The record setting “stimulus bill” and the solutions President Obama has proposed to address the banking crisis and the suffering economy have exceeded the expectations of those who warned voters about extreme liberal policies to come. They have not met the expectations of those on Wall Street though. Stocks plummeted as President Obama signed the “stimulus” bill into law and after a month in office, amid speculation of extensive bank regulation and possible nationalization, stocks sunk to their lowest levels in a decade.
Not only have some of Barack Obama’s actions as President exceeded Republicans’ wildest expectations of how liberal they would be, but the response to them has been a surprisingly strong resurgence of conservatism among Republican lawmakers and the grassroots. During the debate over the Democrats’ “stimulus” bill, Capitol Hill phone lines and email inboxes were swamped with traffic from those opposing it. The bill passed the House with zero Republican votes and there were only three Republican votes for it in the Senate.
The unifying force President Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have been for Republicans has been an energizing force for many in the grassroots as well. Although unable to defeat the “stimulus” bill, grassroots America appears ready to fight the next battle over spending and government bailouts. A video rallying cry from CNBCs Rick Santelli in reaction to the proposed mortgage bailout has exploded on the internet inspiring not only the “Chicago Tea Party” he advocated, but similar “tea parties” all across the nation.
In his analysis of Santelli’s “Shout Heard Round the World,” James Pethokoukis comments on the sharp and quick Obama sprint back to the Left following the election. “It's now clear why Team Obama was following Rahm Emanuel's "shock doctrine" recommendation of not "letting a crisis go to waste." When you are trying to govern a center-right nation from the left, you need to grab whatever advantages fortune hands you and then move fast and hard to exploit them. But did Obama really win a mandate to borrow and spend taxpayer money like never before, rescue bad banks and then bailout financially-inept or even fraudulent homeowners? Rick Santelli doesn't think so and that is why he talked back.”
If we continue to see the Obama administration move hard and fast to the left, the pushback from the right both from the grassroots and from congressional Republicans should grow even stronger. Since the Obama followers have spent the past two years in campaign Hope ‘n Change mode, it will be interesting to see if they can rally the troops to support the administration’s proposals as they supported the campaign. In contrast, conservatives over the past couple of years have had little motivation or inspiration, but now appear energized for a fight. If they can maintain the momentum they have picked up over the past month, we might actually see them unite into a successful opposition force and achieve success beyond our wildest expectations.