The Non-Percent: America’s Working Class of “John Does”; Updated

by Whitney Pitcher

Our nation’s political messaging has often been one of dichotomy–splitting America in half to pit us against each other. Both political parties are guilty of engaging in this kind of talk. Some Democrats in recent years have discussed America in context of the 1% (the wealthiest Americans) versus the 99% (the rest of us), essentially trying to capitalize on the pitting the nation’s proverbial “haves” versus “have-nots”. Meanwhile, some Republicans have seen things in the context of the 53% of Americans who pay federal income taxes versus the 47% of those who do not, in essence trying to dichotomize Americans as either productive or lazy. The truth is not every “one percenter” is greedy, nor is every ninety-nine percenter selfless. Not every fifty-three percenter has a strong work ethic, nor is every forty-seven percenter lazy.  In reality, the dichotomy (and the disconnect too) comes between the permanent political class and the American people–primarily the working class. The working class primarily would fall into the 99% or the 53%. These individuals are self-sufficient enough to not be dependent upon the government, but not wealthy enough to be of importance to most politicians seeking campaign donors.

Too often, the working class are political pawns for union bosses and Democrats and frequently only discussed in the context of the “small business owner” for the pro-business (but infrequently pro-market) Republicans. There are rare politicians, however, who recognize that the working class are not political pawns, nor are they a class of citizens the government needs to do something for. They are a class of citizens that the government needs to stop doing something to! Tony Lee and Stephen Bannon co-wrote a great piece at Breitbart yesterday highlighting Governor Palin’s ability to connect to the working class and how the Senate immigration bill has been a slap in the face to the working class:

“Meanwhile, the upper middle classes in coastal cocoons enjoy the aristocratic privileges of having plenty of cheap household help, while having enough wealth not to worry about the social costs of illegal immigration in terms of higher taxes or the problems in public education, law enforcement, and entitlements,” Hanson wrote. “No wonder our elites wink and nod at the supposed realities in the current immigration bill, while selling fantasies to the majority of skeptical Americans.”

Last Friday, a panelist on Fox News’s Hannity’s panel of black conservatives, which included Sirius XM Patriot’s David Webb and Breitbart’s Sonnie Johnson, emphasized that the Senate’s immigration bill would have a “detrimental impact” on black Americans.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), one of the most critical opponents of the immigration bill, noted that the bill would hurt working class Hispanics in addition to all working class Americans and the “poorest among us.” Sessions noted that according to the CBO report, the bill would have a devastating impact on wages of Americans looking for job security, and it would raise the unemployment rate while only solving 25% of the illegal immigration problem. He posited that between 30 million and 50 million workers will be added to the labor force in the next ten years, completely destroying the possibility of upward mobility of working class Americans of all backgrounds. Yet, Republican senators like Murkowski (R-AK), Rubio (R-FL), Ayotte (R-NH), McCain (R-AZ), and Graham (R-SC) voted for the final bill.
“Why would any Member of Congress want to vote for a bill at a time of high unemployment, falling wages?” Sessions asked on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.

[…]

For Republicans to win back the majority and the presidency, they need to win the so-called Reagan Democrats and a new generation of working class minorities who will have to become Reagan Democrats 2.0. They need to win over the father who got laid off from his manufacturing job and has a child who did everything society said to do–go to college, get a degree, find a decent-paying job in the technology industry–and now may meet the same fate his father did when the labor market is flooded with an influx of cheap immigrant labor brought to do jobs Americans supposedly do not want to do.

These Americans that the immigration bill most adversely impacts make up the backbone of this country and see in Washington a permanent political class who are against them and think they “can’t cut it.” They see in Palin, though, someone who fights for them because she simply “gets” it–and them.

Governor Palin linked the above mentioned piece on her Facebook page, commenting in part:

Once again, I’ll point out the obvious to you: it was the loss of working class voters in swing states that cost us the 2012 election, not the Hispanic vote. Legal immigrants respect the rule of law and can see how self-centered a politician must be to fill this amnesty bill with favors, earmarks, and crony capitalists’ pork, and call it good. You disrespect Hispanics with your assumption that they desire ignoring the rule of law.

