For a year, the political elites have quaked in fear at the implications of the Tea Party Movement. Remember last summer, when Democrats were shouted down at their own sponsored events. So the Democratic elites and their media friends responded with disdain. These people aren’t representative of my district, were commonly heard phrases back then.

So then the Republican elites decided that they would co-opt these citizens. They showed up at rallies and pretended that they were echoing what the people were saying, but eventually reports leaked that in private they belittled the Tea Party activists. Lindsey Graham, as discussed here, claimed that the Tea Party Movement would soon die out. Bob Inglis, the lame duck congressman from South Carolina, assailed the tea party demagoguery. And the Republican political class fought back.

When a Tea Party candidate entered the race, they threw a bucketload of money into ‘mainstream’ candidates. For awhile, in Kentucky, South Carolina, and Nevada, the establishment lost. But last week, there was resurgence. The Leviathan would not die that easily.

So now, after a few wins, the regulars in the political parties, their lobbyist masters, and their media acolytes are all sloshing champagne. They can go back to normal, the Republicans can promise to slash taxes and balance the budget, and the Democrats can promise to swell spending and balance the budget. They assume that these campaign promises will work; they always have in the past. You see, we’re idiots, in their minds.

Why am I writing this? Well, I’m hoping to dash the elation of the political elites, just a little. You see, Rasmussen compared attitudes of the political class to those of the mainstream in a poll that it released this week. It turns out that there is very little resemblance in the views of the two camps.

For example, 67% of the political class, regardless of ideology, thinks the country is headed on the right track. For normal people, 84% say we’re on the wrong track. Gee, I wonder why? Let’s see, the elites saw no problem with sending many high paying jobs to places where workers make $1 per week. They saw no problem with government agencies, insurance companies, and Wall Street colluding to induce people to buy homes that they couldn’t afford, so now virtually everyone in large regions of the country have lost all or most of their home equity. So, since these people have lost their next egg, they’re forced to start anew, so they won’t spend on consumer goods…and the elites are crying that they have to con us to buy more baubles again. So we shouldn’t be shocked that 68% of the mainstream respondents believe that the political class doesn’t care what most people think.

The most interesting thing to me about this poll was the finding that only 23% of mainstream voters believe that the federal government has the consent of the governed and that only 6% of them support the political elites. Who would guess, when watching pundits on Fox, MSNBC, or CNN that these clowns are talking to themselves, when theirs are the only voices we hear?

So maybe the people have been shut down. Maybe. Or maybe they will just continue to be disaffected by our political leaders until finally someone rises up to present a voice to the masses. I hope that this person, when he or she appears, isn’t a demagogue. I’m just not sure that we’ll be worse off.