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A Voice from Fly-Over Country
April 1, 2013
"It's Not Your Country Anymore, It's Our Country…"
by Robert L. Hale
fitzgerald griffin foundation
MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA — "It's Not Your Country Anymore, It's Our Country." So said Sam Donaldson on the "Chris Matthews Show." Donaldson opined that unless and until the Republican Party jettisons the thinking of the Tea Party, the Republican Party would become a non-entity. He chastised those whom he identified as "Tea Partiers" for saying during the past election, "Let's take back our country." Donaldson went on to enlighten Chris Matthews' audience, saying "The country has changed," and it is time that those who identify with the Tea Party recognize the change and accept it.
Yes, the country has indeed changed. And I suspect the vast majority of Americans would say it has changed for the worse, not the better. Yet, it appears that Donaldson, his host, and Matthews' panel of pundits have no desire to change direction. These talking heads like what has happened. Over the years, they have relentlessly encouraged the direction America has taken.
Donaldson and company believe that America's loss of innocence, the advance of immorality, and the political system riddled with corruption and defined by deception are just fine. They expect those who love America to "Get over it and get on board."
But the leading pundits seem to have forgotten an age-old truism — "Wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it; right is right, even if no one is doing it."
Donaldson and Matthews clearly want America to become and remain one in which our political leaders pit rich against everyone else, religious against secular, black against white, heterosexual against homosexual, traditional values against relative values, illegal alien against citizen, and government-dependent citizen against independent citizen and taxpayer.
Over the past four years, we have seen the national debt nearly double. We have seen the number of ruthless and mindless killings and suicides increase alarmingly. We have seen our political system, led by the President, stop at nothing to divide the country; virtually half of the country demands "entitlements," and too many of our elected leaders say the handouts are deserved.
We have the highest sustained unemployment in our history, but no one cares, especially the likes of Donaldson and Matthews. People are able to not work because those who do work apparently pay enough, even if it isn't "their fair share." At least this is what our President tells us.
Neither the President nor the pundits, however, is willing to tell us is what a "fair share" is. The President proposes taking upward of 40 percent at the federal level of what those who work earn, and states are taking upward of 20 percent more. I wonder when those who work and earn will say enough is enough. We are seeing it happen in Europe. The goose that laid the golden egg may well be getting ready to simply lie down and do nothing.
It is likely that overwhelmingly those who identify with the Tea Party go to work every day, come home to their families every evening, participate in community activities, go to church regularly, and obey the law. These are the people whom Donaldson is telling to wake up, give up, and stop trying to take their country back.
Donaldson and Matthews clearly want America to become and remain one in which our political leaders pit rich against everyone else, religious against secular, black against white, heterosexual against homosexual, traditional values against relative values, illegal alien against citizen, and government-dependent citizen against independent citizen and taxpayer. It is easy to understand the motivation of these men — division is good for ratings, or so they hope.
While pretending to offer political advice to a rudderless Republican Party, these men are laughing at a group of men and women in that party who have no sense of direction. It should surprise no one that the media elites believe they are qualified to advise today's Republican leadership. They can identify with the leadership — they too are rudderless. Thus, the only advice they are qualified to give is to "go with the flow"; they have nothing else to offer.
If the Republican Party leaders hope to set a meaningful direction for the country, they might do themselves a favor and listen to the much-ridiculed message offered by the Tea Party wing of their party. It might be just as productive for the media elite to do so as well — their ratings might improve; they certainly can't go any lower.
The problem for them is that the maligned Tea Party adherents have a sense of direction guided by a set of values that includes a tradition of honesty; faith; hard work; and caring about themselves, their families, and their communities. Donaldson, Matthews, and their fellow pundits believe in nothing — including their country — and are unable to understand those of us who love our country. Thus, they arrogantly and smugly cast dispersions, sow dissent, and hope their ratings improve.
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A Voice from Fly-Over Country is copyright © 2013 by Robert L. Hale and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation. All rights reserved.
Robert L. Hale received his J.D. in law from Gonzaga University Law School in Spokane, Washington. He is founder and director of a non-profit public interest law firm. For more than three decades he has been involved in drafting proposed laws and counseling elected officials in ways to remove burdensome and unnecessary rules and regulations.
See a complete biographical sketch.
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