“Wake up and smell the coffee” is a saying that has been cited in print since at least 1943. “Wake up and smell the tyranny” (urging people to be politically awake) is a saying that has been printed on many gift items, such as bumper stickers, posters and T-shirts.
 
Conservative radio talk show host and author Neal Boortz used “wake up and smell the tyranny” on his “Nealz Nuze” website in 2000 and in his book, Somebody’s Gotta Say It (2007). Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin used the saying on his July 20, 2015 show.
 
     
Google Groups: atl.general
What a bunch of idiots…
Ogier Le Danois
4/26/00
(...)
COME ON FOLKS—- WAKE UP AND SMELL THE TYRANNY.
Neal’s Nuze, 4/26/2000
   
The Guardian (UK)
Thursday 23 March 2006 19.18 EST
Vendetta for Dubya
John Patterson
(...)
This is even worse than last Sunday night when, on Boston Legal, James Spader, as a lawyer defending an antiwar tax-rebel, gave an irrefutable six-minute-long courtroom indictment of everything from pre-emptive war and Abu Ghraib to Valerie Plame and warrantless wiretapping, while wondering in anger and exasperation how long it would take his fellow citizens to wake up and smell the tyranny.
 
Google Books
Somebody’s Gotta Say It
By Neal Boortz
New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
2007
Pg. 4:
Things aren’t going all that well, folks, and if we don’t wake up and smell the tyranny, our children and grandchildren will grow up robbed of their individual identity, marching in lockstep with their fellow poorly educated, complacent, government-dependent friends, toward that great socialist Valhalla dreamed of by the great thinkers of the political left.
 
Twitter
Armitage
‏@ArmitageX
Wake up and smell the tyranny! Bush has killed the constitution.n
6:35 AM - 22 Jul 2007
 
Twitter
Nick Busey
‏@NickBusey
Does no one else notice these things? We’re living in a martial law police state people! Wake up and smell the tyranny! http://is.gd/rzm
11:55 AM - 5 Jun 2008
 
Twitter
Danny Wilsher
‏@DannyWilsher
RT @curlycurvy: New bumper sticker: Wake up and smell the tyranny http://tinyurl.com/cwor5t #tcot #912 #teaparty #revolution #sgp
10:48 PM - 2 Apr 2009
   
WRCBtv (Chattanooga, TN)
Obama tours Amazon center, speaks about jobs, economy
Posted: Jul 30, 2013 5:58 PM EDT
Updated: Jul 30, 2013 6:08 PM EDT
CHATTANOOGA, TN (WRCB) - ARRIVAL
The 231 foot Boeing 747, also known as Air Force One, touched town at the Chattanooga Airport at 12:24 Tuesday afternoon.
(...)
PROTESTORS
Protestors also gathered along I75 at Hamilton Place Blvd to show the president their message through signs they made.
 
Tea Party protestors were also present at Lee Highway at an old Target store. Signs were at ready with messages of “Obama, war criminal,” “Wake up and smell the tyranny,” and “Race baiter.”
 
Twitter
SCPOUSNRET
‏@SCPOUSNRET
Wake up and smell the tyranny! -Mark Levin @GOP @RepScottRigell @peddoc63 @LeahRBoss @Ruach321
7:20 PM - 20 Jul 2015