Something is happening.  You can just…feel it.  It’s not anything that can be defined or explained or even put into words at this point, but it’s there…and you can feel it.

While the President of the United States is off campaigning in Europe, poo-pooing American ideals and insulting capitalist principles, anger is building across the homeland.  An awakening to the left’s true socialist agenda is beginning to take place.  And a groundswell of support for the idea of American individualism is once again brewing in this nation.  Roughly 2 ½ months into his Presidency, Barack Obama’s approval rating continues to hover right around 60% – a very typical number for any President at this stage of the game.  According to most polls, a majority of Americans purportedly approve of the President and the job that he is doing, but still…it’s there, and you can feel it.

Americans have been in a daze since the end of World War II.  Over that period of time, we have been induced into a semi-cognitive state by our own leaders and left-wing activists, whose overarching goal has been to grow the size of government, making as many people dependent on government as possible, thereby rendering the private sector, charitable organizations and, yes, the family, irrelevant.  Unfortunately, we, as Americans, have been all too willing to follow along sheepishly, not too concerned about where it was that we were ultimately headed.  All we knew was that we were safe and protected from the rest of the world, our economy continued to grow, and our nation prospered as a whole.  And all the while, the subtle march towards socialism continued…

Then came September 11, 2001.  For an ever-so-brief moment, we were suddenly roused from our slumber.  It appeared as though America was poised finally to open our eyes, shake off the drowsiness and awaken once again to the principles that made this the greatest nation in the history of the world.  But alas, in the weeks and months that followed that fateful day, the ensconced forces of collectivism were allowed to weave their way back into the hearts and minds of a dazed and confused populace, creating doubts about our greatness as a nation and our unmatched compassion as a civilization.  Once again, Americans were convinced that it was all just a bad dream and that it was we who were the problem.  So back to sleep we went…total darkness.

And then it happened.  I can’t tell you exactly when or how, but for the first time in my life, I truly began to feel it.  I think it was sometime between Obama’s European tour with his address to the 200,000 swooning Germans in the summer of 2008 and the overnight smear campaign that was kicked into gear in order to destroy the (then) obscure and unknown Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin that following September.  All of it made me a bit fearful – fearful of where we were headed as a civilization.  Then, fear began to turn to frustration, and frustration to anger.  And I began to feel it…burning deep within.  Since that time, it has continued to burn; and with each day that passes, it begins to burn a little brighter and a little hotter.

You see, I believe that America is still the greatest country in the history of the world.  Despite the fact that a majority of our leaders (including our current President) seem hell-bent on apologizing for America, I am not ashamed of the wars that we have won, the lives that we have saved, the civilizations that we have freed from tyranny and oppression or the overall prosperity that we have spread throughout the rest of the world.  What I am ashamed of are the leaders of my country who feel the need to apologize for America being, well…America.  Unfortunately, the majority of Americans, who have now grown up in a nation wherein they have been taught and conditioned to believe that government has (or is) the answer to every problem, continue to follow along that path, sleepwalking into an even darker future.

The good news is that millions of Americans (albeit a minority) are now wide awake and fully aware of the dangerous path upon which we march.  There is a reason that thousands of “tea parties” are springing up all over America.  At last count, the grassroots organization, TEA (which stands for “Taxed Enough Already”) estimates that over 2,000 organized tea parties will occur on “tax day” (April 15^th) alone.  The latest cable news ratings came out last week, and according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News Channel owned all of the top 7 slots.  Fox News now has more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined.  Their 3 most “controversial” (mainstream media code for “conservative”) shows – Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck – are the top 3 shows on cable.  No other show on any other network is even close!  Did you realize that Glenn Beck (considered by all to be the most “controversial”) took over the 5:00 p.m. ET timeslot in January, and according to Nielsen, Fox News’ ratings for that timeslot are up over ninety percent from one year ago? Ninety percent!  Conservatives are catching on to the new media outlets.  Sites like Facebook and Twitter are becoming bastions of hope and support for a disenfranchised minority. 

Yes – minority.  We are still a minority – a very large, informed and lethal minority.  But you know what?  That’s all it takes.  The birth of this nation is evidence of that very fact.  Samuel Adams, one of the most influential (although less-widely talked about) “founding fathers” once addressed the concerns of his fellow revolutionaries, who were fearful of the lack of overall support in America for revolution.  It was no secret that only about 40% of Americans were strongly in favor of throwing off the British government and establishing in its place an independent, self-sustaining and limited form of government.  In a letter to his dubious colleagues, Adams simply replied:

“It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

Isn’t it amazing – the profound timelessness and stark imagery of the writings of those great Americans who established our nation?  Adams realized then (as is the case now) that real, meaningful change only comes about through the vigilant and relentless actions of an energized and motivated group of people, regardless of size.  So we’re a minority.  So we’re facing the challenge of waking up an entire nation that has been sound asleep for the better half of the last century.  So we’re up against a world full of socialists and fascists who want nothing more than for us to fail.  So what?

Somewhere, somehow, sometime last summer, a brushfire began burning inside of me.  And now it’s my job, and yours, to begin lighting brushfires in the hearts and minds of others.  It’s time to grab our gas cans and our matches and to create as many brushfires as we can.  We need to be pyromaniacs.  We need to build fires.  And soon, we will be a giant, raging inferno all across this nation that cannot be ignored and cannot be extinguished.  Something is happening.  Millions of fires have already been lit…some are just tiny embers or flames which need to be stoked and fanned; and some are furious, rampant wildfires which simply need to be spread.

I can feel it.  Can you?

If you’d like to read more, please check out my posts at http://BrentTeichman.wordpress.com