showing that fewer voters consider themselves part of the tea party movement. Only 13 percent claim such a tie today, roughly half its peak in 2010. This was reassuring to those in power, suggesting voters were willing to let the politicians return to politics as usual.
But the panic returned to Washington this week, following the defeat of 36-year incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar in a Republican primary election.
The reality that the politicians missed is that declining membership in the tea party did not mean a decline in anger at the political class. That's because the tea party has always been strongest when it tapped into concerns that most Americans shared. In particular, the tea party highlighted the twin problems of continuous government spending growth and a self-serving political class that's out of touch with voters.
Today, only 33 percent are even somewhat confident that their representative in Congress is looking out for the best interests of their constituents. Only 8 percent are very confident.
Sixty-five percent are angry at the policies of the federal government, but few see anybody in Washington willing to take on the status quo. There is a strong belief that Democrats are the party of big government and the Republicans the party of big business. Seven out of 10 believe big government and big business work together against the rest of us.
So it's no surprise that 53 percent believe that neither Republican nor Democratic leaders have an understanding of what the country needs today.
Confirming the disconnect is the fact that government spending has gone up every single year for 58 years, even though voters have elected presidents and members of Congress who promise every election to cut that spending. As I show in my book, "The People's Money," voters are ready to make the hard choices needed to cut spending and balance the budget, but the political class is more interested in pursuing its own agenda.
As a result, if given a choice to keep or replace the entire Congress, 68 percent would throw them all out. Only 11 percent would keep them.
Ultimately, the relationship between voters and politicians has gone sour because they are focused on different goals. Voters are interested in a society that works, while politicians are focused on making government work.
From the perspective of voters, the major political divide in the nation is between mainstream Americans and the political class. Politicians would prefer to ignore that divide and focus on whether Washington Republicans or Washington Democrats should run the club for the next couple of years.
In many troubled relationships, both sides deserve some of the blame. But the United States is a nation founded on the belief that governments gain their legitimacy only from the consent of the governed. In the relationship between the people and the political class, that means the voters are right and the politicians need to change.
top 5 contributors to Lugar listed at this site.
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00001764
None of those outfits in any way , shape or form represent the interests of any of We the People anywhere in the USA
This problem is endemic in DC.
I have only one quibble with this story. I don’t think that even the majority of Tea Partiers are truly ready to cut government as it should be. It’s all well and good to talk about it— until you have to give up your own goodies. Everyone taking federal bennies is going to have to take a hair cut except for the truly neediest.
throw the bums out
It's the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) party. One doesn't have to be a countable member to be a proud member.
The poll is BS.
I go to TEA partys but my wife doesn't usually go but she is as much {or more} a rabid TEA party member as I am.
The pollsters can keep believing that we don't care any more but wait until they wake up on November 7, 2012 and read their beloved wapo or nyslimes and the lefty suicide rate goes through the roof.
Dead libs will litter the streets, we'll have to form burial brigades and hold grief counseling for distraught lib relatives.
Richard Lugar was part of The Problem(Not The Solution)!It’s past time that Republicans realize that there is NO such thing as”Bi-Partisanship”when dealing with The DemonRats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If republicans end up taking over the senate, house and presidency in January, they will have only two very short years to radically shrink the scope and size of government. Liberals will spend the entire time scaring their constituency of nursing buffoons. Republicans should act with the knowledge that they may be turned out after a single term. And they should be okay with that. In the end, it may be only Mitt’s supreme court justices who have the ability to block the liberal assault on the individual. Or the country will eventually break up into a free America and a suckling America.
I’m way past “sour” with these bottom-feeding, lifetime political BS parasites, dammit. Get them out of there; all of them!
Good luck on that Sgt. IF Romney wins and the GOP holds the house and retakes the senate, I guarantee that Romney will go all “compassionate conservative” and veto any cuts.
The problem is that msm has to try define the movement. I don’t consider myself as a loyal member of any party—I vote my conscience on each issue. I protested with other Tea Party Participants as a MOVEMENT—the msm doesn’t get it at all..
Amen! I say we have a House/Senate election that is “Keep them all/throw them all out.” Hey, we are not working within the Constitution anyway.
I sent this email to my friends—
“””Please encourage your friends to support the tea party. Attending a tea party event helps.”””
No serious shrinkage of govt. will happen even if they had 10 years of uninterrupted control of all the federal government. I have absolutely NO CONFIDENCE that this country, as we know it, will survive what has happened through 60+ years of democratic and RINO control.
I wish I was not so pessimistic. But I have seen so many people be elected with grand schemes to reduce the size and reach of government with no measurable results. Every government department and agency, excluding the military, has continued to grow. Very few, if any laws or regulations, are repealed. It SUX.
You are so correct! I believe that is even the case with me! But deep in my heart, I know it cannot continue, and I will support the necessary changes. It’s not going to be pretty, but there is no alternative.
I know I will be working until I die. I know SS will not exist for me. I know I will continue to live meager. I know my savings will be worth nothing. I know my children will need to work harder than my generation.
I also know that my children will achieve great things, if we preserve the republic!
I don't know if they are going to go away that peacefully. The homosexuals are already talking about going to court over the peoples vote on NC constitutional amendment and that is not the first state they have not accepted the "peoples" vote. These people never give up, they will push and push and get more and more violent.
I think is some part that the power doesn’t understand that when they attached “The Tea Party” in an effort to kill it all they did was drive us underground. When they thought they saw the so called membership numbers drop they figured they has destroyed it. They are finding out they were once again wrong.
If the opposite of the word ‘pro’ is ‘con’, then what is the opposite of the word ‘progress’?
If the GOP holds the House and retakes the Senate there will be more TEA Party types in Congress than there are today. They will hold Romney’s, McConnell’s, and Boehner’s feet to the fire and start this country down the right path. That is why we all need to support Romney; his election will be a holding action until we can get enough TEA Party reinforcements into all levels of government to enact real change and develop real Conservative candidates for future Presidential elections.
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