It has been said that future struggles will not be between left and right, but rather between fundamentalist-extremists and moderates. If that is true, a new poll published by the Pew Research Center would indicate that the fundamentalists within American governance have severely overplayed their hand.
People inclined to moderate viewpoints are just that- moderate and not likely to stand out in the crowd. Many don’t vote, those who do aren’t normally the ones leading the charge. This may be changing, however, as signs point to an awakening of a true sleeping giant in American politics. Perhaps average folks, who normally sleep through the ridiculous rantings of extremists have suddenly been awakened by a bureaucracy intent on invading the most intimate aspects of their lives.
The greatest threat to the extremists who are now making unprecedented claims of authority from Washington DC is the state sovereignty, or “states’ rights” movement. Many attempts have already been made in the corporate media to demonize state sovereignty by association with everything from militias to segregationists but if the new Pew poll is any indication, those efforts were not effective.
The massive support for “states’ rights” you can see in the chart is joined only by ‘civil liberties’ as terms viewed positively by not just Democrats & Republicans but also third party voters as well. Moderates seem to instinctively understand that as power is reduced, decentralized and redistributed across the republic, it is they who reap the benefits of greater autonomy.
State Sovereignty even came up in the Miss USA pageant over the weekend, part of a statement from Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard. Even USA Today saw fit to include it in their coverage:
Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard was named first runner-up after handling a question about Arizona’s new immigration law. Woolard said she supports the law, which requires police
enforcing another law to verify a person’s immigration status if there’s “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally.
She said she’s against illegal immigration but is also against racial profiling.
“I’m a huge believer in states’ rights. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about America. So I think it’s perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law.”
From pageants to Pew, the new voice of moderate Americans is emerging as a potent and resilient force and showing no signs of letting up.
cross-posted from the California Tenth Amendment Center
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- The Establishment Media Are Clueless About the Purpose of The Constitution - April 30, 2012