Trust in Americans

I was over at The Armed Canadian's blog reading a post he has up. I started writing this in the comment section, but it got too big. So here it is.

First and foremost;
Trust that things always get worse before they get better.
Americans can be faulted for being complacent. In fact; Americans could actually be called dense. We'll sit back in our comfy chairs, and see the nastiness taking place in our government, and say; "Oh yeah? Well, just wait until you guys do something really bad." I guess you could say we're slow to anger. :) But when someone comes into our home and says, "Hey. Get up. It's time to report to your mandatory community service." Trust in Americans to go from zero to enraged in no time flat. It may take quite a bit to piss us off, but when the pinch makes its way down to the everyday folks, there's going to be hell to pay. Just because it's been so long since we've felt that pinch doesn't mean we'll react any differently.

Trust in Americans to be cynical about government.
Approval ratings for the government as a whole are abysmally low. No, they're not low; they're in the gutter. Americans have not been happy with how the country has been run. Is it any wonder why a political nobody was able to win the presidency with little more than a promise of unqualified change, and vague hope? Approval ratings remain low, but expectations are incredibly high-- extremely high-- impossibly high. The honeymoon will end, maybe sooner, maybe later, but it will end. When it does; people are going to be pissed. When someone says they can put a camel through the eye of a needle a lot of people may clap and applaud, but one of those people is going to go find a camel and a needle, hand them over, and stare expectantly. Americans have given Obama his camel and his needle, and much of the audience is still optimistic, but we know what the outcome must be.

Trust in Americans to get angry.
When Americans get angry, they vote no. We see it in California. People look at the ballot, read the words "spend" or "borrow" and vote no. Frankly, almost to a fault. But the point remains; Americans will get angry. Expect the "flush congress" movement to gain momentum, and trust Americans to start voting out incumbents simply because they're incumbents. Expect republicans and democrats to come together as citizens, and march against politicians. The madder Americans get; the louder Americans get. Expect things to get loud. Expect the fairweather socialists to turn very quickly and harshly. It's hard to say "Trust in Obama" when your government rent check is a month late, or your food stamps are up for review.

Trust in Americans to be fickle when they are promised more than can possibly be delivered.
Even in liberal liberal California, everyone got pissed off enough to recall Gray Davis for his stupidity. We may have lost that anger after we won that fight, but the anger was there. It hung in the air for months prior to the election. We just have to make sure people get pissed off at the right time, and come down like a ton of bricks on something that matters. We may be in danger of building the momentum, and wasting it on something inconsequential. If you want to rile up Americans screw with their lives. Trust the federal government to reach into the lives of Americans with promises of free health care and cheap loans. Trust the federal government to fail to deliver those services. Trust Americans to feel cheated, and strike back with their votes. Trust Americans to become very politically active when they realize federal politics do, indeed, affect them.

Trust in American politicians to see the light when they feel the heat.
I think there are very few politicians who don't worry about being reelected. I also think there is little politicians won't do if they really feel their reelection hangs in the balance. Most politicians today are husks. They have no morals, no principals, and no deeply held beliefs. They have inclinations, and they have self preservation. If there is no fear, they will vote with their inclination, but if there is fear from the party or from the people, they will vote to save their own skins. They're simple like that. I think the only way a new federal AWB will pass is if they get enough supporters to do a voice vote so they won't be held specifically accountable. But even if that happens, Americans aren't going to just let it go; they're going to return with a chainsaw, and cut down every tree they see. Good, bad, and indifferent. Americans are like that.

Trust in Americans not to be Europeans.
This is not a socialist country yet. We haven't brought up our kids to tolerate failure from our leaders. When things don't go our way, we don't simply shrug and mumble into our beer. WE FIGHT! One of the things other nations hate about Americans is our can-do spirit. We don't like to lose, and we certainly aren't going to lose because elitist assholes in a big building thousands of miles away are too busy blowing hot air to do something about it!The states are not 100% dependent upon the fedgov yet, if things get really bad, trust state governments to start ignoring the those windbags. We have the infrastructure for autonomy. Besides; what incentive will the states have to hang around when the free money runs out? Uncle Sugar isn't very bright, and isn't very nice, but he buys a lot of friends with his printing presses. Don't expect them to hang around when he runs out of ink.

Lastly;
Trust in Americans to buy more guns.
Americans buy guns. It's just what we do. Americans from all walks of life go to gun shops, and buy and sell guns. Don't worry about it; celebrate it. Celebrate that when California passed their state Assault Weapons Ban, the registration rate was estimated at 1%. Trust that 99% of every gun that is bought will have to be taken by force. Diane Feinstein can pontificate, "If I could have said Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in, I would have", but it's the implementation where the government never fails to fall flat on its face. How many police officers will an agency have to lose to confiscation sweeps before they refuse to continue? I assure you; the number is VERY low. Trust that in some dark room in a bunker deep under Washington DC, the secret leaders of the Democrat party are laughing their asses off at someone who just suggested confiscating guns. Every time a law abiding American buys a gun, we win just a little bit more.