Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
Wizbang
By Jay Tea
Last fall, despite the best efforts of the leadership, the Massachusetts legislature rejected a measure that would have granted illegal aliens in-state tuition rates to state-owned colleges. There was a tremendous outcry, and lawmakers decided to quietly let the measure die and bring it back up later.
"Later" turned out to be this week, and the voices of sanity caught on quickly. Both Boston's talk stations put on a full-court press, devoting literally hours to discussing the issues and giving out lawmakers' phone numbers. And in the end, vox populi drowned out the learned solons' leaders (and Attorney General and would-be governor Tom Reilly), and what looked like a done deal ended up going down in a 57-96 vote.
When it's factored in that the Democrats hold 140 of the 160 seats in the House, it's an even more astonishing event.
That the government of Massachusetts is, in many ways, certifiably insane is beyond debate. But apparently they're not so crazy as to completely ignore the people when they speak so loudly.
And to those who would denounce this as a triumph of talk radio over justice, let me point out something: I heard four talk-show hosts (Scott Allen Miller, John Depetro, and Howie Carr of WRKO, and Michael Graham on WTKK) speak out on this measure. Had they all been off their rockers, they would have been ignored. But they either voiced the opinions or convinced the undecided people to make those thousands of phone calls to their lawmakers -- and make it clear how passionately they felt on the issue, especially in an election year. |
