I found this comment by Karl Garson a great explanation of the idiotic "We want our country back" sloganeering.
During the course of a recent phone call concerning some farm business, the person I was speaking to said, "My husband keeps saying that he wants his government back." “We want our government back" - is a sentiment that simultaneously warms the hearts and short-circuits the thinking of the followers of those who hunt the incumbent, big government tax-and spenders. At the national level, it's the Beckies, Limbaughists, Palins, Pauls and tea partyers. It's a curious wish, approaching the childlike in both naiveté and petulance, this "wanting the government back." For it naturally prompts the question, "Who do you think has the government now?"
Anyone wishing to ask that might keep in mind William Golding's ("Lord of the Flies")observation: "A crowd of grade-three thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hands at the fire of their own prejudices, will not thank you for pointing out the contradictions in their beliefs."
This reversion most recently made the town hall meetings about the Democrats' proposed health care bill impossible to continue. Those orchestrated shout downs of what were intended to be an exchange of viewpoints left the organizers wisely choosing the exits and the shouters satisfied they had accomplished their purpose.
The question remains: "If you want your government back, who do you think has it now?"
What's that you're saying? "It's those earmark-happy, tax-and-spend career politicians -Democrats mostly, but some liberal Republicans, too, and anyone who doesn't believe in God -who want to consign our children to a life of national debt slavery … Then, it's fair to ask in reply, "How did those ‘rascals' get there? Did they drive up Capitol Hill in a convoy of Hummers, jump out and, multiple AK-47s blazing, take their seats in Congress?"
No? The government you want back today is the government you voted into office yesterday. You might try living with your decision, might give it a chance to work, might say to yourself, "Can anyone turn Bush the Younger's mess around in two years?"
But no, because you have troubles, because things are bad for you right now, because you're being asked to pay for a government that's given you benefits that have spoiled you rotten, you're whining for a circa-right-now version of change that is not the version of change you voted for overwhelmingly just two years ago.
If that's what you want, I stand behind your right to get it. But I don't wish you good luck. The rest of us are going to need that.
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