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Of the 4,272 things wrong with the Tea Party movement, thing #235 is most egregious I suspect.
It is the fact that individual “members” actually think that they are part of some grassroots movement and that this proves that they are smart enough, should be in charge of public policy.
It is so well documented that the “movement” is not grass roots but rather the concoction of corporate America aided and abetted by political power grabbers, as to need no further linkage here.
However, that doesn’t stop high school educated housewives and mechanics in sleepy hollows across Merika from scratching and musing: “yeah, let’s get up and picket that gov’mint thing over thar!” Soon, somebody has started a coffee klatch and next thing ya know, a block club is forming, and voila`, another “tea party” offshoot is born.
Then of course, they start decidin’ what grinds them. What they don’t like, and first off is taxes, and then not have’n no “God in our schools no more.” Actually most of these folks don’t go to church, but they remain mum and nod at the two or three that do. What the heck. Who cares anyway?
Then of course, things turn to whose to blame. And we got yer Muslims and their strange ways, definitely suspicious. Then we got them wetbacks from Mexico, with their dirty drugs. Yeah.
Oh yeah, about those taxes thing. Somebody suggests maybe the banks are to blame. And they are, so we shouldn’t bail them out, so the gov’mint is to blame for doing so, but more than half of Merika now has forgotten that Bush did that. Most think it’s that BLACK president.
Hey, isn’t there talk that he is not really Merikan? More like Muslim and from Africa? Yeah, that’s why he’s siding with the banks and the auto industry.
You can see, they are pretty much not the most logical well-read people in the world. Closer to some of the worst. Yet, they are hitchin’ up their pants, struttin’ their junk, and thinkin’ themselves mighty powerful. “Listen to ME!” they chime.
So it stands to reason, that given that they have no real clue about much of anything, that they would be agin’ net neutrality. I mean the gov’mint is FOR it, so they should be AGIN’ it, right? I mean they are logical aren’t they? Sure they are.
I bet if you asked, not a one of them could define what net neutrality means.
And I’m not guessin’ here folks. A bunch of those tea party groups got together and sent a letter to the FCC and demonstrated quite clearly that they are stupid beyond belief. “Too much gov’mint power,” they wail, and worse, “it’s an affront to free speech and free markets.”
Yes, as we used to say in the day, I KID YOU NOT. The letter will be bronzed and kept for all time as proof perfect that the MASSES of redneck, racist, etc, etc, etc, NASCAR, beer-swilling nitwits of working Merika, are beyond idiotic, they are screaming meemies insane.
Net Neutrality has as its sole purpose the very things they claim to want: Protection of freedom of speech and a fair and level playing field for all voices, theirs included. They of course fail to see this, since they are essentially incapable of hearing a rational explanation of anything and actually digesting it. They can only knee-jerk react to anything the gov’mint proposes is by definition, wrong.
However, of course, should they be in power, it is precisely through gov’mint that they will take away everyone’s freedoms and rights by imposing their interpretation of right and wrong on everyone else. There will be no freedom of worship, only freedom to worship as a Christian, and by the only allowable dogma of the born again backward thinking illiterates.
There is but one alternative theory, and that is that the tea partiers envision a world in which they are in charge, and thus, they are happy to suppress the liberal voice on the Internet in favor of only those voices that proceed in lockstep behind the wacko right agenda.
In either case, they are living in a world of their own creation.
The buffoons in corporate America and their lackeys Armey, Rove, Hannity, Beck, Kyl, etc., may someday come to rue the day they opened Pandora’s box and unleashed the great illiterate angry mob of pissed off Merika. They may find this dog has turned to bite them as well as the rest of us.
If you listen to the likes of Angle, who says we just might have to take up our 2nd amendment rights in order to have our way, then we may discover, that much to the dismay and shock of the Hagee-oriented “Christian” community, Armageddon is gonna be right here in the US of A.
