The Sting

Jennifer Rubin wonders how many Obama voters are feeling, well, stung, right now:

Candidate Barack Obama ran a brilliant campaign, convincing moderates and even some conservatives that he was no radical while keeping the netroot base fully engaged. But seven months after taking office, the list of disappointed voters (at least those willing to admit they were had) is growing.

Fiscal conservatives who bought the spiel that he’d go line by line through the budget have seen the most fiscally irresponsible president ever. After a $787B pork-filled stimulus, a supplemental spending measure with 9,000 earmarks, a $3.5 trillion budget, and a trillion dollar health care plan, Obama has managed to exceed the worst predictions of his critics. And now at least some of his advisors are letting on that his promise not to hike taxes on 95% of taxpayers is going to be cast aside. After all, the deficit is now so huge we must plug the gap, right? (Robert Gibbs said Obama would never raise taxes on the middle class – well, except for those cigarette and energy taxes.)

Then there are the good government types who fancied a new era of transparency and lobbyist-free government. Well, not quite. We have had the long list of tax cheats and the lobbyists who needed ethics waivers to squeeze through the revolving door. Again and again – whether on the stimulus plan or on cap and trade – gargantuan legislation has been rushed through without public scrutiny. Well, if the public figured out what was on some of those thousands of pages, they might have objected.

There are many, many more disgruntled, disillusioned and dispirited voters out there as Rubin documents. Please go over and read the whole post. 

Sort of remind you of something? Maybe this will stir some memory? For you younger types, that song was the theme to this movie.

Feeling stung right now? Trust me, this is only the beginning if you don’t start pushing back right now. Call your elected representative and Senators. Push back now. Attend a town hall meeting – wearing a tux or just your normal clothes and push back. Push back now. Push back against the authoritarian agenda by sending fishy links to the White House. Push back now.

Time is running out, the window is closing. But this is still a democratic republic – for now – and you still have a chance to sting back if you have been stung. Use your power – or risk losing it forever.

Push back now. Do not be stung again.