Limbaugh, Tea Party Protests show Obama's Star Trek shield has big cracks
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
03/01/09 8:31 AM EST
Two extraordinarily important political developments took place this week right under the noses of the Obama-worshippers in the Mainstream Media and, as so often happens with the real news, most of them barely knew about it, if at all.
First, there was the record number of attendees - 8,500+ - at the Conservative Political Action Conference and the stem-winding, in-your-face, hour-and-20-minute speech by Rush Limbaugh that sent them back to their communities. Second, there were Tea Party Protests in cities big and small, coast-to-coast.
These two events are critically important because they tell us that Barack Obama's greatest advantage - the historic nature of his candidacy - is no longer the Star Trek Shield that protects him against all critical evaluation.
And, as examples of the flash crowd phenomena, the Tea Party Protests are graphic proof that the Right is beginning to get it concerning New Media and its capacity to focus political movements.
Reading the Limbaugh text is one thing (and I strongly encourage you to do so here), but you also need to watch the video of it here in order to appreciate fully what happened and why.
One Mainstream Media writer did appear to pick up on this point. David Mark of Politico quoted several passages from among Limbaugh's remarks on the issue of Obama's race:
"'It doesn't matter to me what his race is. He's liberal, and that's what matters.'
"'The racism in our culture was exclusively and fully on display in the Democrat primary last year,' Limbaugh said. 'We didn't ask if he was authentically black. What we were asking, was, 'Was he wrong?' We concluded, 'Yes.' '
"'The racism, the sexism, the bigotry that we are all charged with ... doesn't exist on our side,' he added. 'We want everybody to succeed.'"
The CPAC attendees stomped and laughed and applauded over and over, as Limbaugh delivered a Trumanesque "give Obama hell" seminar that focused on the fact that Obama is proposing the same big government statism that has failed every place it has ever been tried for thousands of years.
What is happening here is the shield has been penetrated. As Obama unveils more and more of his policy proposals, people are able to focus on those without being restrained by the fact of his being America's first black chief executive.
Obama was insulated throughoout the 2008 campaign against much of the criticism that should have been directed toward his candidacy because critics feared being called racist and because most Americans felt a genuine pride that the country could actually elect a black man as president.
But that's been achieved, so now the focus is shifting to the specifics of what Obama proposes, and that is a battle the conservatives will win. And they will win with Obama's help because he cannot avoid over-reaching. Obama has been in office less than two months and the total bill for his administration already exceeds $7 trillion, as reported by this newspaper's Tim Carney earlier this week.
He's made it clear his campaign promise of "a net spending cut" was mere rhetoric, that he will raise taxes on the productive segment of the economy while accumulating historically unprecedented budget deficits and that he intends to implement with his nationalized health care and environmental energy policies the most suffocating bureaucratic centralization of daily American life ever proposed.
That Obama feels compelled to wrap his policies in conservative rhetoric - claiming he doesn't "favor bigger government" - shows he and his advisors know most Americans will instinctively oppose his program, and he must move quickly to win congressional approval through taking full advantage of the recession by portraying it - with the enthusiastic assistance of the Maintream Media - as the catastrophe right around the corner if we don't go along with his program.
Now that the focus is on Obama's policies, the natural populist character of the conservative movement against liberal policy elites in far-distant Washington and New York is re-asserting itself with new strength. The Limbaugh address at CPAC was a kind of official unleashing of a previously pent-up political daisy cutter.
As for the Tea Party Protests, they were sparked in part by CNBC's Rick Santelli last week with an on-camera protest riff that drew loud cheers from traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile. But, as Michelle Malkin able documents, there was much more to the protests than Santelli's spontaneous outrage:
"My friend Michael Patrick Leahy of Top Conservatives on Twitter and his crew are spearheading 'simultaneous local tea parties around the country, beginning in Chicago, and including Washington DC, Fayetteville NC, San Diego CA, Omaha Nebraska, and dozens of other locations” for next Friday.
"Time: February 27, 2009 from 12pm to 1pm
Location: Chicago, Washington DC, other cities, Twitter
Go to OfficialChicagoTeaParty.com for all the info.
"Co-sponsors of the events with #TCOT include #DONTGO, Smart Girl Politics, Americans for Tax Reform, Heartland Institute, and American Spectator Magazine. The tea parties will be “simultweeted” with the hashtag #teaparty. You can find me tweeting here."
As was the case with the originalBoston Tea Party, the 2009 movement is the product of committed people making the decision to do something and systematically planning to make it happen. New Media like Tweeter and Facebook are the tools for sparking nationwide flash crowds of protests against Obama's spending and taxing proposals.
If you want to better understand why this is so, check out Glenn Reynolds' superb book, "An Army of Davids." I've long been puzzled by the muted reaction this important work received on publication, but now I understand why.
Something like the Tea Party Protests had to happen to show the Right the potential of what Glenn was describing. In other words, conservatives are often slow to react on the technology side, but once they do,look out.
Where should the Tea Party Protests go next? Here are three suggestions:
* Where are House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele? They should be challenged to get involved because the Tea Party Protests represents their greatest leverage against the Obama policy onslaught.
* The next round of protests should focus on places like Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home district office and those of other Democratic leaders "back home." Their home turf is Washington, ours is their home districts. For years, Jesse Jackson, ACORN and others on the Left have used Saul Alinksky's tactic of targeted public pressure on banks, corporations and Supreme Court Justices. It's time to give them a taste of the fact it works both ways. Not violently, but with sufficient vigor to drive the point home.
* March on the White House and Congress. Great movements need great goals. Gather millions of signatures on Tea Party Protests Petitions. Set a summer date for delivery in person. By hundreds of thousands of Tea Party Protesters from across the country.
And that will just be the start.
Bottom Line: This was the week that the political ground underneath the Obama milestone and the conservative movement shifted. The question now is whether the Right is able to take full advantage of this development in anticipation of the 2010 congressional elections.
UPDATE: Posts and photos from Tea Party Protests around the country
Jeff Smith has a gallery of great photos from the New York City protests.
Rick Moran wasn't impressed. I predict that will change in the near future.
Lots of everybody from everywhere at the Protests from TCOT Report (One of the greatest new Right sites, BTW).
Scott's Slant reports on the Atlanta gathering.
Video and photos from the Chicago event, courtesy of Founding Blog.
Lots of coverage at Pajamas TV.
Check out the great signs in these photos from the Seattle assembly, from My Own Side.
Much more to come.
More from Mark Tapscott
Follow The Examiner
