Tapping into the anger

This morning I was listening to the podcast of last night’s episode of the Mark Levin Show, and something a caller said kinda bugged me.

The caller, a Cruz supporter, bemoaned the fact that Ted Cruz is not “tapping into the anger of the people.”

Why would I want a presidential candidate “tapping into the anger” of the people?

Are we a civil society or are we an angry mob of villagers storming the castle with pitchforks and torches to burn this mother down?

To me there is a big difference between acknowledging that people have a right to be angry and frustrated and “tapping into the anger.”

Americans have the right to angry after the failed presidency of Barack Hussein Obama, The Great Divider. Americans have a right to be angry that the men and women they sent to Washington to stop this Fundamental Transformation not only refused to stand up against it, but oftentimes were complicit in furthering it.

However, I believe that it is possible to recognize that anger without feeling the need to fan the flames of anger.

To me, “tapping into the anger” is a fancy way of saying “exploit the anger for your purposes.” And I don’t want a presidential candidate who exploits this anger just to win the election. And I certainly don’t want a presidential candidate who uses the anger as a way to gin up the people to look for payback. We’ve had over seven years of a President who looked to get revenge on those Americans he didn’t like. I’ve had about enough of that.

On the Democrat Party side, hoping to build on Obama’s divisiveness and resentment, we have a bellowing old fart who is “tapping into the anger” of people who demand that the rest of the country foot the bill for every possible expense life throws their way. Bernie Sanders is exploiting that anger, fomenting it, validating it. He speaks openly about a revolution — a sort of Birkenstock-wearing, iPhone-using angry mob of college-age latte-drinking villagers who want to storm the castle and burn down Wall Street.

My concern over Trump is that, much like Bernie Sanders, he has found a way to exploit anger and resentment for his own purposes.

I find both Sanders and Trump’s exploitation of rage and resentment beneath contempt.

I want a presidential candidate who looks to solve the problems that have given rise to this sense of uncertainty and fear that pervades our society, not simply exploit it for his own gain.

Anybody can rile up a crowd and get them good and angry. I want a president who seeks to bring back a sense of unity, a shared purpose.

Anybody can foment anger and promise to hit back against everybody who made us mad while encouraging us to tell those with whom we are angry to go f*ck themselves. I want a president who once again makes America that “shining city on a hill.”

It takes a true leader to address the problems that have caused this anger, and look to solve them.

It takes a demagogue to embrace the anger and manipulate it for his own selfish ends.

This is exactly what Obama has done. Rather than serve the people, he used fear, suspicion, anger and resentment to further divide this nation. He fanned the flames and encouraged the anger — dividing us by race, class, gender, religion.

Obama is an expert at “tapping into the anger.” And look how well that’s turned out.

The last thing this Republic needs is another President who is out to get payback against those with whom we are angry.

The truth is, at the root of this anger is the reality that we no longer are a nation with a government, but a Government over a nation. We have permitted our Constitutional Republic to be bastardized. This out of control government is picking winners and losers. It has abandoned the concept of “equal justice under the law.” It punishes its enemies and rewards its friends. That is not what our Constitutional government is supposed to do.

And yet here we are. There is no longer “consent of the governed.” The Will of the People is ignored. And this over-bloated, centralized government has gone from being of, by and for the people to becoming an all-powerful, intrusive State that seeks to dictate how you live, what you say, what you learn, even what you eat. Our individual sovereignty has been undermined at every step.

The solution won’t be found in more government. The solution won’t be found in the government taking care of all of us.

The solution isn’t to turn the tables on those currently in power and seek revenge against them through the use of the government.

The solution is found in our Constitutional system of checks and balances.

Ted Cruz doesn’t need to “tap into the anger of the people;” he needs to do what he has been doing — rise above it. Ideally, it would be nice if every Presidential candidate would do that. Cruz is well aware of the discontent and frustration of the American people. It’s why he has been leading the fight against this dug-in Washington Establishment. Ted Cruz is addressing the problems and directing us back to our first principles — Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness. He is articulating the solution by making the case for the Constitution, limited government, individual sovereignty and Liberty.

Of course many of us are angry.

But we don’t need a president who taps into it and promises payback. We don’t need a president who exploits the fears and uncertainty of the people.

We need a President who leads us out of this, not encourages us to wallow in it.

For decades the Left has used anger and rage to undermine our Republic. And our Republic will not be restored by adopting that same anger and rage.

I want a president who recognizes that he is a public servant, a temporary executive whose power comes, not from his own authority, but from the consent of the governed. We do not need an all-powerful demagogue who feeds off the rage and anger Americans are feeling.

That is exactly what we had in Barack Obama.

We need a President who fights to restore our Liberty, place power back into the hands of the people and the states, secures our borders and our sovereignty, disentangles this Federal Leviathan from our free market economy, and gets this intrusive government the hell off our backs.

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