The War At Home
By Wes Keene | February 19, 2010 | In Category: General
Yesterday’s attack on an IRS/FBI office building in Austin, TX comes as a shock only because it wasn’t an Islamic terrorist. To find out it was some angry citizen with an axe to grind isn’t surprising if you follow what has been happening in America over the last few decades. Mr. Stack’s actions are deplorable, and the 1986 IRS rule change that originally upset him was actually good tax policy. Nevertheless, his anger toward a callous government will resonate with a large group of Americans. Many Americans do feel they are pushed further and further each year by a government who fights against them. I don’t disagree with them.
This incident is a reminder that America is deeply divided on key issues. From Congressional behavior to broader concerns over the direction of social policy, Americans are seething with rage. While leftist types will try to create similarities between Stack and the Tea Party groups, you would need to ignore Stack’s leftist, Marxist statements to do so.
However, over the last 50 or so years, new groups have been formed (such as this one, this one, and these) to vocally, and in some cases violently, show their displeasure with America. While few Americans will identify with the outer most extremes of these groups,we shouldn’t dismiss them entirely as “nutjobs”. They do represent an emotional undercurrent found in some very reasonable, non-violent Americans. You don’t need to be a killer to think we have serious structural problems in our tax code.
There isn’t much middle ground between groups bound and determined to implement European socialism here, and groups that want to keep America grounded in its founding principles. Some Americans voted for President Obama because he promised a “‘post-partisan era”. We have united in the past and it isn’t ridiculous to think it could happen again. Sadly, most of the time we unite is behind tragedy. Even then, it’s short lived. The opposite has happened. The election of President Obama has only increased the hatred between groups. Constant bashing of bankers and anyone else who runs a business is hateful, dangerous speech (not to mention its unpresidential). Obama plays fast and loose with generalizations about the same people who give us jobs. If anyone wonders why a class war is brewing, our President is a big part of it.
The world is teaching America a lesson on socialism. As public policy it’s popular when implemented, but like any intoxicant it’s never enough. In Greece, union workers clash with the government over any cuts needed to make the system sustainable. People get mad when their handouts get reduced, or even when they don’t get increased. That’s the sad fact of socialism, when you give something away free it has no value. As economic policy, socialism has been an abject failure. There isn’t a major State where socialism works. In socialist countries the economy suffers, or human rights suffer, or both.
It’s human nature to want more. In America that used to mean there was a longing to accomplish more and prosper. Now it just means “wanting more”.
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