Folks like me are barely hanging on to our enlistment papers in any political party – and it’s precisely because flip-flopping political actions like amnesty force us to ask how much more bull from both the elephants in the Republican Party and the jackasses in the Democrat Party we have to swallow before these political machines totally abandon the average commonsense hardworking American. Now we turn to watch the House. If they bless this new “bi-partisan” hyper-partisan devastating plan for amnesty, we’ll know that both private political parties have finally turned their backs on us. It will then be time to show our parties’ hierarchies what we think of being members of either one of these out-of-touch, arrogant, and dysfunctional political machines.

The immigration bill does negatively impact the working class, but the political connected will benefit. Although he ultimately voted for the bill, Democratic Senator Leahy would boost corporate cronyism. Big GOP donors ultimately want “comprehensive immigration reform” to pass as well. What will the House GOP do? Will they cave to political pressure in order to receive the needed money for their next re-election–their own constituents be damned?

The immigration bill is not the only way that the working class is being passed over for the sake of the political connected class. Look no further than the next divisive issue de jour–climate change. Earlier this week, President Obama gave a speech touting his next “green” push. This push was gleefully described by an Obma adviser as a needed “war on coal”. The war on coal has already started, however. In President Obama’s home state of Illinois, in the blue collar town of Decatur, nearly 500 Caterpillar workers were laid off this past Spring. Caterpillar is the world’s largest maker of mining equipment, and with decreased coal mining, less mining equipment needs to be manufactured. Meanwhile, President Obama is promising $8 billion more in green energy loan guarantees in his new climate change plan. Past is often prologue,and in  the 2009 stimulus package, 80% of Department of Energy loans went to companies with connections to Obama donors. It would surprise no one if this new round of loan guarantees again go to the political connected. Suffice it say, yet again, the working class gets a pink slip while the permanent political class get “green slips”.

The working class are not simply a voting bloc, however. They are the backbone of our country and the essence of Americana’s John Does. As so well voiced in “John Doe’s” speech in Frank Capra’s “Meet John Doe” (H/T to this great Rebecca Mansour piece from 2009):

We are the meek who are supposed to inherit the earth. You’ll find us everywhere. We raise the crops; we dig the mines, work the factories, keep the books, fly the planes and drive the buses. And when a cop yells: “Stand back there, you!” He means us, the John Does!

America’s John and Jane Does are the hope of the earth. The permanent political class would do well to recognize them not as a group to be placate or to be pandered to, but instead as the very people who made America what it is today and who make it what it could be tomorrow, if the permanent political class does not transform America into something unrecognizable.

Updated: Please also see this great piece from earlier this year by our very own Gary Jackson with a wonderful reference to “Meet John Doe”.

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Climate Change and the “Green” Light District

by Whitney Pitcher

“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.” – President Ronald Reagan

Last week, Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee and others passed a resolution stating that climate change disproportionately affects women and may drive them to engage in “transactional sex” (i.e. prostitution). There is a nugget of truth in Lee’s ridiculous resolution. Climate change itself may not drive women to prostitution, but the farce of climate change has driven some men (and probably some women as well) to essentially engage in political prostitution.

Yesterday, a Bloomberg article noted that Al Gore is now worth upwards of $200 million. Gore has derived his wealth from several avenues, but many of these are tied to his peddling of green Henny Penny nonsense. The Bloomberg article notes that Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth”, led to speaker’s fees of around $175,000 a pop. Additionally, as has been often noted, Gore’s sale of Current TV to Al-Jazeera netted him $100 million by itself. Gore also has his hand in green investing, which has ultimately padded his own pocketbook. In 2004, Gore joined with former Goldman Sachs managing director David W. Blood to form Generation Investment Management (GIM), as Bloomberg notes (emphasis added):

By the time of the Capricorn investment, he was already starting to rake in cash from Generation Investment Management – – a fund that incorporates “sustainability” into its investment approach. Gore co-founded GIM in 2004 with former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Managing Director David W. Blood.

