People are becoming more completely aware of the menace that big government poses, if not for any other reason, then because of the economic effects of chronic overspending, which sucks the life out of the economy.   

We can be quite certain that for all its attempts to ignore the April 15th Tea Party protests, the White House was paying close attention to them.  There is nothing that Barack Obama is more sensitive to and intolerant of than dissent, which he continually confuses with disloyalty.  Whether or not there will be any positive response on the part of the administration or from the legislature is another question; I believe that it is unlikely.  The present mentality of the Democrat Party is that "we've won so we get anything we want and the public be damned."  The public however refuses to be damned.  That is the essential fact behind the Tea Party protests, which can be chalked up to the phenomenon of conservative populism that I discussed previously here . 

This past column concentrated on the phenomenon of conservative populist candidates such as Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.  Now, the populist focus is moving away from the politicians to the people, where it properly belongs.  And at the bottom line, it is all about the people; about their lives, their fortunes, their honor and their future of their families.  This is not something that the political left identifies with.  But wait, there’s more. 

In San Antonio, Texas national commentator Glenn Beck correctly pointed his finger at both Democrats and Republicans in government who have failed to keep spending under control and keep government limited to those things that are necessary, rather than desired by influential constituents.  The public is finally completely waking up to the fact that as President Reagan put it, government is the problem rather than the solution.  The silent majority may finally be finding its voice and Conservatives are finding ways to organize and to demonstrate their position in public in ways that have traditionally been the domain of the Left since the 1960’s. 

American politics has been controlled by the center for the last several decades.  Ronald Reagan was elected by a coalition of the right and the center.  His margin of victory came by way of Democrats and independents that saw his message as better for themselves and better for the nation.  What brought the election to Barack Obama was a combination of the desire to elect a “minority” president, an intense propaganda campaign by the press, and general public dissatisfaction with a Republican party that failed to deliver on its general understood message of individual liberties and personal responsibility.  To make matters worse, the Republican Party allowed itself to be pushed into nominating the one candidate who had the least chance of beating any of the democrats.  It is likely that without Sarah Palin on the ticket he would have failed to take any states other than his home state of Arizona.  The murky middle of the voting public rejected McCain largely because he failed to establish himself a specific identity, because he failed to differentiate himself from his opponent, and because he retreated every time an opportunity to attack presented itself.  Now, the public is attacking the same area he refused to approach.

There is evidence that some Obama supporters expected him to be another Bill Clinton, minus the bimbo eruptions.  He also posed as a populist, who would, they thought, take care of the common person.  Now, they see him in all his anti-mainstream-American glory; a man who seems bent on destroying what is left of our economy and wiping out American exceptionalism.  Most important of all, a man whose economic plans consist of maxing out the nation’s credit as rapidly as possible, when it is already obvious that we are in for serious financial trouble because of Social Security and Medicare commitments. And all the while, jets around, acting like a Hollywood celebrity, and making innumerable "major addresses" all of which are becoming inreasingly boring.  

The clue that so many people refused to notice as the constant refrain of "remaking America" and related discussions of spreading the wealth while abandoning failed systems of the past.  These supposedly failed systems had worked and had worked well.  What Mr. Obama wanted to do and is doing is returning to the failed systems of FDR.

The biggest problem in today’s political environment is big government.  As anyone who has studied political history, even at its most basic level should know is that government almost never reduces spending, and almost never gives up power it has achieved over the population it governs.  Now, the public may be forcing the issue.  After all, while T.E.A. was used to symbolize “Taxed Enough Already” the true focus of the Tea Party events was reduction in spending and in the size of government.  People are becoming more completely aware of the menace that big government poses, if not for any other reason, then because of the economic effects of its chronic overspending, which sucks the life out of the economy.  The spending issue is what ticked off the electorate and got the ball rolling.  Fortunately, the average Conservative activist has something today that it did not have years ago; the Internet. 

With the ability to communicate with thousands or perhaps millions of people at little or no cost, activists today can get out messages that they could never have effectively communicated before.  They can find each other without having to do so in what may be an unfriendly public setting, and can spread information to incredible numbers of people with little effort.  Conservatives are learning to spend a little less time on their families and jobs because they have found that if they don’t there my be no job or family to spend time on.  And, they are learning to organize outside of the traditional party structure.  They are potentially returning the Republican Party to its roots as the party of the ordinary American who believes in popular sovereignty.For this to be effective the TEA Party must continue.  The voters must hold the feet of all elected officials to the fire at all levels.  They must convince these officials that the public is not an inexhaustible source of money, and that government must downsize.  If these officials refuse to do so then they must be replaced.  Ideally, these replacements would be ordinary people who understand what is at stake.  Who understand that it is time to take America back from the politicians on both sides of the aisle.