You Can't Get Oil From Dry Hole

Here’s a question for you. What do the Obamas have in common with the boot-strappin’ Appalachians and the bearded hillbilly “Backyard Oilmen” of the Discovery Channel reality series set in south central Kentucky?

The answer is nothing. The Appalachian and hillbilly Backyard Oilmen worked to get where they are; they love America; they’re honest, God-fearing men, and they respect one another. None of those attributes describe the Obamas.

Here’s another question for you. Why are these same Appalachian and hillbilly oilmen savvier than the majority of voters? The reason? Because those Backyard Oilmen are savvy enough to know that if a hole comes up dry the first time you drill it – you don’t keep redrilling the same hole expecting to strike oil.

Which brings me to my point. I have been telling voters since 2002 that “the only things politicians want from us are our money and our votes. And the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats, unlike the Republican hierarchy, do not hide it.”

Last week my friend and I were talking about the Tea Party groups and why their brand had been compromised. Saturday afternoon as a guest on a talk show, I was asked the same question.

I explained to the program host as I had to my friend – the Tea Party brand was compromised because egocentric and nefarious individuals tried to transmogrify the tea parties from a movement of the people into a Party. Individuals driven by their thirst for recognition and misguided belief that a conference call from a politician made them insiders undermined one of the most successful movements of the people in decades.

The success of the tea parties in 2010 was that they belonged to the people. We the People didn’t listen to nor seek the approval of the Republican hierarchy. We didn’t ask for nor accept advice from Karl Rove, et al. Our determined individuality resulted in the most lopsided reclamation of Congress in 70 plus years.

But, it has become apparent, that which is led by one person more often than not falls prey to the ego of said individual. We the People must become resolute in our belief that the same mentality we applied to raise our families, purchase homes, send our children to college, make sound retirement plans, open and operate businesses, save and plan vacations, ad nauseum, will serve us well if we allow it when it comes to voting for the right candidates.

It is appalling to witness otherwise intelligent, self-reliant people, who are capable decision-makers abandon all semblance of common sense to blindly go along with whatever the political hierarchy claims is necessary. Democrats, regardless of their professed intentions, are anarchists at best and Neo-Leninists at worst who believe – contrary to the intent of our Founding Fathers – that government is the deity to whom we should turn for our daily bread. And today’s Republican establishment is no different.

The tea party was effective when it was a movement of the people, but the averous of certain men and the determination of the Republican hierarchy to deny us the right to choose the candidates of our choice quickly eroded the movement. We have witnessed Republican operatives (Read Karl Rove) sabotage candidates like Herman Cain. We have witnessed the so-called Republican leadership cast stinging aspersions against Sarah Palin and other candidates We the People supported. We multiple times daily hear so-called conservative pundits blather the hierarchy talking points pursuant to the tea party. These same pundits more often than not play a shell game of pretending to build up one candidate while waiting to tear them down in favor of the likes of McCain and/or Romney.

We the People must come to the realization that we are the power and our votes do count. We cannot continue to reward failed politicians with reelection after they blatantly and repeatedly betray our interests.

They are politicians, not rocket scientists. I know garage mechanics that have more common sense and a better grasp of what the nation needs than politicians. I know persons who own and operate lawn-care businesses who are financially more astute than politicians.

We the People must come to the realization that we are capable of thinking for ourselves. We must also come to the realization that campaigns and the establishment are paying image-makers enormous sums to create a candidate’s public persona. We must realize that little we see from the outside is real pursuant to those candidates whom party leadership tries to force upon us.

We need a movement of the people not a party. We must stop abdicating our common sense in favor of those whose only design is to have us do their bidding. Because as every “Backyard Oilman” knows you can’t get oil from a dry hole.