If you saw any of the national television coverage of any of the TEA Party activities on Wednesday, you could easily have been led to believe that these were high-brow Republican socialites who had nothing to do except complain about what the Democratic administration is doing to harm them.

In fact, some of the coverage in individual markets did the same �” one set of local cameras showed a dozen or so protesters (of the TEA Party) wearing ACORN shirts and ignored the several hundred upset over big government.

Footage that I saw showed a wide variety of folks �” and I know the 150 or so who threw tea into the Bogue Chitto River at Franklinton were anything but high-brow because they live in Washington Parish. Sure, there are some wannabes there just like anywhere, but high-brow they’re not. Whether it is on the local or national level, more and more people are feeling like they are getting less and less from government for their tax dollars.

And the bail-outs of (insert name of your favorite big business) with few, if any, restrictions have brought the whole issue to the forefront.

As bad as things might be for a firm such as General Motors, how much worse does it make it when word is leaked �” by the treasury department, no less �” that GM has been instructed to prepare for a bankruptcy filing.

It’s one thing if the company’s inability to manage and compete puts them in harm’s way, but when the government agency overseeing them �” which is led by someone who says he didn’t know he needed to file an income tax �” says something that worsens their already tenuous position and threatens the taxpayer investment, it is utter stupidity.

People are upset because the same government “investment” in businesses to keep them from failing allows for the same nationalization of those businesses, much like we’re used to hearing about in Latin America and other Third World countries.

In a word, it’s socialism, and there’s no amount of Facebooking it or Twittering it or anything elseing it that will change it from what it really is.

Businesses should be allowed to stand or fall on their own ... it’s the way our business foundation was developed and has prospered.

It seems to me that one thing the administration needs to do is invest in Americans to create jobs that are in a sector other than service ... our manufacturing is gone and our industry is going and we’ll soon be nothing more than a society of people who take pre-fab patties from a microwave and place them on a bun and serve them.

We lost the jobs to Mexico and they’ve lost them now to China and the Pacific Rim and all we’re getting is lead-tainted toys, tainted baby formula, tainted cereal and sulphur-laced drywall.

Who’s looking out for the guy who shops at the big box while the owners and investors in the big boxes are being bailed out. Who’s looking out for the guy who direct deposits his check in the bank that was XYZ Bank last Friday, but ABC Bank on Monday and he’s nothing more than an account number?

Not our elected officials ... not Democrat ... not Republican ... not Independent. We’re twisting in a considerable wind.

(John H. Walker is editor and publisher of L’Observateur and can be reached at (985) 652-9545 or john.walker@wickcommunications.com.)