Greg Awtry

I am convinced if candidates spent more time listening in the coffee shops and less time talking on the campaign trail they would have a better idea of what people think of them than what they see from pollsters.

Let’s listen in to what some folks are saying about “the final four”: Jon Bruning, Deb Fischer, Don Stenberg and of course the latest and somewhat clumsy entry of Bob Kerrey.

In a nutshell coffee table opinions:

Jon Bruning. He’s smart. He’s a fighter. He is very ambitious. He has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth. He reminds us of a slick politician. Wasn’t he once a Democrat? I thought he wanted to be governor. He’s pretty bold, we need that in Washington. Hey, anyone is better than Ben.

Deb Fischer: She seems very deliberate to me. Thinks well on her feet. She is one tough rancher from the Sandhills. Nobody in Washington going to cut her fences. She is impressive but doesn’t get much press. She needs to get out more. What’s she stand for? Hey, anyone is better than Ben.

Don Stenberg: Don will run for any open office. He’s in bed with those Tea Partiers. We like the Tea Party and Don, they have it right. He’s the most conservative of the bunch. Not sure if he will be an effective leader in the Senate. Who is running the Treasurers office while he is campaigning? (Then from the same corner of the table… Hey anyone is better than Ben!)

Bob Kerrey: Who does he think he is fooling? He did okay for Nebraska when he was a governor. He was just bored and wanted some publicity. What ever happened to, “Once a Nebraskan, always a Nebraskan?” Bob’s okay, just a little too far left for most of us. He won’t win. Don’t underestimate Bob, he’s smooth. (Silence from the corner seat until asked. “Even Ben might be better than Bob!”)

So who is going to win? Bruning. Bruning. Bruning, but I hope not. Stenberg. Deb should, but I don’t think she will.

So, if it comes down to Bruning versus Kerrey? Bruning. Bruning. Bruning. Bruning, Bruning.

Hey, flag down the waitress, coffee is cold. 

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The last election sent a strong message to Congress. From about April on, the Tea Party set the tone. From small gatherings on rural county courthouse lawns to major marches in Washington, D.C. their message was loud and clear. “Stop the overspending!”

After months of electioneering, countless handshakes at county fairs, quiet conversations with civic groups and newspaper reporters, promises were made, promises that were going to change the fiscal insanity in Washington. Election night was filled with shock and awe, as many Republicans closely tied to the Tea Party seized control of the House of Representatives.

Campaigning is easy. Governing is hard. Making promises is easy. Following up on those promises is hard. And it is becoming far too evident in the city along the Potomac.

Last week, the Republicans kept their word as they proposed to slash nearly $35 billion from the budget. Well, not really, because the United States of America didn’t pass a budget. That’s right. We have no budget, just a silly string of Continuing Resolutions giving the country the power to spend whatever it wants, piling mountains of debt on our children.

What do we say to our children about us squandering away their future?

So, it’s $35 billion, right? That’s what they want to cut. Right now, we spend about $10 billion a day. Of that $10 billion, we must borrow $4 billion a day. So these drastic cuts, these country-changing cuts, well, they amount to about three days worth of spending. Wow, that is so bold!

What do we say to these politicians to make them balance our budget?

Let’s bring it a little closer to home. In fact, let’s lay it out on the kitchen table. In York, Neb., the average household income is $49,000. That means if you spent it all, you would spend about $135 a day. But if you were like the Washingtonians, you would actually spend $225 a day. You would have to borrow $90 a day (from your children) to cover your bills. How long do think that would last?

You, being more sensible than the people we elect, want to get your financial house in order, so you sit down with your family and tell them you have to cut spending, just like the Republicans. That will fix the problem, won’t it? To match the Republicans’ cut, instead of your family spending $225 a day, you were going to slash family spending to $223 a day. A lousy two bucks! That is equivalent of what this new Congress proposed last week.

One big problem. You still only make $135 a day, so cutting your spending from $225 a day down to $223 a day won’t fix anything, will it? Of course not, you are still going broke. And unfortunately, so is our once proud and powerful nation. Republicans, you wanted to govern, to right your wrongs of the past, and so get to it. Cutting only $35 billion when our annual deficit is $1.5 trillion, is an insult. If you are successful, our deficit will still be $1.465 trillion.

Until we hire some politicians who have the guts of an American family huddled around their kitchen table, making really tough decisions, we are in desperate straits. Until they decide to work as hard balancing their budget as American families do every day, we are in deep doo-doo. Until we elect people with vision and a plan, as painful as it may be, to restore America to greatness, we will flounder and leave a country with far less opportunity than was given to us by a generation who knew the meaning of true freedom and sacrifice.

I stood over the bed of a 90-year-old WW II veteran the other day. The man once stood six feet, three inches. Now, beaten down by age, the man who gave so much to preserve the greatest country mankind has ever known, the country his parents helped build, the country he was willing to die for, and still is, looked up at me and asked, “What’s happening? What’s going to happen to our land?”

What do we say to him?

Rhetoric. The Tucson murders, as tragic as they are, has brought out the finger-pointers, making ridiculous claims and ignoring facts.

And look who is telling us we should tone down the rhetoric, our national politicians, the very same who day after day are the most pompous partisan rhetoric-filled, country-dividing group of people in the nation. They have the gall to tell us we should tone down the rhetoric. Hell, they make a living spouting partisan rhetoric from the floor of the House of Representatives, the People’s House; the very House for which Representative Gabrielle Giffords sought middle ground for the past several sessions.

Then add to that mix of elected hypocrites the entire slate of political pundits, many trying to draw a line connecting blame of the Tucson tragedy to Sarah Palin, The Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, right-wing radio, conservative cable TV, liberal gun laws, etc. They have all gone mad.

