It surprised me when the entire panel of Fox News Sunday on Sunday, November 21, came to a consensus that the hubbub over the TSA ogling and groping was no big deal. The conservatives on the panel were Bill Kristol, Editor of The Weekly Standard, and Kevin Madden, former Press Secretary for Mitt Romney. I guess we could call them “establishment conservatives.” I don’t know another good term for them, because they certainly are out of touch with the people. Bill Kristol made a comment that he thought the furor was from a very few outspoken people and that it wasn’t widespread. The others agreed.
His comments, and Kevin Madden’s assent, sound like they’re coming from people who live in the Washington, DC bubble, have lots of establishment friends, and don’t poke around much in the blogosphere. If you spend much time reading the comments after articles and postings, they’re going at least twenty-to-one against the TSA, pretty universally, no matter where you read them.
The most dramatic illustration of that I found on the New York Times website. I saw today where they had posed a question to five opinion writers, “Do Body Scanners Make Us Safer?” Only one of the pieces was an open, full apology for the TSA. This was written by an MIT professor, Arnold Barnett. His article was titled, “Resist the Complainers.” But the interesting part wasn’t the articles themselves, but the comments afterward. Every article was followed by passionate comments objecting to the new scanning procedures. Read them, people. There are very, very few defenders of the TSA out there, and the ones there are are weak and apologetic.
This is yet another issue where the people are rising up against the ruling class, and if the ruling class doesn’t deal with this adequately before 2012, this will fuel another electoral wave. The difference between this coming wave and the one we just saw will be that the coming wave will involve disaffected Liberals, in addition to the awakened conservatives that fed the Tea Party movement.
When readers of the New York Times are weighing in twenty to one against the TSA, ready to march with the Country Class against the establishment, this isn’t good for the establishment.
So Barack Obama, just dig in your heels and defend your people. Make my day!
Link: you may want to read my list of TSA abuses.
One Response to The Anti-TSA Groping Wave Is Coming. Better Watch Out!