- MENU
- HOME
- SEARCH
- WORLD
- MAIN
- AFRICA
- ASIA
- BALKANS
- EUROPE
- LATIN AMERICA
- MIDDLE EAST
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Benelux
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Poland
- Russia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Taiwan
- Turkey
- USA
- BUSINESS
- WEALTH
- STOCKS
- TECH
- HEALTH
- LIFESTYLE
- ENTERTAINMENT
- SPORTS
- RSS
- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Cal Thomas
Forty-four years ago, Bob Dylan released an album with the incendiary title "While the Establishment Burns." That could serve as a metaphor for what seems to be happening to the Washington establishment in general and the
The Tea Party Express roared through several primary elections, shaking the foundations of the Republican and media establishments. In a remarkable exchange on Sean Hannity's Fox show, Karl Rove, George W. Bush's "architect" within the political establishment, said that
The days when it was more important to preserve party over principles, as O'Donnell put it in an election night interview with
The full force of the Washington and media establishments will now be brought to bear on O'Donnell and other Republicans identified as
Conservative candidates should ignore it all and tell voters: "You elected this president and this
This nation needs an occasional turnover, even revolution, not only to "throw the bums out," but also to reboot the system and remind ourselves of what America was designed to be and what we have instead become. The establishment won't go quietly because they have large amounts of turf to protect, so they must be dislodged, evicted, even burned out in a metaphorical sense.
The big media treated the anti-establishment rebellion of the '60s as something good. They will treat this attempt to overthrow the establishment as something bad, mainly because they are now the establishment. When Dylan sang, "The Times They Are A-Changin'," the pot-smoking, free love, anti-establishment hippies sang with him. If overcoming the establishment then was a great idea (it wasn't in view of what and who replaced it), overcoming today's establishment is a better one.
The establishment hates people it can't control and who are not beholden to those who run it. Conservative candidates who are scoring well understand this is a contest between the Washington establishment and the rest of the country. The establishment has one set of interests and the country has another. The conservatives are beholden to the people. The establishment is beholden only to itself and those it chooses to admit to the inside-the-beltway inner circle.
Conservatives can now sing Dylan's lyrics. This verse especially resonates:
"Come senators, congressmen please heed the call.
Don't stand in the doorway; don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside and it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
To put it perhaps less elegantly: step aside establishment, or conservatives will step right over you.
Available at Amazon.com:
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future
The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama
The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
WORLD | AFRICA | ASIA | EUROPE | LATIN AMERICA | MIDDLE EAST | UNITED STATES | ECONOMICS | EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENT | FOREIGN POLICY | POLITICS
Tea Party - Burn the Establishment | Politics
© Tribune Media Services