Stepping On Some Toes

Some people are about to get their toes stepped on …. We’ve been too nice for too long to too many people over too many issues. The Mediterranean and a large portion of the Middle East are awash with countries whose populations have grown tired of playing nice with tyrannical leaders who in return serve up nothing more than repression. Over in Europe, leaders once heralded as socially enlightened have publicly proclaimed that the multicultural social experiment has been a miserable failure in spite of their industrious efforts to make the melting pots work. At home, our political leaders face their own comeuppance as citizens have rediscovered the Constitution and demand that it be adhered to. Organized labor groups are finding out that there is only so much money to go around and their collective bargaining windfalls have ‘contracted’ them into a corner. Even President Obama, once immune from second guessers finds himself and his signature domestic policies under intense fiscal scrutiny.

Some people are about to get their toes stepped on. In doing so the hope is to regain a measure of sanity. Tiger Woods (2009), Republicans (2008), Michael Vick (2007), Bill Clinton (1998), and South African apartheid proponents (1995) all got their toes mashed and in most cases – sanity was restored.

Maybe we weren’t too nice. Maybe we just got lazy, complacent, or felt that confrontation was better put off to the future. Though, in the case of those citizens living under repressive rule, it was different. They were duped, blissfully ignorant of promises made and what the future held, or simply remained afraid for their lives if they bucked the tide. Come to think of it, there are many Americans that live their lives under the duped and blissful category as well.

Somewhere along the American journey we traded reality, urgency, common sense, and rational thought for the lazy acceptance of political correctness with its compassion laced absurdity. We should have known better. We also should have known better when we watched and even cajoled our politicians to keep bringing home the bacon without accounting for the fact that bacon has a price tag.

Other parts of the world have never known any other way of life than being under the iron fist of their government. Whether it’s in the States or elsewhere in the world, bad things usually occur when people of conscience lose their spine and acquiesce to the loudest, most aggressive voice in the room.

The good news is that the evening news is filled with people around the world that have suddenly found their spine, are taking a stand, and saying enough is enough.

 

Repressive regimes – Eight years ago George Bush was ridiculed for his plan to export freedom and democracy to Iraq at the expense of Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical regime. Many in our country thought the idea was ludicrous and played into the ‘Bush is an idiot’ talking point. They never considered that other countries (spelled; repressed dominoes) in the region were taking notice of the process and results of liberation and nation building. What they have since seen are the before and after events signifying what that struggle produced; a government chosen and administered by the people, new freedoms, and self determination for men – and women. The people of Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Algiers, Morocco, Jordan, Iran, Kuwait, Djibouti, and Yemen are now emboldened to step on some toes.

 

American politicians – One could postulate that the US started the revolutionary ball rolling with our own political uprising in November 2010 by simply throwing a boatload of overreaching politicians out of office; but that would be overly gratuitous. Obamacare is under the judicial gun in terms of shear constitutionality, environmental and energy decisions are being questioned, unbridled entitlement spending is about to get a rude awakening, and our overall fiscal dysfunction is no longer a side show. Political toes at every level of our government are about to get stepped on.

 

Multiculturalism – England’s PM David Cameron pronounced the explicit and dismal failure of multiculturalism in his country at a recent speech in Munich. This was preceded by French President Sarkozy doing the same thing one week prior with German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoing similar sentiments as well. Even the socially sanctimonious Dutch have indicated that those from out of town have worn out their welcome in The Netherlands.

Conversely in the US, liberals routinely tag conservative voices as bigots and racists when they utter the same purview. While we don’t yet experience the same extreme levels of cultural segregation trouble that our European counterparts do, the trend is in that direction. It’s rather ironic that those who, in recent years wanted our government to listen and emulate the progressive stalwarts of Europe on other issues now wish those same enlightened Europeans would just shut up when it comes to this touchy topic. The Europeans are leading the way in stepping on the toes of the politically correct. Go figure.

 

Organized labor – There is a bill coming due involving union pensions for government workers; state and federal. It won’t get paid; not because the government is cheap, (they’re not – as long as it isn’t their money) but because they spent the money elsewhere and their taxpayer ATM card won’t work anymore.

Unfortunately, this end game is easy to predict as we’ve already watched it play out in Greece, Spain, France, and Great Britain. Hopefully it won’t get as violent but one never knows when dealing with a group think (politically correct term for mob mentality). New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took the initial steps at taming the union monster followed by Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker. Democratic Governors Cuomo and Brown may be next. It’s almost comical that when Walker’s Wisconsin cost cutting plan hit the floor in the state legislature that included breaking an organized labor headlock on the states purse strings; the powers that be reacted in predictable fashion; unions staged mass demonstrations forcing the cancellation of school and sympathetic politicians fled the state. Conventional wisdom dictates that this scenario will spread.

Having your toes stepped on isn’t such a bad thing. With few exceptions, every time someone has intentionally done it to me I either deserved it or it kept me from causing further damage. The recovery time was usually short but spent in quiet consideration of how to not to make it happen again.

Watch your toes.