“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
The corollary to Abraham Lincoln’s famous quotation is an old English idiom: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
So, the truth is that just about any politician can fool some voters all of the time, and all voters some of the time. But, no one can fool all voters all the time, especially after you have already fooled them once. History confirms this truth.
Republicans had their chance to lead the government with control of both Houses of Congress and the Presidency. Notwithstanding some bold promises and unequivocal commitments, they yielded to the politics of power and followed the path of politicians before them when voters remembered.
Democrats now have their chance to lead the government with even greater control of both Houses of Congress and the Presidency. Not to be outdone by their predecessor in power, they have easily surpassed the Republicans in spending and the growth of government - in record time.
This has not been a political party problem. It is a politician problem. The leadership of both political parties appears dominated by people who actually excel at only one thing -: appeasing the greatest number of people over the longest period of time using other people’s money.
But enough is enough. People are indeed fed up with the system. They have shouted at town hall meetings, only to be ridiculed by pompous self-righteous politicians and media personalities. They called their Representatives with such frequency that the switchboards in Washington, D.C. shut down, only to be ignored. They voted in off-year elections in huge numbers in an effort to alter the course of American politics from a pendulum swing that had swung too far left. Yet, they were left helpless as they witnessed backroom deals using archaic parliamentary rules to circumvent their will and overcome their votes and their voices.
Meanwhile, taxes keep going up. The deficit keeps going up. Unemployment stays up. Terrorist threats remain up. The size and reach of government keeps growing and growing and growing. And amidst it all, the President says the sky is not falling.
Well, maybe it is not falling in Washington, D.C. where the federal government is doing just fine. After all, with no limits on the federal deficit, no discipline on spending, and no boundaries for creating more government programs or expanding the ones that already exist, things are just peachy keen inside the Beltway.
But, in the rest of America, here is a news bulletin: the sky is falling. People have no jobs. Those with jobs are not making enough money to make ends meet. Retirement plans are being drained dry. Families are struggling. And, the expanding federal bureaucracy aimed at control over virtually every sector of the economy from healthcare to flat screen televisions is completely out of control and Americans know it.
Right before their eyes, Americans see their hopes and dreams in a dead free fall from an America where the sky was the limit to a world where the bottom is yet to come.
Career politicians do not see or even sense it. After all, the special interests are still doling out campaign donations to buy access for their clients. Party loyalists are still lined up to cheer on the latest partisan line. And, power brokers profit even more from a bloated federal government with money to waste. Yet, these government profiteers are the few.
Elsewhere, there is the many - the majority, the large majority. They privately cheer on the Tea Party activists while spending their days and nights struggling through an economic slow down that has been extended by this government indefinitely. They experience firsthand the pain as small employers pull back to weather the impact of healthcare reform; big companies post huge surcharges against capital that could have been fuel for a recovering economy; and workers pray that they survive the next round of job cuts triggered by the rising costs of just having employees.
Months will pass with little fanfare and even less noise as voters quietly watch, and wait, and then vote. In one simple act, they will vent their anger. And after the mighty have fallen, they will ask one simple question: “Can you hear me now?”
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”, just not the second time.
