While going over some old emails recently, I came across a particularly heated one I received in response to a column I had written. (What are the odds of that happening, right?) I got quite a kick out of reading it again.
Back in 2009, after an incredibly brief honeymoon period for the newly elected president, there arose a backlash of uncommon fury. I guess, in hindsight, it was to be expected, but I remember being surprised at how nasty it was.
A gathering of these folks took place at Kino Stadium, which, despite widespread belief to the contrary, does actually exist. (And, yes, Raul Grijalva is at least partly responsible for its really crappy location.) It was held on a Saturday and it drew a pretty substantial crowd. There were the gun folks and the We Hate Taxes people and the Stars-and-Bars crowd who want a do-over on the Civil War.
In a fit of irony or chutzpah, they hired some black guy to be the emcee of the whole shebang. I couldn’t help but think about Hollywood Shuffle and how that would play on his résumé.
Anyway, I wrote a column about it and got a few interesting responses. The aforementioned one is, with the passage of time, a real hoot. It reads in part, “I hate the fact that you and others in the liberal media keep trying to paint the Tea Party movement as being some right-wing conspiracy. The Tea Party consists of almost equal parts Democrats, Republicans and independents who are simply fed up with the way the government operates.”
Can we now, once and for all, put that notion to rest? In fact, it should be wrapped in layers of lead and buried deep in the bowels of Yucca Flat, along with the rest of the toxic waste. I defy you to find me a self-respecting Democrat who identifies with the Tea Party. I would like to say that it is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party (or perhaps, more correctly, the other way around), but even the majority of Republicans don’t want that stench on their persons.
By the way, the Nevada atomic test site is indeed named Yucca Flat, singular. A lot of people refer to it in the plural, perhaps owing to the success of the 1961 film, The Beast of Yucca Flats, which starred Tor Johnson. The poster for that movie shows a mushroom cloud in the background and the words, “The Commies made him an atomic mutant.” Tea Party people look at that poster and say, “That stuff could really happen!”
There are, of course, legitimate reasons to protest against President Obama and his policies. I, for one, am one of those who believe that Obama has been too timid by half. I especially believe that his initial stimulus package was far too small. If he had stood up to the whiners and doomsayers who couldn’t math their way out of wet toilet paper, perhaps what has happened in the past four years might have been much different.
The study of economics being what it is (not really a science), it can still offer some insights and perspective. In physics, if you do something 100 times and you get the same result all 100 times, then you can say with a strong sense of certainty that it will also work the 101st time. It’s not exactly the same with economics, but every single time the United States economy had slipped into recession, government stimulus spending pulled it out and the economy came roaring back, stronger than ever. And it did so in a relatively short period of time.
If the president had followed the lessons of history, we probably wouldn’t be in our fifth year of recession/weak recovery. With a little bit of luck, the recovery would have already been underway in 2010 and we wouldn’t have such a large Tea Party presence in Congress. (If a group of crows is called a murder, then the collection of Tea Party nutbirds in the House and Senate should be called a murder/suicide.) Instead, Obama allowed himself to be drowned out by the right-wing talk-radio chorus of “National debt! Budget deficit!” to the detriment of us all.
I’ve been waiting patiently for the Tea Party movement to run its course. Next year will probably be crucial. If they keep nominating people who can’t win general elections, that will probably be it. Somewhat counterintuitively, even as their numbers have dwindled, their concentrated power in limited areas has grown. It’s like a star collapsing on itself and, for a time, having a much stronger gravitational field. Tea Party people would probably appreciate that analogy were they not anti-science. However, they would hate the use of the term “black hole.”
Perhaps, at the time, the email writer believed that the Tea Party movement could someday transcend all party lines. It certainly did not start out that way, and when it began to move, it did so under the principle of a firing squad made up of zealots assembling in a circle, its trajectory that of a reverse logarithmic spiral, careening toward an oblivion predetermined by a foolish pursuit of ideological purity.
Its demise cannot come soon enough for me. Or for America.
This article appears in Nov 7-13, 2013.
Well, you one thing right. The Kino Stadium is in a crappy place and the Toad was responsible for it. We sure paid a big price for that decision. And finally…who cares what you think about the Tea Party!
fraser007 is right. Tea party members don’t care about anybody’s opinions but their own. They don’t care about anybody but themselves, and they don’t care about America. It’s all about what they can hoard for themselves, screw anybody else. They can’t even hang together enough to form their own political group. They have to attach themselves lamprey-like to the republican greed heads. Pitiful, really. Like cockroaches, they will now scatter back into the dark corners of the republican party, avoiding exposure to the light of reason, and keep infesting that party until once again, they will skitter into the open to brazenly feed on republican leftovers.
actually it has been with us – under various names – since the South lost the Civil War and it isn’t going to fade in the old South any time soon.
What has happened is that as a result of the Southern Strategy it has spread nationwide in Republican circles and has taken over the party. That will fade once the party loses enough elections outside the South.
But in the Deep South it will be with us for a long long time.
One of the many ironies about the anti-government TeaParty is that they are heavily funded (re Koch brothers support) to get into the very government they strongly oppose. In reality the TeaParty only represents a tiny sliver of the changing demographic of our country. Their extreme beliefs are simply inconsistent with that demographic and therefore generally irrelevant if not usually selfish and mean spirited, especially toward the disenfranchised and poorer people of our country. I have often witnessed people sympathetic to TeaParty policies voting against their own self interests. If TeaParty contingency is so anti-government, perhaps they should consider living off the grid, or simply finding another country to move to.
