On Weasels and the Removal Thereof Through Unified Action

by Susan Westfall

Recently by Susan Westfall: A Scoop of Ron Paul, Please

After shocking even myself one day several years ago, I decided I needed to settle on a word to use when referring to politicians, leaders, and the other special interest groups who work so hard to sell the sovereign countries of the world down the road for personal gain, all the while espousing their good intentions for the "general welfare" of the people. Not that there aren't innumerable choice terms for these treacherous busy-bodies already. However, vocalizing any of them in public usually results in a rapid change to my complexion – a facial state I've generally tried to avoid since middle school PE classes. Nevertheless, I admit to using most of them at one point or another in recent times and many of them quite often, albeit in private. I really just needed a word I could do more than mutter disgustedly under my breath in public. Ultimately, I settled upon the term "weasel". I'm not sure who first applied this word to humans as a descriptor for acting in a cunning and/or deceitful fashion to achieve desired ends, but I'm willing to bet a politician was involved somewhere.

Most of us know (or have known) a weasel or two in our lifetimes. Some of us know more than a few, and a few of us are unlucky enough to be surrounded by them. Escaping real life encounters with weasels is a fortunate state of affairs indeed. Nevertheless, you will undoubtedly be assaulted by proxy either through media or legislative mandates. Pick up any form of print media and their visages smile up at you with a plastic intensity matched only by the accompanying pontificating on their plans for maintaining and expanding the status-quo controls on your life. I challenge you to find a news channel where you won't hear those same plans (or worse ones) regurgitated through flashy, cutesy sound bytes on the hour by more (or the same) plasticine personas. Our nation's capital seethes with them. Their offices overflow with favored crony lobbyists, and their legislative droppings have spread over the land burying our Republic in the stink of rotten tyranny. Yes, weasels are rampant on the Hill. So much so that one might wonder whether D.C. suffered an invasion of the weasel-pod-people one fine night while the country slept. Of course we have been asleep for quite a long time, so perhaps it shouldn't surprise us to find that our house has been overrun by weasels, the clean up of which – to borrow a favored weasel phrase – is a "shovel ready job". This one, however, would actually be of more than temporary benefit to America.

The weasels would like us all to accept that their infestation is not only normal, but "just the way things are". At which point they expect us all to go back to sleep, so the merry-go-round of fraud and plunder can continue spinning money out of our pockets and into theirs. Since that proposed state of affairs has been a long-standing given, it's not surprising that they can't recognize the winds of change, even after the gusts carried a good number of them out of office this past November. Some are beginning to get a clue, but they have yet to realize that the people mean serious business this time. The dysphoria hanging over the land is not just a temporary phase easily placated with business as usual platitudes mouthed blithely out of one side of their faces or the other. Too many Americans caught a glimpse of the underlying decay exposed to sunlight during the 2008 debates by the sheer strength of honest words voiced by a man of impeccable integrity. If as Justice Louis Brandeis stated (and Obama so blithely quoted out of one side of his face) "sunlight is the greatest disinfectant," then Ron Paul – who simply wiped away years of grimy obfuscation with a few clarifying statements – is the mightiest cleaning agent since the advent of Clorox.

Multitudes of Americans immediately recognized the truth in Congressman Ron Paul's words. When they listened to past floor speeches and checked his voting record, they found a man whose foresight and consistency reins unmatched by any other in decades. And they went to work with a vengeance and energy that has become the envy of many. Although both he and the number of his supporters were repeatedly ridiculed and marginalized, neither let it affect their efforts. When Dr. Paul ended his campaign by saying that "victory is not available to us in the conventional sense," his supporters shifted gears and continued on in an unconventional sense. The campaign to elect Ron Paul as president has never ended for those whose apathy he cured and their numbers have continued to grow slowly and exponentially over the last four years. In Dr. Paul they had found, not a politician, but a statesman they could trust. One who not only talked the talk, but walked the walk – always. No other candidate could lay claim to that virtue in 2008, none can lay claim to it now in 2012. The grassroots will not be fooled by a substitute posing with a hastily procured copy of the Constitution and paying lip-service to liberty.

