As I conduct my regular daily readings of various blogs and news sites I cannot help to get a very uneasy feeling brewing out there. The negativity is running very high in the political realm and from those who report on economic events. I keep seeing tag lines like; “expect more social unrest” when people report on things like the Berkley protests, which are disturbingly violent I might add. When I hit my favorite Libertarian blogs the feeling is more uneasy as I keep seeing words like revolution being used.

When you add in the Washington factor where our elected leaders are going to hammer unpopular legislation through, with no compromise, it makes me even more uneasy. There is no doubt that we need to make painful decisions in order to get our fiscal house in order, but that usually means less spending, not more. Unfortunately, our current political leaders do not see it that way and are hammering through more spending, in particular the health care reform bill. Look, I know we need to do something, but not this. Deducting money from Medicare and then adding it back in to other areas is not rational, this bill is not paid for and will make costs rise not fall.

Regardless, people are not happy about unpopular legislation being thrown down their thoughts. The kicker is that people like Nancy Pelosi come out and say that programs like Social Security and Medicare were unpopular when they were enacted. I guess what she means is that politicians know what is best for Americans and we should keep our mouths shut. We all know how right politicians are their track record speaks for itself just look at the stellar decisions they made over the last 10 years. Iraq was a great decision, the prescription drug coverage was fantastic (albeit unpaid for), the PATRIOT Act was a winner, free speech zones were fantastic, how many stimulus bills did we have again – they worked out well, eliminating a paper trail for voting is a sure disaster waiting to happen, and need I go on?

Politicians do not know what is good for Americans, they know what is good for them and getting reelected. Well, they did used to know how to get elected until now. If they pass this next unpopular batch of legislative nightmare on the docket they are in for a rude awakening come November because the people are coming for them. My only hope is that people come for them at the polls and not in any other way. Based on what I have read combined with the recent plane crash in Texas into the IRS building I think we might see more people going out to make a statement. Meaning, some nut job will more than likely blow something up or worse.

Who knows what will happen in the future, but we know that the average person feels left out right now. Wall Street got their massive bonuses and, for them, nothing really changed with the exception of having to play defense in the media. At the end of the day, the average person knows they got nothing over the past 2 years except for a higher future tax bill and, maybe, they got to keep their job, but we know about 20% of Americans were not so lucky as they are either unemployed or underemployed. Wall Street though, they are fine. Washington, well, they are doing OK as well as campaign contributions, from Wall Street, are still coming in and many have received raises. Clearly, there is a double standard and John Edwards was completely right when he said there are 2 Americas.

Discontent is here and that discontent could become a powder keg if not rectified. The unfortunate thing is I do not see how the public can be pacified, especially as this thing we are in deepens as we are now seeing. Things could get ugly and politicians need to figure out that they are representing the people and start acting that way. It is beyond me how they cannot see that Americans view them as being on the wrong path, but, again, that is politics and they will be surprised if they get voted out in November.