Maggie's Farm

I'm seeing something new and startling here. I've been watching this stuff for more than 60 years and this is a whole different thing than I have ever seen.

For the first time we are seeing more than a million people exercise a constitutional right that has been forgotten:

" or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

And they refuse to identify with any political party. They are absolutely dominating all media and the internet. They are driving the public debate by their actions. They are leaderless and adamantly refuse to accept leadership.

And then a woman arises from the dead and from her igloo at the north pole puts pen to her Facebook.

And all eyes are on her. She gave focus to the confusion of the many issues - taxes, spending, deficits, healthcare - and spoke the magic words: "Death Panels!"

In all my life I've never seen anybody take control of the debate with two words.

There is a great restless citizen army mustering in this land. She just may have become the commander in chief with just two words.

If you start to see hand painted signs proclaiming NO DEATH PANELS! then we'll see if that's happening.

Dear Marianne,

You're not quite old enough to be my mom but the position is open - maybe you could adopt me. I'm a war baby - 1943. Spent my infancy on Navy installations. As my dad used to say - he fought the battle of Key West. He was a pharmacist's mate and they treated more than a few merchant seamen who's ships had been torpedoed in the Gulf.

You lived through that time of peril. I lived it through my extended family. I was steeped in the story of The Great Depression and the horror of WWII.

It was deemed The Greatest Generation. Ah, so true. But, I think, only because it was faced with the challenge. We've not seen that since. We rebuilt the world, brought Pax Americana to vast regions and built a society of bounty unimagined just a few scant years before.

We appear to many to have softened, become complacent, too focused on worldly pleasures. That's what Bin Laden thought. That's what the Japanese Empire thought. Attributed to Admiral Yamamoto, probably incorrectly, was the memorable "I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant"".

We now are facing an assault from within. The leadership in Congress, speaker and chairs of the powerful committees, all hail from leftist enclaves on the coasts. Their assault has been fast and furious. They have tried to swarm us with an avalanche of legislation - forcing myriad schemes through before we could realize what was happening.

Ah, but the resistance formed with lightning speed. The "Tea Parties" mobilized by tax day - April 15th. Springing from nowhere, spontaneously across the land. These people - I've been with them - are the solid citizens who are our backbone and our heart. They are not angry, they are sore annoyed. They are resolute. This fipple has been tried many times before and we'll just have to shove them back in the hole they crawled out of so we can go back to the real world that we love.

I sense a seismic shift in our politics - a major realignment where we cast out the grifters and the parasites and clean this mess up once and for all. Or at least for a couple of generations.

As I remember, Sarah Palin did exactly that in Alaska. Hmmm.

I hope that when I get to 81 we'll still be talking to each other.

Love,
Roy