Okay, having said that, I’ll join in. I’ll point a few fingers too.

Let’s start with the shooting in Tucson. Who is to blame? The murderer of course, a crazed individual whose name is not worthy of mentioning in this piece. He made the decision to kill people. Because this sorry excuse for a human being actually lived, while those he attacked either bled to death or are struggling for their lives, we’ll no doubt find out why he did it, but it won’t really matter. All that matters is that he made the decision to do it. He is to blame, period.

And what’s up with the talk of more gun laws? Hasn’t the left figured out that assassination attempts are already against the law and murdering innocent people is against the law? Do they actually want us to believe that this crazed lunatic, who had already decided to break the law against assassination and murder, would have suddenly decided to obey another gun law? Well, what do you think?

Now, what about the rhetoric? Sure there is rhetoric. The nation is mad. It was mad when Bush was president, which is why Obama got elected. It was mad when the mid-terms came around, which is why the Democrats lost control of the House. And it’s still mad. What Washington simply doesn’t have the capacity to understand, because they are encapsulated in egocentric bubbles of their own making, is that Americans are not mad at each other. We are mad at them because they have mismanaged, and continue to mismanage our beloved country to the point of fiscal insanity. We have been collectively shaking our fingers at them for years, and they just don’t get it.

Hey, the country is in big trouble as we know. The elected Democrats blame Republicans. The elected Republicans blame Democrats. Right versus left, conservative versus liberal, but out here, where the real people live, we blame Washington. We blame them because they can’t get along. Believe me; if Washington played nice, worked together for the good of our nation and not for the good of their party and the re-election pollsters, you would see the rhetoric disappear in short order.

From what I have seen and read about Rep. Giffords, this is exactly what she worked for. She was a self-admitted “Blue Dog” Democrat. She sought middle ground and compromise, steering clear of the rhetoric in favor of solutions. I pray for her complete recovery and return to the People’s House to do the People’s work. Even though I may not agree with all her politics, we need more like her.

Washington should learn from Giffords as well. But they won’t. As quickly as cable TV news moves on to the next big story, the rhetoric of Washington will once again dominate the agenda and the floor of the House of Representatives will once again be full of finger-pointers.

We should buy all the Washington ding-dongs a mirror. They can sit in their plush offices, separated from the people they govern, and look at themselves all day long. They can sit there and point fingers, and reflect on their reflections who will be pointing directly at those most responsible for the nation’s rhetoric.

Maybe, just maybe, it would be wise for once, for them to lead by example.

It took a couple years for President Obama’s message of “Hope and Change” to finally hit home, and hit home it has. The American people have embraced his theme and it is being reflected in voting booths across the nation. In short, the voters are telling Washington they hope they change the way they do things. In fact, folks are so enthralled with the message they are helping force the change by tossing career politicians out like used Kleenex.

In unprecedented numbers, well-entrenched candidates from both parties are being blindsided by an American electorate fed up with a government that has lost touch with the very people it governs. In many races we are seeing a welcomed change where the candidate with the most money is not necessarily the winner. Big spenders are falling like dominos and yet the mainstream media is still having problems trying to explain what the heck is going on.

You see, big media and career politicians have been joined at the hip for decades. It has been one big love fest where egos are being stroked just to gain access. So rather than find out what is really going on in this country the national media flounders around, explaining it only by blaming the Tea Partiers.

Well, wake up national media. Do your job, and instead of blaming the Tea Party, give them credit. They have stripped away career politicians’ friendly smiles and handshakes, broken promises and over-stuffed war chests full of millions of dollars in campaign contributions. They have exposed many of them for what they are, egomaniacs addicted to our money, who have for years been governing based on how many votes they can get, rather than what is right for America.

The Tea Party is like a pair of glasses. We the people have been shortsighted for years and looking through the Tea Party lenses is quickly bringing things into focus. We are seeing for the first time in a long time what an overgrown, out of control federal government looks like, seeing what it is doing to our country and we don’t like it. Give credit where credit is due. The Tea Party has opened our eyes.

So what exactly are we seeing and what do we hope to change? We are seeing our great nation go broke watching Congress spend $9 billion dollars a day, but only having $5 billion in their pocket, forcing them to borrow $4 billion a day, every day, seven days a week, with no end in sight. And there isn’t a single member of the press with enough guts to ask any of the Washingtonians who is going to pay it back.

We the People see it and hope to change it.

We see our paychecks shrinking just to fund Washington’s addiction to our money, yet they tell us Social Security (our money) is going broke. We see entitlement programs sucking away our future, government takeovers of private companies, bailouts for greedy corporations, under achieving federal employees in charge of oversight and at the same time over regulation stifling growth.

We the People see it now and hope to change it.

We see us fighting two overseas wars we cannot afford while Washington keeps passing bills to fund these wars by borrowing even more from Communist China; yet, we are told we cannot afford to dedicate the resources necessary to protect our own borders. We see the federal government suing its own state of Arizona for trying to help.

We the People see all this and hope to change it.

We see the passage of a health care bill the overwhelming majority of Americans do not want and cannot afford in the very shadow of a Medicare system that is also going broke. We see the federal government ordering every single American to buy health insurance or be faced with thousands of dollars in fines, to be enforced and collected by the IRS. We see 20 states suing the federal government over the constitutionality of this takeover.

We the People see this and hope to change it.

Obama’s campaign message of hope and change is coming through loud and clear. The Tea Party has opened our eyes and helped all of us, Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike see the rampant insubordination of our “well-established” career politicians and we don’t like what we see. National media, it is that simple.

Americans have found their voices, their voting booths … and their glasses. See you at the polls!