The following appeared on American Thinker today. An expanded article dealing with the same topic will soon be posted at Monty Pelerin’s World.

February 27, 2010

2010 will be a watershed election

Monty Pelerin
Public concern for the sustainability of our fiscal condition and way of life is rife. Yet, the political class is unwilling or unable to respond. Inaction reflects in the public’s rising anger.

As Rasmussen reported:

Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job. … Only 10% of voters say Congress is doing a good or excellent job.

The dissatisfaction is non-partisan. Almost half of Democrats say that Congress is doing a poor job, up 17 points from January!

The purpose of elections is to express displeasure, remedy political malpractice and change policies/politicians. When elections no longer perform this function, they become perfunctory charades. The public has started to believe that elections don’t matter.

The people will change the composition of Congress in the 2010 election. But changing horses is less important than changing direction. What if the new Congress is incapable or unwilling to change direction? Then the 2010 election signals that elections no longer matter. At that point, we recognize that the people no longer control their government.

The tradition and history of this country cannot coexist very long with rule “of the government, by the government and for the government.” The American people are imbued with the spirit of freedom. It is in their genes. As described by Arthur Lee in 1769:

Liberty is the very idol of my soul, the parent of virtue, the nurse of heroes, the dispenser of general happiness….”

The Tea Party movement was an early indicator of an incipient restlessness. Their numbers, while growing, are a small fraction of the angry public. 2010 may be our last, best chance to regain control of the government within the existing system. Will 2010 be the last real election? If so, then what?

Does our citizenry still have the love of freedom that our forefathers did? Are they willing to make the same sacrifices? If there is not a reversal of direction after the next election, the answers to these questions will be learned in the next few years.

Monty Pelerin @ www.economicnoise.com will be posting a longer version of this article on his website in the next day or so.