Originally Posted by kane

Well said.




Let me play a little devils advocate.

Obama got 53% of the vote or 69million votes. There are around 200 million eligible voters in this country and about 300 million total people. That means only about 34% of the eligible votes and 23% of the population voted for him. He ran on a platform of raising taxes, bailing out companies and creating national healthcare. Today his approval rating hovers around 47-49% depending on the day. So you could argue that aside from the supreme court thing, which he has no part in and was a terrible ruling that sold out the American people, he has delivered what he said he was going to and many of his strongest supporters still support him and his action. He really only cares about them and they are getting what they wanted.

Much of this unrest is simply the right trying to regain their footing. The republican party is a dying animal. In the next 15 years we will see an increase in the black and latino populations (actually it is all ethnic minorities but mostly blacks and latinos) of 300% while the white population will stay about the same. These are groups that tend to vote democrat. Add in the fact that they are losing a grip on the religious right and it makes for a very dim outlook for them 10-15 years from now. They are working hard to build a new base and the tea party is that base. They are switching to the angry white person base and right at the moment it is working. But just because there is a vocal group out there doesn't mean everyone in the country feels that way.

Voting can change it. There is no need for an overthrow. If everyone eligible to vote that was angry at the government voted against those that they don't like, we would have new leadership. No shooting, no uprising, just votes.



To me the question is who should the government be listening to? If a person didn't bother voting, but is against a bailout or a health care bill, should the leaders listen to them? The answer is that they probably should, but they don't because they don't have to because that person isn't going to vote during the election anyway, so they have no fear of that person. If everyone who complained and is angry would actually vote we would potentially have more viable leaders and a third or even fourth party. But as it is about 30% of the population controls the rest of the population.

If you truly want your government to fear you, put the guns down and go to the voting booth on election day. As it is right now the Tea Party thinks they are being revolutionaries and in November they are going to vote republican and many of those people will be no better than the democrats that are there now.