Tea Anyone?

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I see all the Tea Party signs, and they make me think: Maybe being a Tea Partier is easier than being a liberal.

If nothing else, being a Bagger sounds like more fun. I could just give in to my basest instincts; simply let the reptilian portion of my brain take over--without a drop of conscience or reason to take the edge off my bare-toothed anger. Why, I could wallow in hate and terror.

Hate is easy. Tea Partiers hate government, taxes, regulation, immigrants, homosexuals, non-Christians, liberals, The World Cup, Jon Stewart, environmentalists, Democrats, Ted Kennedy’s corpse, Bill Clinton’s penis and anyone who doesn't resemble the Pillsbury dough boy. They despise bailouts, entitlement programs (except Social Security and Medicare), Obamacare, The Departments of Everything that is NOT about killing, gun control, lawyers, lack of school prayer, and news that isn’t “fair and balanced.”

Any standard Tea Party enthusiast holds certain truths to be self-evident:

I am finished with anything that requires me to think, reason or care about anyone but ME. My family is struggling, and instead of blaming the guy who laid me off, I blame the blacks, and/or the Mexicans. Or maybe the French (I’m sure they’re involved somehow). The Central Bank or the government.

I’m white, middle class in upbringing, and educated. My dad and mother both worked 16 hours a day.

I hate unions. Unions went bad after they created things like workplace safety, paid vacations, and sick days. They killed business by driving it overseas.

My ancestors came to this country legally. Even the one brought here from England to work on a Georgia plantation as a prisoner. Why should I have to push #1 for English?

Business regulates itself. The Market knows what it’s doing. It’ll fix the Gulf.

God knows that Kenyan in the White House can't. He’s too busy giving back parts of our border states to Mexico and plotting the demise of our nation with his Muslim, commie, socialist, Nazi cohorts.

Hell, the common good isn’t necessary. It’s a liberal construct to pry my hard earned money from my work-weary hands. Theft. Plain and simple. Besides, who needs all those police, firefighters, public schools, libraries and hospitals? Liberals don’t even believe in the American Dream anyway.

So what if my check bounces? It’s a win/win. The bank gets another $33 from me. The bank loves those little $33 bonuses from my account!

Contrast that with liberals. Liberals are always pushing folks out of a white, privileged comfort zone. Peace, love and understanding too much? Well, you should at least “tolerate,” if not appreciate everyone. Even Muslims. And the French. The French for god’s sake? That’s asking a lot.

Hey, I love the ease of Tea Party message.

Yeah, I could totally get into this way of thinking. Just give me a lobotomy, a pair of Sarah Palin glasses to wink over, a FaceBook page, and a TV tuned to Fox News.

Tea anyone?
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Hope vs Fear

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The entire history of American political debate can, in one sense, be described as the argument between the hope of progressives and liberals for a better future vs. the fear of conservatives who want to protect the way things are now.

• Fear has been a staple of every generation of conservatives .... Fear of the democratic mob. Fear of the freed slave. Fear of the liberated woman destroying the traditional family. Fear of freethinkers destroying religion. Fear of communism. Fear of gays and lesbians. Fear of hippies, "free love," and the drug culture. Fear of the immigrant. In a bizarre twist, Social Darwinism gave us fear of the weak, and in the modern version of Social Darwinism, Reagan gave us fear of the poor on welfare. Post-9/11, you can now add in the ever-potent fear of terrorism. (from The Progressive Revolution by Mike Lux)
  

George Gerbner, who headed the Annenberg School for Communication for 25 years, noted:

• "Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard-line postures. … They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities."

How frightened and insecure do you have to be to deliberately choose the lowest mediocrity for your government?

It never ceases to amaze me that anyone would vote to vest the entire government in the hands of a group of people who don't believe in government and who do their best to see to it that government does not function well. And, that, my gentle snowflakes, means the conservative Republicans.

Remember, the great God of the conservative Republicans, Reagan said, "Government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem." Then Bush 43 came along and seemingly set out to prove just how badly government could function--Katrina for possibly the single most outstanding example.

So, I ask you, what drives people to embrace stupidity, aggression, recklessness, destruction and contemptuousness as national policy, especially when they have other choices?

Democrats/Liberals/Progressives know what wonderful, important contributions American can make when properly motivated. We are ready for hope - not fear - to be out guiding principle. For "What if?" - not "What happened?" - to be our next national question.

We know we all live here. We know we need a government that functions as well as possible with the least possible intrusions into any aspect of our lives. But, maybe most importantly, we know that we do need a government.