Awakening the Sleeping Giant

Admiral Yamamoto used this analogy to describe the reaction of the United States after the proposed attack on Pearl Harbor. He could not have been more accurate.

Politically speaking, the attempt to wrench the United States down a left wing socialist path during a prolonged economic crisis has done the same thing.

In this case the sleeping giant was conservative and libertarian America. These folks, for the most part, are the backbone of America. They own small businesses, many served in the military, some work for larger companies in every capacity you can imagine. Others are self-employed as professionals. Some grow our food or even work in the government itself. All share the same ideal, that in America you can get farther, faster on your own efforts without government getting in the way.

Taking over major corporations with government power, promising to raise electric bills based on a discredited environmental theory, running up major deficits and planning to spend even more money on dubious health care programs are bad enough. Meanwhile we have pursued a policy of weakness in foreign affairs.

Increasingly it is clear that America did not vote for Obama. It voted against a centrist Republicanism that talked small government but delivered more debt. It voted for change in a time of economic fear, willing to gamble on the outsider, perhaps wanting to prove once and for all that America is not a racist nation. John McCain would have made a solid president, but the times demanded a stronger statement from the GOP. Conservatives refrained from casting a ballot for president in silent protest, a portent of the release soon to come.

We bet on the wrong horse.

You might also call the Republican Party a sleeping giant. Its limbs have awakened faster than its head, but it is roused and ready for action. Tea Party advocates crammed the streets of Washington last weekend. Morgan McComb of Texas proudly related on Facebook that at Obama's inauguration people had room to sit. At the 9/12 tea party in the nation's capital, bodies were jammed together, peacefully standing and protesting socialism. They also protested teh centralization of power in the hands of Obama along with the Chicago style corruption that has tarnished appointments and appropriations.

The RNC seems to still be wary of the movement, cautiously backing it. That being said, the West Virginia state party leadership has shown tremendous enthusiasm. You have to remember, until recently many Republicans proudly said "conservatives do NOT protest." As Bob Dylan sang once, the times they are a changin'. People are roused to direct action nationwide in numbers reminiscent of the 1960s. Many of the people mobilized to act were of that generation. They do not want to see the government steal their lifetime of savings or take away the Medicare plans that were promised them.

Left wingers reacted with hysterics at the suddenly uncivil tone of conservatives and libertarians. Accustomed to strongly worded letters to the editor, they had no experience in dealing with the kind of action they endorsed against the policies of President Bush. Confident in their mastery of a radical playbook, they could not fathom that their opponents might try the same ideas used by them for the past eight years. Leftists seem to have all been stricken by some kind of amnesia related to their past behavior. All they can do in response is shout the trite label "racist."

Our nation is at a crossroads. We need to work to build a strategy for the future. Will it be big government paternalism or a return to small government that unleashes the potential in each individual willing to work hard? The next two elections will indicate where our country goes from here. It is time for free people to stand with the Republican Party, elect strong candidates in the primaries, and take them to victory in Novembers to come.