Public filings show that in 2008 through 2011 London-based GIM racked up almost 140 million pounds ($218 million) in profits to be split among its 26 partners. Gore and Blood as founders are thought to have the largest equity stakes.

Not of all of Gore’s investments have been successful though. GIM later partnered with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers on “green” investments. Kleiner Perkins backed Fisker, an electric car company, which received more than half a billion dollars in government loans in 2009 only to lay off about 75% of its staff last month. When Gore’s “investments” have been unsuccessful, often its the American taxpayer–non-consenting investors–who lose.

The American people became non-consenting investment partners in billion of dollars of Department of Energy grants and loans from President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package and other efforts over the last few years. Roughly 80% of those DOE loans went to companies tied to President Obama’s donors. The Obama administration has invested hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars in biofuels for the US Navy. A biofuel company that received a more than a half a billion contract, Solazyme, has ties to former Obama adviser and donor, T.J. Glauthier. Solazyme’s contract is equivalent to $16 a gallon for fuel, about four times as high as traditional fuels. Even as the Navy’s budget is being cut by sequestration, they are continuing to make this expensive type of fuel a priority.

At best, climate change and its cause are unproven. Some cite a summer of higher temperatures as proof of climate change. Others say that man-created pollution may be the cause of a cooler spring. Even if anthropogenic climate change was true, the methods of mitigating its effects are unhelpful. Electric cars are often charged by coal powered electricity and are prone to catch on fire (more carbon emissions!). Biofuels, like wood and grain-based ethanol and algae based fuels, have proven to be inefficient in both their production and their consumption. All this “green” light district business does is fill the bank accounts of the politically connected at the expense of the American taxpayer…and proves President Reagan right once again.

Sarah Palin’s WaPo Op-Ed On Climate Change 3rd Most Read Of The Year

An Op-Ed Sarah Palin wrote for the Washington Post, that appeared in the July 14, 2009 edition, entitled The Cap and Tax Dead End, turns out to be the third most read Op-Ed of 2009. The most recent Op-Ed Sarah penned for the august daily, which appeared this past Wednesday, December 9th, entitled Copenhagen’s Political Science, clocks in at the 21st most read.

Obviously that’s sort of big news, or at least a significant piece of trivia, as WaPo runs thousands of Op-Eds yearly. This obviously says that when Sarah speaks, people listen, and when Sarah writes, people read. Of course, supporters know that already, and her record shattering books sales, and 1.1 million Facebook supporters that read her every note, certainly attest to Sarah’s ability to draw readers in and hold their attention.

As you may remember, when Sarah wrote the Op-Ed in July, the left went berserk, and trotted out known climate scientist, John F.Kerry, who served in Vietnam, to deliver a meager rebuttal, which of course was an epic fail.

This latest Op-Ed though has the entire left all wee-wee’d up! As you know, Sarah has taken on the biggest liar in the whole global warming scam, Al Gore, as well as demanding, for a second time, that Obama take a pass on Copenhagen. This of course has the usual suspects losing their minds, while they perform mental and verbal gymnastics trying to justify their pagan beliefs, in the wake of the global warming hoax being exposed to the general public, with more proof coming out daily.

What is remarkable though, are the attacks on the Washington Post itself, for even running Sarah’s Op-Eds! Deliciously, Greg Sargent of the WaPo’s own Plum Line blog, is in high dudgeon and full cross burning mode over this:

Sarah Palin’s Copenhagen-Bashing Op-Ed One Of Most Read WaPo Opinion Pieces Of The Year

Here’s a dispiriting postscript to the massive flap over The Washington Post’s decision to publish an Op ed by Sarah Palin on climate change, a piece that has been widely criticized as riddled with falsehoods.

I’m told by the paper’s insiders that her piece was one of the most-read WaPo opinion pieces of the year, coming in 21st in page views out of literally hundreds of opinion articles. An earlier Palin Op ed in the paper on the same topic was the third most read of the year.

A lot of this is probably driven by heavy outside linkage. But still, the fact that Sarah Palin, of all people, is able to command such attention for her views on the science of climate change, of all things, is kind of amazing.

