When I was young, I often heard the famous song by Woodie Gutherie:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
I’ve noticed, I don’t hear this song as much these days. Although diversity and inclusiveness are such popular topics, the truth is the Democrat Party and the liberal elites are pushing identity politics, trying to break Americans into little segments of aggrieved voters, so they can mine every vote possible. I know Gutherie was a leftist too, but a feel-good song like this lets everyone know that this country belongs to all of us; we all have rights and responsibilities as citizens. But as we have seen in Wisconsin, that is not the prevailing liberal thought. Instead, the would-be liberal ruling class assumes they own the government and as government keeps expanding, they, therefore, will soon own everything. I suppose it’s a natural assumption, as the left feels it’s intellectually superior to us, the Christian conservative masses, in their mind the “great unwashed” of our country. It is their moral obligation to owe and control us.
There have been countless incidents across Wisconsin of liberals trampling other’s free speech during our 16 month “civil war” prior to the recall election. When I saw a MacIver Institute video filmed the day after the recall election, I thought back upon all the incidents where the left claimed public property for their exclusive use.
More on this later, but first, as a background, couple of incidents that happened locally.
A friend of mine, a local Tea Party activist, was doing a literature drop for a conservative Dane County board candidate in Madison before the April, 2012 election. One of the recipients read the literature, became enraged and started stalking my friend down the street. When he caught up to her, the stalker started screaming at her at the top of his lungs to “get off his street.” Note: whose street it was, it was not “our” street, it was “his”. Fortunately, a couple of guys working on their lawns on a warm March day heard the man shouting, came over and stood between the screaming Democrat and my friend. Chivalry is not quite dead, yet. My friend tried reasoning with the Democrat; in what I’m sure was a much friendlier and reasoned tone of voice than I would have under such circumstances. Testosterone would have demanded a far more vocal response. The stalker, seeing he was outmanned by a female Tea Party member and two neutral passersby, did what only a Democrat could do, he called the Madison police to complain he was being harassed. With the unionized Madison, Wisconsin police department, he must have figured he’d have better odds. But, nothing much happened, the police took statements and left. My friend continued on with the literature drop and the Democrat went home.
But, police reports are public information. The stalker turned out to be a Madison Area Technical College instructor, where full-time tenured staff are often paid $70,000 to $100,000 per year for a nine month job with a deluxe fringe benefit package. Paying a small part of his fringe benefits, as Governor Walker asked, was in his mind, such an egregious offense that no conservative should ever again be allowed free speech on “his” street. I wonder how many times this scene has played out across Wisconsin in the last 16 months. Enough obviously, to get Governor Walker over 200,000 more votes in 2012 than in 2010. “This land is your land, this land is my land.”
A prolife group, which had scheduled a legislative day in March 2011, walked straight into the Democrat/public employee union occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol. They should have cancelled it, but for some reason thought they too, had a right to be in the State Capitol. Upon seeing a group of well-dressed people, wearing pro-life buttons and who obviously had bathe within the last week, the Democrat occupiers came to the only possible conclusion, these people must be Republicans! After this inevitable conclusion, the pro-life contingent was immediately surrounded by agitated screaming occupiers. This time too, the police were involved, Wisconsin’s finest, the State Capitol Police stopped by, not to protect and serve the citizens, but to tell the pro-life folks they should leave, as they could not to guarantee their safety. Fortunately, the pro-life contingent got out of the state capitol alive and unharmed. So much for the Wisconsin State Capitol being the ‘People’s House.” You have to be the right people. “This land is your land, this land is my land.” Not!
When I saw the MacIver Institute video which showing two well-known Madison liberal activists, who now might best be called “bitter clingers,” angry with CNN for calling the recall election too soon, I realized I had to write something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ro6Qfm1ySKQ [12]
Just because the election call was true, it still should not have been said. Watch the video, at the 1:30 mark, the lady said how angry she was that CNN would come to “my house” (the State Capitol?), “my capitol” and “my state” and dare to call the election. Note the possessive pronouns used. You may think it’s “our” capitol or “the” capitol, but the leftists do not. Some people have “more ownership” than others. I wonder if she was in the mob surrounding the pro-life folks in the state capitol. If you wonder where do young people get this idea? Think back to the technical college instructor with the same attitude, much of modern education is more indoctrination than instruction.
I am not sure if I should classify this thinking as the same leftist totalitarian thinking of communist governments or is it just the old European aristocracy arising again in different form? The king and the royalty used to own everything; the serfs owned nothing and had no rights. Whether under communism or feudalism, only the elites have a say, we the taxpayers, in either case end up as vassals of the state. Of course, they still expect us to pay the bills.
The recall election in Wisconsin was one small victory, but there is a long way to go. The Democrats/progressives/liberals/socialists, whatever they currently call themselves, will never sleep and neither should we. The saying “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” That sounds great and we all like to say it, but few want to live it and pay the price.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
For the complete interview see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJwIAlx5R0s&list=UUcj-rYIUzhoQ2tobLBm4Pfg... [13]
