It didn’t matter that the healthcare plan Obama proposed was wildly unpopular with the American people. By 55 percent to 35 percent they opposed it. It didn’t matter that Democrats lost the Senate seat once held by the “Lion of the Senate,” Ted Kennedy, to Republican Scott Brown because he promised to vote against it. It didn’t matter that serious economists writing for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post predicted it would make our nation’s debt skyrocket. It didn’t matter that an election is looming in November, promising on the heels of outrage that many Democrats will lose their seats in Congress. It didn’t matter that leadership had to bribe, threaten, for the world to see, recalcitrant House members right down to the wire before the vote. It didn’t matter that they broke the rules and skipped a conference committee to advance the Senate bill or that they publicly signaled their intent to use an inappropriate rule called “reconciliation” to pass this massive, democracy-altering piece of legislation against the will of the people; nor that they nearly refused to vote altogether on the Senate Bill, almost “deeming” it to have passed according to the “Slaughter Rule.” And if all this didn’t matter, then what will stop them now?
With nothing to lose that hasn’t already been lost, a wave of legislation may be coming that will send us hurtling to the left with such force, we may never recover. Many House and Senate members will lose in November regardless, so what have they got to lose?
Before healthcare was out of the gate, amnesty for illegal immigrants was being reintroduced by Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer. While most of us were focusing on the House Healthcare vote, thousands descended on the Capitol to demand rights for illegal immigrants.
A big story lost in the shuffle recently was Obama’s refusal to allow drilling in the gulf at the same time Russia eagerly negotiates with Cuba to drill there for themselves. It isn’t enough for us to be forced to go “green” through attempts to control car manufacturing; we must be denied the right to drill for our own oil off our own coast to further strangle our supply of what he considers to be the wrong kind of energy. Meanwhile, our rivals gobble up the world’s supply, including our part. Does anyone doubt Cap and Trade will soon once again be on the voting horizon?
And how about gays serving openly in the military? The president has promised gay activists he would pass a repeal of our current policy and, as we move towards November, don’t think he won’t rush to pass this. Incidentally, the recent scandal with Congressman Eric Massa provided an unreported interesting twist. As a retired Naval officer, many who served with Massa have been coming forward to talk about his aggressive homosexual advances while their military superior. None said they felt free to report him for fear of his power over them. But of course, preserving military cohesiveness is less a concern than advancing homosexual “rights.” So expect a vote soon.
And speaking of the military … haven’t we heard repeatedly from the left complaints about all the money we’re spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how that money would be so much better spent here at home? What’s to stop this Congress from defunding America’s military to pay for their financially bankrupting “hope and change?”
But here’s another frightening thought. During the turbulent era of the ’60s and ’70s, the only opinions expressed in media were those of the left. Walter Cronkite reported the horrors and recited the body count in Vietnam every night. At the same time (we know now because of reports from Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist with NARAL) he was exaggerating the number of back alley abortions to help usher in Roe vs. Wade. Cronkite was America’s voice, but unbeknownst to us, he was the voice of others, more insidious—as were Dan Rather and Bill Moyers and Bill Schneider and countless others telling us on the nightly news what we should believe. There was no talk radio … and all American newspapers and networks took their headlines from the Grey Lady—the New York Times. With the constant pounding of leftist propaganda, Americans turned against the war, watched riots in Watts, saw college campuses burned and plundered. Many were left feeling helpless, wondering if anyone in America still felt the way they did about what was unfolding before them. But there was no voice for them, no outlet.
The 20 percentage points that divide Americans now on the issue of healthcare can, without a doubt, be attributed to alternative media—talk radio, FOX News, conservative on-line publications, blogs, conservative pundits on many channels… etc. How else would Americans know they had reason to be concerned?
Yes, alternative conservative media is a force to be reckoned with. And until they are destroyed, the left may not prevail. Whether by the community panels in the FCC’s “localism” proposal—the Fairness Doctrine by another name—or other regulations and rules to be determined, look for the assault on alternative media to commence again shortly.
What will stop them now? Apart from the power of God, those of us in media still have the ability to fight with our words. Surely there are enough voices in and out of media who value free speech enough to do battle for this last bastion of hope.
What will stop them? A healthy dose of unbridled truth, powerfully written and spoken and broadcast daily, faithfully, relentlessly. That will stop them … for now.
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