In 2009 the Tea Party exploded on the political scenes demonstrating just how large the disenchanted multitude has become. Despite his supporters being the first tea-partiers in 2007, it is often pointed out by media-weasels that most Americans don't, won't, and can't possibly back Ron Paul. Maybe not – yet – but an overwhelming majority of them are sick to death of the status-quo. Tired of being lied to about everything, disgusted by TSA gropings in the name of security, sick of their earnings being fleeced to bail out criminals, angered by endless curtailment of their freedoms, and done being told what they can buy, eat, drink and do, the vast majority of Americans have had – enough. They are hungry for real change and Ron Paul is still the only candidate offering anything but a continuation of the status-quo. A lone voice with backbone enough to speak the truth and damn the consequences, he has consistently stood his ground for the Constitution, maintained his stance on principle and refused to sell the people out for power or personal gain. Not only did he predict the economic quicksand threatening to suck us under (when no else had a clue) but he offers real solutions for recovery and a transition to prosperity. Thirty years of consistency is an indisputable testimony that puts to shame the wishy-washy, flip-flopping records of all the other candidates propelled into the ring by previously influential, but now desperate "king-makers". Meanwhile, Mr. Obama has proven himself a craven, treasonous liar. The American people will inevitably back Ron Paul in a resounding landslide, and it will happen sooner, rather than later.

The mad scramble to refute this predictable fact continues unabated through the previously tried and true tools of marginalization, manipulation, and obfuscation of facts. However, there are notable differences. Unlike 2008, the media can no longer ignore Ron Paul – they are too desperate for ratings. Neither can they actually ridicule him outright – the resulting blowback is legendary. So, quite refreshingly, we are treated to many instances of the actual reporting of truth by those in the media who have almost (but not quite) decided to forgo outright weaseling this election cycle. Respectful interviews posing relevant questions, in which Dr. Paul is not interrupted or talked over, and honest articles which report his rising popularity in the polls and explain his stances are pleasantly easy to find. It is highly unfortunate that so many of those hosts and writers then destroy their own credibility by including trite clichés about electability, snide asides about zealous supporters, and derogatory comments towards his sensible solutions. Refreshingly, a few in the media have courageously returned to an honorable reporting of truth and disseminating of unbiased information. I predict this trend will continue, quickly catching on and spreading like wildfire. I imagine most in the media have not enjoyed playing games of enable-the-weasel over the past decades.

In recent years it's probably been very distasteful. So much so that those able to, have retired or left the media field altogether. Those unable probably grit their teeth and nurse bad stomachs and battered consciences on a regular basis. I would argue that many in the mainstream media are just like the American people at large – they've had enough. They can't take any more. They are full to the rafters with deceitful trickery and fed-up with playing enable-the-weasel. Although it's certainly satisfying to point our fingers at someone else (the media) and say it's all their fault for misleading us, it isn't fair to do so. We – all of us – have enabled the weasels to infest our government, foul our land and wrest away from us our Republic. I truly believe that people are generally good. Oft times people find themselves pressured or cornered into supporting things they don't agree with, doing jobs they find demeaning, saying things they know are misleading, or carrying out actions they find distasteful. All of these actions are essential for enabling weasels and we have all contributed to or played the game to some extent by not speaking out and not standing up when we should have.

However, the time for games is over. We are down to the wire and, like it or not, we are going to go down. The weasels know it, but will never, ever admit it. In fact some may be counting on it and hoping to pick up the pieces at fire-sale prices. The question is – how will we go down? Will we go down with grace and direction or will it be a breath-snatching, spit-flying, eye-rolling, body slam to rival anything ever seen on the mats of professional wrestling? It's up to us – we the people – because the weasels will never choose the graceful exit. It's not profitable.

I propose we go down with grace, with the courage and steadfastness for which Americans are known. Stand up, step forward, admit our mistakes, and suffer the consequences. Stop enabling the weasels. Stop accepting the wrong solutions from the very same criminals who steered us into this mess. Stop asking those same criminals for advice, stop taking their suggestions and above all remove them from whatever office or position of power they hold. And for God's sake – LISTEN – to the one man who has – for decades – been telling us, loud and clear, what would happen if we didn't wake up. He has been proven correct time and time again. This is our last chance to pay attention. It behooves us to not only listen closely to Ron Paul this time, but if we care at all about restoring peace, prosperity, and justice to our Republic...we damn well better elect him as our President too.

July 29, 2011

Susan Westfall [send her mail] is a mother, a libertarian, and an educator.

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