Friday, April 23, 2010

What's In That Tea?





This whole Tea Party thing is somewhat confusing. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great that people who are upset about politics are participating in protests rather than being apathetic. However, some things that they're saying don't make sense to me. The big cry is, "Give me my country back." Where do they think their country went? Did they have a bad dream in which they wake up and suddenly can't find all of the states? "Oh, no! Didn't Delaware used to be over there? Whoever took it, should give it back." And who do they think took it? Was it some country with fewer problems than we have? Are they calling out in this dream, "Hey, Monaco, we know you took our country. That's not right. You don't even have room for it."



Many of us were surprised by the recent demographic statistics about the Tea Party. Tea Partiers say they don't want the government so involved in their lives, yet the majority of them are in favor of Social Security and Medicare. In other words, they are against the government spending money on programs to help people except for the programs that they like. The majority of Tea Partiers are wealthier than the average American, better educated, and own nicer homes. So they've achieved the American Dream. They just don't care if anyone else ever gets to have that dream.



Just what are they unhappy with? What do they think has changed too much? Do they yearn for a time when there was runaway spending by the Bush Administration? They shouldn't worry about that. We've still got runaway spending. Do they miss the days when we waged a senseless war in the Mideast? Cheer up. We're still waging that war. Are they afraid that since Obama was elected, Wall Street's traditional greed has been halted? There are two words that should get rid of this fear: "Goldman Sachs." So where's the "socialism?" What are the "radical" moves Obama has made?



Is it just about health care? Come on. Is there one American who either personally or through his or her family hasn't had a horrible experience with a doctor, a hospital, or an insurance company? I don't know any. Besides, if for some reason, you love your nice, caring insurance company, nobody's making you change to something else. That doesn't sound so radical to me.



So why are they upset with the Obama Administration? It goes beyond the Democrats who were upset with Bush becoming President. These are not the usual feelings that those among the political "outs" have for the political "ins." There are some things having to do with the anger that these people feel towards Obama that is over the top. I'm talking about the out and out disdain, the name-calling, the drawings of Obama looking like Hitler that are displayed at their rallies. This is not just the traditional American rhetoric of those who were disappointed that their people were voted out of office. This is unabashed hatred.



I'm thinking of forming my own political group and calling it the Cola Party. I want my country back, too, and not just the good old America in which Coke only cost a dime. I would love to see the old America in which people could disagree politically, but still respect each other's opinions -- and their right to have them. Give me back my America in which people could calmly discuss their differences without calling each other un-American.



Those who are actually spewing disgusting invective or bringing those Nazi posters to the rallies might very well be on the fringe of this fringe movement. I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone in the Tea Party is filled with this venom. But I worry that too many of them are.



So what makes these Obama opponents so much angrier, so much more threatened, and so much more involved in using violent images than Americans who haven't liked previous Presidents throughout our history? It's a mystery, isn't it? Lets see. What is it about President Obama that's different from all the other Presidents who've come before him? Maybe it's not really such a mystery after all.











So what makes these Obama opponents so much angrier, so much more threatened, and so much more involved in using violent images than Americans who haven't liked previous Presidents throughout our history? It's a mystery, isn't it? Lets see. What is it about President Obama that's different from all the other Presidents who've come before him? Maybe it's not really such a mystery after all.



3 comments:

  1. Whenever some one talks against Obama with stupid jokes or Hitler like mustaches, and socialism, I say there is no other reason but they are racist. To most, it stuns them and then they are quiet and have nothing to say. But in their silence it speaks volumes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Basically, I believe, these "tea-baggers" are more afraid of change than they are overt racists. They want to take the country back to when white people (mainly men) ran evrything, made all of the decisions and lefe was literally "black and white". I guess that could be called racism but, in reality, the upper middle class white folks just long for a time when they were the ones who were pandered to by politicians and their voice meant something. Obama is a symbol of that change (he is half-white after all) and thus a lightning rod for their fears and hatred.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You were able to put into print what I have been asking myself ever since this "movement" started. I think that "vast right wing conspiracy" that we heard about in the '90s has metastisized into this pustule of virulence we see at crazy rallies today. What bothers me is that unthinking mobs of people tend to inspire the real nut jobs into doing something really violent. I don't want to go thru another assasination attempt in my life. I've already seen three too many as it is.

    ReplyDelete

Post your comments here!


New Bob Newhart Video

Check out Bob Newhart's first internet video by
CLICKING HERE