Existential Ennui 
I too have had issues with the Electoral College, and I’ve usually come down on majority rules, but age brings hopefully wisdom, and I realize how essential it is to protect the minority. Our history is replete with instances of bigotry against the newly arrived, newly empowered, the different, in all it’s myriad types. We must protect them from the rage of the mob which always seeks a scape goat whenever life isn’t going according to their needs. Thanks for stopping by.
Sherry, you write:
> It is so well documented that the “movement”
> is not grass roots but rather the concoction
> of corporate America aided and abetted by
> political power grabbers, as to need no further
> linkage here.
I think the documentation is right about this. There appears to be a calculated effort to ‘play’ this little fringe movement into accepting a role as ‘angry swing vote’ in the next elections. Even if they never voted or never voted Democrat, the implication seems to be that the Dems won’t find the kind of support they had in 2008. Now 2010 is the trial run for 2012.
It’s not hard to imagine that elements in the GOP leadership might be in a position to contribute to the ‘mobilization’ of the tea-baggers by covert funding and a control of uncritical press coverage. What’s not attractive about a new 5-10% block of plain stupid folk (who aren’t very Christian and don’t normally vote) to supplement the 15% block of hard-core Christian theocrats they’re already in bed with?
The GOP leadership knows they can’t do it solely on the basis of their dependable 30% racist block of socially-blind Democrat-haters who think poor people are lazy (never mind that 75% of the poor folk in this country probably work a lot harder than 75% of its rich folk).
Strong and nasty brew, as you imply. And hard to say what the GOP will do next time they get a majority – not pretty, I’m sure – another raid on the US Treasury by the ‘over-taxed’ rich under cover of a loss of liberties for everyone else.
I’m still looking for Palin to lead a good lot of them astray into 3rd-party glory (and history).
John, I think you are correct in every respect. What I think Democrats still don’t get, is that we are not any longer a two party system that essentially trades power back and forth regularly, and with a certain amount of friendly commaraderie (sp) on the side. Much like prosectors and defense attorneys lunch together and are friendly on the outside of a courtroom.
No, we have essentially a large and growing group of GOPers who think that they should rule this country in a one party system and are therefore willing to do just about anything in the name of success. The means definitely justify the ends.
We live in peril should we be at all unsure about this now.
Teabaggers may be dumb as a bag of hammers, but their leaders are even less intelligent, which makes them twice as dangerous.
s. douglas, They may in fact be as dumb or they may be wily opportunists who don’t believe much of the blather they recite but find it useful to get those votes to put into practice the real agenda they have. That is just as fearful.
Sherry, we think alot alike. When it comes right down to it, I think conservatives are sincere when they play the ‘hate the gov’mint’ card – because they really crave to RULE us all without any respectable government whatsoever.
The highest GOP leadership comprises nothing more than the reincarnation of ancient Rulership groups (in both church and state) who have been offended by democracy from the get-go.
The rank and file stupids believe that majorities should rule the way they rule on school playgrounds after school – where a 6-5 vote means football is the game instead of baseball. This kind of simplistic, playground majoritarianism cannot be transposed to the halls of Congress, but the GOP is forcing things to a crisis by insisting on playing it, as you imply.
The GOP wields power by attrcting voters who have this simplistic view, and who can be taught to hate the idea of rulership that’s hampered by institutions which protect the interests of ‘minority’ blocks of human beings who reject their particular rulership coalition.
The Democratic leadership needs to see that and prevent the destruction of our institutions by these swaggering rogues without themselves playing the dictator game.
Thanks for writing – I have you on my ‘blog surfer’ so I read most of the time without checking in. But I need to vent my politics somewhere, so you’re it.
John, yes I think you are correct here. The GOP wishes a return to oligarchy and use the masses by talking about majority rule. They have anything but that in mind really.
I read you in my reader and seldom miss a post, though because of my slow operation, I don’t comment nearly as much as I would like. Just takes too long to download a page for me. Hope you understand!