Ever notice how obsessed Pulitzer Tommy is with the Tea Party? If he thinks we’re a bunch of fools doomed to fail, why not just ignore us. Just sit back and wait for us to become extinct then stand up and cheer. But, not Tommy. He can’t write a column about his favorite Mexican rerstaurant without throwing a dig at us. I’m pretty sure I know why, but I think I’ll keep it to myself.
P.S. Signed up yet?
CW13 –Don’t forget his other two favorite topics. Girls basketball and Charter Schools. He seems obsessed with us too. Tommy has about hit his level of writing. It’s as far as he can go.
I am glad they hate us. They don’t seem to like a two party system and after the get the vote for the 15,000,000 illegal aliens there won’t be any anyway.
The Tea Party started with great potential, and good ideas.
Then, as happened with the Republican Party before it, it was co-opted by the religious/social right.
That makes it an oxymoron. One can not espouse a smaller, less intrusive government on one hand, and then espouse a larger, more intrusive government on the other hand, which is what the religious/social right is about, just like the progressives they love to hate.
Hey Ronko, you can’t just “simply find another country to move to”. Other countries are smart enough to strictly limit immigration.
Political fads come and go, that’s especially true with the Tea Party or the Occupy movement. Remember the Dixiecrats, the Bull Mooses, the Know-Nothings, and the Whigs.
I became an Independent because neither party had anyone’s interest but their own. I ditched my land line because of the constant robo-calls from both parties. I like some of the Tea Party stance regarding getting the government away from tax and spend more. As long as there is ONLY a two party system and any other party is marginalized and ignored or ridiculed by the media we are stuck with the status quo.
I also consider myself an independent.
First, I’m tired of seeing political movements like the Tea Party take beautiful symbols of our common American heritage — like the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag and tricorn hats — and politicize them. Stop inferring that anybody who doesn’t believe your way isn’t a “real” American. By the same breath, I’m tired of seeing these so-called “Anonymous” Occupy marchers wear Guy Fawkes masks. It reminds me of that line from the Beatles’ “Revolution:” “If you go around carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.” And they ain’t.
Second, we have more than one political party in America, but here’s the problems:
1) The Libertarians don’t know how to play to win. C’mon, would it kill you all to buy some political TV advertising now and then? When Ron Paul dumped you to run as a Republican, that should’ve told you something. When you start actually winning some major elections, or at least making an effort to do so, maybe the media will start taking you seriously.
2) The Modern Whig Party and Americans Elect are still pretty much in their organizational infancy. They are trying to find people fed up with the two-party system, but without a lot of resources to get their message out, they don’t attract followers. It’s a catch-22.
3) Our brains naturally gravitate towards simple either-or choices. That doesn’t mean something’s wrong with us — it’s just human nature.
As for those robo-calls, I let them get my voicemail, which lets callers know that for “quality assurance purposes,” I don’t have to pick up the line. That usually keeps them from calling back.
Mr. Danehy, in answer to your question: ” When the Greatest Generation Dies.” Then you and the Fourth Avenue crowd can finally take over along with the news room of the Star, Birkenstocks, bongs, and EBT cards and storm the gates of DM, City Hall, the Police Department, and every other symbol of authority you’ve hated, and have at it. You might want to review the last hour of Zhivago after the revolution, and the madness in the streets, the “committees” assigning housing, long lines for food. It’s coming.
frank McLaury:
Great post! Well done. Add to the crowd you mentioned the 15,000,000 illegals who will magically become citizens and you have a Perfect Storm of failure.
When this country goes down the toilet at least people like me, frank and fraser were smart enough to see it coming. Talk to me, Tommy. Signed up yet ?
CW13:
Don’t worry about Tommy. He will be sitting at a bar on 4th Ave, telling the Progressives, dopers, students all about his glory days as a Girls BB coach and how he sent his kids to a charter school.
Teatotler Tommy will tell anyone who’ll listen that he’s never had a drink in his life. And with great rightousness I might add. He’s probably abstains from booze because it costs alot more than water. I can see him sitting on the ground in front of an abandoned store on 4th holding court with a bunch of local losers. Ironic, Tommy a TEAtotler.
For all the people who keep bleating about a two-party system, I respond that it’d be nice if we had one. The only difference between the Ds and the Rs is that they both pay lip service to their various constituencies while whoring themselves out for corporate campaign funds from the same sources. Imbeciles like Danehy keep stirring the pot with an utterly false left/right dichotomy, content to let their supposedly beloved country be sold down the river as long as the salesman has a letter behind their name that they approve of. And equally stupid readers lap up their confirmation biases, secure in the illusion that they live in a free society. No one is less free than a slave who insists their chains don’t exist.
As a nation, we have consistently failed to live up to the ideals set forth for us in the beginning. Mostly because of people who now call themselves tea partiers, though they’ve had many different names over the years. We have made progress in spite of them, and will continue to do so. They will fail for the same reason they have always failed. The inability to adapt to change. Unfortunately, they won’t go the way of the dinosaurs. They’re more like locusts. In a generation or so, a whole new generation of barely literate, heavily armed, seditious idiots will be back to subject our descendants to another round of batshit crazy.
Louis Wu,
You must have gone to school at TUSD, because you obviously do not know of what you speak.
You seem to have missed the point of the Tea Party. Their purpose is not to win elections; it’s to make the increasingly conservative and corporatist Democrats look liberal by comparison. The Tea Party will have won a major victory if Clinton gets the 2016 nomination.
Mr. Nivek, if you’re unable to see or at least acknowledge the gargantuan corporatist streak in the GOP, which has utterly co-opted the Tea Party, your comment only serves to underscore the truth of what I said in my post above. Your partisan myopia is a hindrance, not a help; you would do well to stop viewing things in terms of conservative vs. liberal and focus instead on right vs. wrong.