Several national magazines recently reported on what they call a growing right-wing movement. There is definitely a rising tide at the grassroots, but the participants in this movement are not ideologues who fall in neat categories under stereotyped labels.
They come in all colors, shapes and denominations, from all parts of the country, and from all social and economic classes. They are just plain Americans who work hard for their daily bread and are disappointed with the direction our country is taking at the top. For the lack of a better name, let’s call them Middle Americans.
These are the people who take pride in America and our 201 years of freedom and achievement, and they don’t want to retreat any further in the face of World Communist advance. Surrender is a word that doesn’t exist in the vocabulary of these Middle Americans.
These Middle Americans don’t want to surrender the Panama Canal to dictator Torrijos. They don’t want to surrender crucial concessions to the Soviets in a SALT II treaty.
These Middle Americans still — after 18 years — don’t want to surrender the Monroe Doctrine to dictator Castro in Cuba. They don’t want to surrender the Crown of St. Stephen to the Red dictators of Hungary.
Middle Americans are fed up with paying higher and higher taxes for schools that cost more but teach less, for welfare benefits to people who won’t take steady jobs even when offered, and for cash and credit giveaways to more than a hundred foreign countries. Some of these Middle Americans are out of a job today because their taxes have been spent to build plants in foreign countries that send cheap imports into the United States and cause American plants to close.
These Middle Americans are outraged at the killing of more than a million unborn babies a year, at the television shows that air hour after dreary hour of explicit violence and immoral sex, and at the failure of our lawmakers and judges to find a way to stop the rising torrent of smut peddlers, drug pushers and criminals who prowl our streets.
The Middle Americans have discovered that the liberal programs have been colossal failures, and that more Federal spending is not the solution but a big part of the problem. Middle Americans do not believe that all wisdom emanates from Washington, D.C.
They reject the reactionary notion that bureaucrats are endowed with some special talent that enables them to be better physicians, teachers, or businessmen than the private economy can produce.
Yes, something is happening at the grassroots of America today. It is a new individualism, a demand that we be allowed to spend our own money, to solve our own problems, and to have officials who respect morality and patriotism.
A favorite expression of the late President John Kennedy was, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” This rising tide will lift a lot of politicians out of office if they don’t respond to the demands of the American people.