To be clear, I’m not defending the decision to run the piece. I wouldn’t have run it. I’m just pointing out the undeniable fact that the woman’s name gets people clicking. Until people stop clicking, Palin and her views will continue to get attention.

Don’t you just love the “loving” and “tolerant” left? We were laughing ourselves silly when we read this in the early hours of the morning. The consensus among friends, and hey if consensus is good enough for science……Anyhow, we were all asking ourselves if these people really don’t see just how much like Nazis they sound like.

Remember when the left was spreading lies about Sarah “banning books?” You know, the list that was going around that had books on it that weren’t even written yet, when she was Mayor of Wasilla, and supposedly banning them? Yeah, that one!

Remember how insane the left went over this “book banning” hoax? Remember how “evil” they thought Sarah was for “banning books?” You know censorship man. It was almost as insane as they go over the global warming hoax. Hmmm, the left sure believes in a lot of hoaxes. Wouldn’t that basically make “progressives” supremely gullible?

But I digress.

These people cannot compete in the marketplace of ideas, so their answer is to always attempt to silence the competition. It’s truly all they’ve got.

Notice how Mr Sargent starts off by being “dispirited?” Well, he should be. Sarah Palin is single-handedly exposing their nonsensical lives, and beliefs. Sarah is single-handedly putting the brakes on their crazy ideas for “fundamentally remaking America.” Sarah is a force of nature they cannot stop!

Then, Mr Sargent goes into full Alinsky mode by saying her piece was “widely criticized as riddled with falsehoods.” Widely criticized by who? What are the falsehoods? Who knows! The reader is left to their own faith, or lack thereof, in Mr Sargent. The old “trust me, it just is” ploy.

Yeah, let’s trust a guy who runs around screaming like his hair is on fire and telling you “don’t read this, don’t listen to the bad lady!” Yeah… for sane people, that means: “I might ought to take a look at what this guy doesn’t want me to see. It might just be something!”

What’s hilarious is Mr Sargent’s incredulity at the fact people would read, and take stock in, something written by “Little Old Sarah Palin from Wasilla.”

This is where I always just stop and shake my head. You wonder if these so-called journalists are capable of doing even the most basic of research on their subjects, or if they just sit around in an echo chamber believing their own BS.

So let me ask Mr Sargent this: Just why WOULD the public want to listen to a woman who is a lifelong environmentalist and conservationist? Why WOULD the public want to listen to a woman who was her state’s chief energy and environmental regulator, in an energy rich, and environmentally conscious state, and a woman, who as Governor, chaired an multi-state agency that was also tasked with both energy regulation as well as environmentally sound practices?

Why WOULD the public want to listen to Sarah Palin, who as AOGCC chair, IOGCC chair, and Governor, has a stellar record is safeguarding Alaska’s environment, and holding violators of policy accountable? Why indeed would anyone want to listen to her about subjects concerning the environment!

As remarkable as the fact that Sarah’s Op-Eds are well read and taken seriously by millions is, the real story here is just how totally sad the “progressives” have become. Their little world view is being shattered. Their narrow-mindedness has been exposed to the world.

Most people in America are fair minded. Even when someone is saying things we don’t believe in, we give them the opportunity to speak. In fact, our right to speak is guaranteed by the very first amendment to our Constitution. It’s the very first right in the Bill of Rights, a set of rules that restrict what government can do, a restraint on government from infringing our God given rights. Men have died protecting these rights.

Only those without real ideas and real solutions want to silence others. Only those who rely on tricks and falsehoods run around screaming “the debate is over” and saying idiotic things like “the science is settled” right in the middle of the revelations that prove, without a doubt, that global warming is a hoax and a scam!

This, of course, applies to everything the left does, not just their scheme on “climate change.” The left is just as wee-wee’ed up over Sarah Palin, and many others, who dare try and stop them from destroying health care in America, and usurping our Constitution.

I have a thought for the radical left: How about instead of thumbing through your well worn copy of Saul Alinsky’s Rules, in an attempt to smear others, you actually come up with real and plausible ideas! How about you stop living in your land of fantasy and theory, and join the real world!

That’s where Sarah Palin, and the rest of us live.