The new silent majority

There is an important article at the progressive Campaign for America's Future website, written by Richard Eskow and titled, "The New Silent Majority." Here's an excerpt:

"Only 4% of people polled by CBS News after November's election thought that Congress should focus on deficits, and only 2% thought Washington should make taxes its highest priority. Yet those two topics have dominated the debate ever since, all but crowding out the concerns of the majority. Politicians and the media obsessed over them and ignored the topic that 56% of the public considered its highest priority: jobs and the economy.

We've only heard serious talk about "job creation" in the last 24 hours -- and that's in the context of a tax deal! Before yesterday, any attempt to bring up the public's top priority was dismissed by Washington insiders as the irrelevant chatter of marginal extremists. "Stimulus" was a dirty word, not to be spoken in polite company. Now it's on everybody's lips - conveniently enough, just as it could be applied to extending tax cuts for the wealthy. That part of yesterday's deal was opposed by 64% of the American public.

Is it any surprise that over 70% of those polled by CBS were either "dissatisfied" or "angry" with the way Washington works? Neither Obama's base nor his fellow Democrats had a seat at the table when this deal was cut, and that's become a major news story. But seven out of ten voters weren't represented at that table, either. In the long run, that 's a much bigger story.

...When asked how we should cut the deficit, the public would rather raise taxes on the wealthy than cut Social Security - by more than two to one. That includes 71% of independents, 77% of Republicans--and 76% of Tea Party supporters. That's the populist face of the New Silent Majority."

www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010124909/new-silent-majority

The article also has some interesting things to say about Obama's sport of "hippie punching."

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Hampshire Review columnist Bob Flanagan has joined the chorus of those calling for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's assassination--adding further confirmation that nobody really believes any longer that this is a nation of laws, and not of men. RIP, America.

--Michael Hasty