The Ten Most Significant Stories of 2009

It’s been a big year in news. We inaugurated a new president, witnessed massive Tea Party protests, saw a Governor resign and another embroiled in a sex scandal. Throw in the death of an icon, off-year elections, and the escalation of a foreign war, and the Unites States has had a busy year. Below I’ll list my top ten most significant stories of 2009 with expanded commentary on the top five. So let’s get started.

10. Climategate - This story is only now developing, but it will stay with us long into 2010. We now have empirical evidence that the justification for trillion dollar spending plans and demands for lifestyle changes — global warming — may be a completely false premise. Stay tuned.

9. Death of Ted Kennedy - I don’t necessarily have any particular kind words to say about him, but no one can deny his significance to America’s legislative process — and to the family of Mary Jo Kopechne.

8. More Troops Heading to Afghanistan - Not much commentary needed here. We’re in our longest military struggle ever. And we’re fighting in a place many have failed before — including the mighty Soviets. Simply, appreciate and pray for our troops.

7. Health Care Bill Saga - If the statists in the Congress and the White House end up getting what they want from this process, this story will jump to number 1 for next year. Few actions by government could potentially change our lives — literally — than this one.

6. The Mark Sanford Affair - I’ll spend a little more time on this one.

Never in my life have I seen such a quick and final ending to a career. One minute he was leading all of the Republican Governors, and GOP insiders were abuzz with whispers of his genuinely promising presidential aspirations. Now, his wife has filed for divorce and he’s an absolute political pariah. What a sad waste!

There was a time during the fallout that I wanted to grab the man — a man I truly admired — by the shoulders and shout, “SHUT UP!” With such inspirational and helpful quotes as calling his mistress his “soul mate,” his scandal was the kind that kept on digging. From endless to potential to being absolutely done in just a couple weeks — quite the story in 2009.

And now, for the top 5 stories of 2009….

5. The Meteoric Rise of Glenn Beck

At the beginning of this year, Glenn Beck had a popular radio show, one best-selling book, and a decently-rated television show on a nothing of a channel. At the end of this year, he has THREE best-selling books on the New York Times Best Seller List… AT THE SAME TIME. His radio show is the third-most-listened to in America, and his TV show pulls the same rank within the news category. Consider, though, that his TV show comes on at 5:00 p.m., when the available viewership is exponentially smaller than the 8:00 p.m. prime time crowd.

The numbers don’t lie, but it doesn’t end there. Without even trying, he became the face of the Tea Party movement and one of the most hated men amongst leftist precincts. Unquestionably, he is now a leader within American politics — we simply don’t know yet what he leads. We can’t call it conservatism, and it’s certainly not Republicanism. He is the voice that this moment in American history called for.

At a time when we’ve gone back to a fundamental question of liberty vs. tyranny, Beck speaks in those sacred terms and doesn’t feel precocious for it. I don’t believe he gave birth to this movement in America. More accurately, he has encapsulated it — become its voice.

I’ve been listening to Beck for three years now. Every year he tops his previous one. I don’t know how he’ll supersede his successes in 2009, but I can’t wait to watch him try.

4. Sarah Palin’s Resignation

Gov. Sarah Palin’s resignation came just one month after Mark Sanford’s affair broke. At the moment I found out, you can imagine that my heart sank in panic that the resignation was predicated on scandal. Thank God, it wasn’t.

Nevertheless, her resignation almost literally monopolized the media for a full 72 hours. Even after that, the balance of any given newscast on any given channel was dedicated to analyzing and prognosticating about Palin’s future. And she indeed has been significant. Her Political Action Committee, SarahPAC, raised more money than almost any other similar organization this year. Through her Facebook page alone, she controlled the health care debate for a week.

Any time she spoke on any topic, it was headline news. Moreover, her significance this year so haunted the useful idiots in the media, that the Associated Press dedicated 11 staffers to fact-check her best-selling book (6 more than were assigned to the whole mess of Climategate).

Even further, so dangerous is she to the Left that the media finally fully flushed their credibility down the toilet to give voice to a guy with every motivation to lie and that would say anything negative about Palin so he could to get attention.

Surely, however, all of her significance began with her resignation, the fourth most-significant story of 2009.

3. Virginia and New Jersey Gubernatorial Elections

On November 3rd, voters in New Jersey and Virginia went to the polls and installed conservative governors in their States. Virginia went as far as to elect what may be its most conservative slate of state-wide candidates ever. Couple those wins with Doug Hoffman’s impossibly close loss in NY-23, and we saw an incredible change in election fortunes for the GOP.

Just a year before, Barack Obama won almost 53% of the vote in Virginia and just short of 57% in New Jersey. Of course, Mr. Hope-N-Change’s absence kept young and minority voters at home to a great extent, but exit polling also demonstrated a general anti-big government trend. Both Governors were elected preaching lower property taxes, lower business taxes, and more private sector jobs.

I believe that those elections are only a shadow of the absolute electoral beating coming to the Left in 2010. And because of these elections giving us a sign of events to come and taking a crucially important pulse of the American ideological heartbeat, I believe we must call these elections essential to 2009.

2. The Inauguration of Barack Obama

Long before the Chosen One, King Obama, could give himself a “solid B+” for first year performance, we had to give him the job. And on a cold January 20th, President Obama took the reins, facing incredible challenges.

A discouragingly-high amount of naive hope, change, sunshine, lollipops, kicks, giggles, unicorns, and puppies scattered across the horizon of the collective American phyche. Of course, reality eventually fell upon many of the Obama worshipers. The shine wore down and that new president smell faded. Rasmussen now has King Obama’s approval rating at 44%.

To a great extent, almost every other major story of the year came in the context of this one. From direct responsibility like changes in war policy or pushing a health care bill to his important reaction to the Fort Hood shootings, President Obama has been the premier shaper and creator of news this year. Because of that, his inauguration is the 2nd most significant event of 2009.

And finally, my most significant story for all of 2009………

1. The Tea Party Movement

Above all those items of news that the Inauguration and its following consequences gave birth to, I believe the Tea Party Movement is most paramount. In the most sincere essence of the word, this year’s Tea Party Protests were “historic.”

At the link attached to this heading, you’ll find my original analysis of the entire movement, and I encourage you to give it a read for more in-depth thoughts.

For now, though, on its surface, the Tea Party Movement is unique for its nature. For the first time in almost 40 years, random, organic, bottom-up protests were formed. And to an incredible extent, they were unified in message.

That message was clear and resounding: Stop spending. Acknowledge the deficit. No more bailouts. Stop the Federal Reserve from devaluing the dollar. Shrink government to its Constitutional framework. And simply, to define the message in one word: LIBERTY. But my awarding this movement the number one spot isn’t from personal affinity alone.

Consider that in an entire year, this President has gotten almost nothing he wanted. Government-run health care? On life-support. Cap-and-Trade? Still not to 60 votes in the Senate. Localism/Fairness Doctrine? Not even a move.

Except for the record spending, record deficits, and hate crimes legislation, the Left didn’t have a successful legislative year despite having every institutional advantage. And how did that happen? Are you honestly going to credit the Republicans? Does John Boehner or Mitch McConnell get a medal for our stopgap efforts? Absolutely not.

It was the Tea Parties!

Members of Congress went home in August and got an earful about healthcare reform from… the Tea Party people. When key cloture votes came up on Cap-and-Trade, who flooded the Capitol? The Tea Party people. WE saved OURSELVES this year, folks. And I’m looking forward to battling on in 2010 as well.

As for now, though, looking back on 2009, I don’t believe anything shaped our cultural or political landscape more profoundly than the Tea Party Movement.