Sheeple. The word was born in the dark underbelly of the internet many moons ago.
Recently, Palin proclaimed that Tea Partiers aren’t sheeple...
What about Massachusetts voters? Election after election, sheeple have been mesmerized by the "D" on the ballot and the free cookies it stood for. When cookies aren’t enough, fear always seemed to work.
Let's briefly look at those ads blanketing local TV (even google ads) about question three, which asks if the people want the sales tax reduced to 3%. "Don't do it, or teachers, police, and firemen will all lose their jobs!" proclaim the ads. "It'll devastate our [already devastated] communities!"
Yet, they forget to tell the sheeple that instead of helping to protect our homes from being vandalized or burned down and our children from becoming uneducated buffoons, the high 6.25% rate just feeds the bloated government. It's evident everywhere; just look outside...
Just one example: last winter, a pair of snowplows "plowed" through the street three or four times a day. At night, you could see the sparks flying, because they weren't actually plowing anything-- the 0.5 inches of snow had already melted. THIS IS WHAT WE’RE PAYING FOR.
The mayor of Lynn managed to easily scrape together a large part of the fiscal 2011 deficit by cutting waste and abuse; as reported by the Daily Item, she prevented purchases such as "We don't know how to operate the printer, so let's buy a new one!" A simple change to the liability insurance contract saved $250,000+: a competitive bidding process was implemented, as opposed to just hiring the first company the city stumbles upon. (or maybe whoever happened to funnel the most $ to the players?) The budget was put online, for the first time. More can be done to reign in waste, inefficiency, and corruption-- a culture that has been cultivated by decades of effectively one-party rule.
The sheeple are still being scared utterly sheepless that our unionized teachers won't have a bed to sleep in if #3 passes. Never mind the fact that a high sales tax actually lowers economic growth and erodes the tax base: this is true especially in the age of internet sales. Would you buy from Best Buy at a 6.25% tax or an out-of-state company at 0%? (theoretically, we have to self-report and pay that 6.25% ourselves; near no one does.)
Putting aside the issue of whether the tax rate actually hurts the Massachusetts economy, based on the tight races we can see that there are fewer sheeple than before. Why is this so?
Any solvent companies have an enormous pick when hiring from the pool of unemployed and under-employed; this is also true of government. Why should we allow waste, corruption, and incompetence when there are dozens of competent people willing and able to take the job of so many public officials in the country?
Competency: many of us are no longer swayed by free cookies in lieu of it. We need it, we demand it!