"When government fears the people, it is liberty," Benjamin Franklin once said. "When people fear the government, it is tyranny." Over decades of political malfeasance, American politicians had become sloths. Consumed by their own hubris, they really believed their shit didn't stink. America's government had become a monarchy onto itself instead of a the slavishly obsequious servitor it was meant to be; the three executive brances of government had become a vehicle careening out of control. Power was the driver and service was only a rumble-seat passenger to be dragged out during press conferences or times requiring damage control.
Scandal had always been a part of American politics, but personal offenses had become far more prevalent in recent decades. It seemed that the U.S. Congress was full of pedophiles, alcoholics, wife-beaters, drug abusers, adulterers, white collar criminals, psychopaths, and frauds. Perhaps it was because the only people attracted to the stench of the Congressional pigsty were other pigs. The more muck, the merrier....Congress was full of pig shit, and odoriferous wafts infested the body politics like never before. Other than professional pig farmers like Phil Baker, hardly anyone could stand the smell.
The 2006 mid-term elections changed the Congressional landscape, and many voters cited "corruption" as the reason why they'd thrown out so many Republicans. There had been a plethora of scandals, including elected officials taking bribes from lobbyists; sex scandals involving senators and young Congressional pages; senators found to be hiding 'cold, hard cash' in their freezers; elected officials on drugs and driving under the influence of alcohol. These were the "honorable" men and women who were supposed to lead by example, set the highest standards of obeisance, and guide the ethic of the entire country. Instead, they had turned the Capitol Building, and the White House, into a pigpen where they could wallow in their own puffed-up pomposity of grandiloquent grunt.
Even Bill Clinton's scandalous affair with a White Intern in the late 1990's wasn't nearly as objectionable as the peccaries carried on in the first few years of the new century. At least, people reasoned, Clinton's indiscretion was with another consenting adult, and - besides - he had left office with a budget surplus. Even while Republican opponents spent millions of taxpayers' dollars impeaching Clinton, he remained a popular President. It seemed Americans were willing to forgive Clinton for simply being human and succumbing to the wiles of an attractive young woman. He was, indeed, a womanizer, but many overlooked that flaw, considering to whom he was married. The dark side of the Clinton reign, while generously publicized by Republicans, never seemed to grab the public's attention or interest. Clinton was charming, intelligent, witty, good-natured, and an American success story. George W. Bush, on the other hand, was perceived as dim-witted, dumb, and a spoiled rich kid who couldn't have been elected dog catcher, had it not been for hsi family's money, power, and influence.
When Nancy Pelosi first assumed her duties as Speaker of the House, she vowed that the corruption would be cleaned up in Congress. In one of her first private meetings with her Democratic Congressional team leaders, she made it very clear: "If you're dirty, we won't clean you up. We'll throw you to the dogs, or to the American people, whichever's worse." Democrats and Republicans would be expected to behave themselves, or face the rath of this diminutive lady who now was the third most powerful person in the United States government. Even Bush and Cheney were afraid of her, for good reason. She had been calling them criminals and liars for six years, ever since they'd taken office. Since November, 2006, Pelosi had made great strides in her effort to sanitize the hallowed halls of Congress. Now, in May, 2008, she lay in a hospital bed suffering injuries from which she may never recover.
Of course, it had been a phenomenal two years as Democrats threw their weight around like they'd been unable to do since 1994. Republicans tried to appear stately and as arrogant as ever; they tried to appear to be working with the Democrats; but they also tried to inflict gridlock whenever they possibly could. It had been two years of bitter infighting, with not a hell of a lot of progress being made in any arena. The best thing the Democrats could hope for was to win the Presidential election in November, 2008. Now, that seemed to be a long shot. After what had happened on January 17, 2008, there were only shreds remaining of both stalwart political parties. It appeared that the "Republicrats" would have little power base left. New candidates sparked fresh ideas; candidates who would have never come forward as aprt of the Republican or Democratic parties. For the most part, these were intelligent, pragmatic people, capable of managing government affairs and bringing a new civility to politics. As much as the Democrats had harped on it before - and immediately after - the '06 mid-term elections, they were as impotent as ever to affect any radical change. Government was slowed because of all the pig poop that had to be dragged along as political baggage. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. was going to help streamline the process and make it easier to get things done because the people were going to made the decisions, not a slothful, self-centered Congress.
With the 'Rebellion of '08', O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had made a statement: government had better start fearing the people once again.
Most of the country was in agreement, and it was being demonstrated as new faces came forward to fill the vacancies left by the havoc O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had wreaked.