Recently a number of people have been claiming that the Tea Party membership consists mainly of middle and upper-middle class people who want to keep taxes down so that they can have more “stuff.” I find this a ridiculous idea on the face of it. Middle and upper-middle class people do not get generally down and dirty in mass movements. First of all, it’s beneath their pay grade. Second, they are too damned busy maintaining their hustle to get out in the street and protest. And third…well, third is simply an unprejudiced look at the many, many available images of Tea Party-style meeting and demonstrations.
I include three quite representative exmples of the genre below.
Not much more needs to be said to those of us who actually venture out into the white, working class heartland of America on foot and unescorted by the National Guard.
Ignore and/or insult these people at your peril.
To some degree they share similar characteristics to those of the black working class that propelled the Civil Rights movement in his country.
That is…they believe that they do not have very much left to lose. That makes them fairly…committed…at the very least. And dangerous in the pre-WWII German sense at the very worst.
Word.
They are out there; they are feeling their power now and they like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.
A lot.
Watch.
AG
P.S. I first heard Glenn Beck on a long, lonely car trip from Ohio to NYC some 6 years ago. Scanning the dial looking for anything to pass the flatland time, I heard his rap…not particularly political then…and thought to myself “UH oh!!! Some kind of radio genius!!!”
He flowed. Better than Don Imus at the game, better than Howard Stern. Much better.
Watch him.
He’s bad news.
Why?
Because he has real talent; because he is off his rocker and because his instability flexes towards the far right.
A dangerous combination.
Bet on it.
AG
A Tea Party of harmless Yuppie/Preppies, maybe?
I think not.
Word.
Ignore it at your peril.
AG
They are also very misinformed about the world beyond their personal doorstep. Most of them are captives of the Fox World view which makes them a dangerous force in American politics.
I don’t think they make up more than 20% of the electorate but they are more fanatical about their mis-beliefs and the talking points they’ve been spoon fed because it fits their need to blame someone else for their problems.
These are the people with the same know-nothing, scapegoating attitudes and beliefs that led to the rise of fascism in other countries. We live in perilous times.
Making believe that hey are who they are not does not do much good.
Not does making fun of them.
They are human beings, and they have valid issues. They simply do not understand those issues or their causes. Hypnomediated into a blind frenzy, they are a real threat to the republic. And further…in this nuclear-armed world…a threat to the very survival of humanity and indeed a threat to all of life on earth as well.
Always remember…Hitler’s original supporters were very similar to these people both in their societal standing and in their lack of understanding about what was happening to them.
Look at what happened there.
AG
Should be:
Like dat.
AG
Noooo…that isn’t it either.
Lemme try again.
Yours truly…
The Serial Poster
What are there valid issues? That they need counseling? That they are rubes of obscenely wealthy people? That they don’t really know what socialism is?
That they have been hypnotized by the media.
That their leaders hate and fear them.
That their leaders want to steal from them. Every red cent that they can get their hands on.
That over the past 50 years or of corporate encroachment the educational system and culture of the United States have failed them.
Miserably.
Failed us all.
Valid enough?
I think so.
AG
So then. What’s the force that can bear equal weight in the opposite direction? Alternately: what do we do with all these misguided, dangerous people? Shoot ’em?
I know one self-defined tea partier here in the rural outskirts. He’s poor, aged & clinically retarded as a result of fetal alcohol syndrome. He’s also an active member of the VFD & handy with advice on gas-powered vehicles. In an attempt to engage me in a little neighborly fucking, he took rejection calmly. I wouldn’t particularly like to shoot him. Aside of that, I follow a Buddhist spiritual line as closely as any & will avoid causing suffering if at all possible.
So then. Do we let the evil simmering beneath the surface of the this continent since before the Indians (to paraphrase Burroughs) arise in full force & finally wipe out any vestiges of a functioning national consciousness, completing some type of urgent Western karmic cycle, or what? Is there no hand on the power source as the feces finally hit the fan? If so, whose?
Are they all unreachable, clinically retarded morons?
I think not, mself.
Lots of them are just scared middle-aged people who see their retirement dreams crumbling. Lots more are working class parents who can’t pay the bills. Sure, they’re not right at the top of the IQ heap, but bone-deep stupid? No. I do not believe it.
Show them how they are being used.
Show them their leaders’ tin feet.
Show them Boehner’s drinking problem.
Show them Limbaugh’s mega-million dollar cynicism.
Show them Palin’s Christian Taliban roots.
Show them.
Change the minds of 1/4 of them? 1/3rd? More?
Do so and you change the electoral results.
Bet on it.
Do not even try and the US will eventually go down in flames.
Bet on that as well.
Gotta give it a try, wilderness wench.
Right?
Or…just give it up now and move on out to Denmark or someplace else more rational than the US.
(It’s a thought…)
Later…
AG
Yes, of course. However, we’re all in the throes of a social experiment so massive & so insidious, in terms of the actual minds & souls of individuals, that the majority don’t even know they’re subjects. It’s not only media-induced hypnosis, it’s consciousness generated by media. Media-created personhood. There’s no difference any more between the person & the experiment.
So back to another question: what on earth is the opposing influence that’s equally powerful? Even reason, on a friendly, person-to-person basis doesn’t seem to matter. Talking logic doesn’t matter. It’s really like dealing with The Body Snatchers — perfectly fine, decent people, reasonable people, unless you approach an idea that’s already been taken care of by the media machine. Then the lights go out. You’ll find someone spouting ideas that go directly counter to what the same person will state as their own beliefs at another moment. That’s what we’re talking about when we talk media strike — it’s vast & it’s made us insane. The experiment, in other words, has achieved wondrous success.
In fact…it’s no longer an experiment anymore.
It is now simply the way that things work here.
So…must we rely on the media to find a middle path in the interest of sheer corporate self-interest? A middle path that they once again pound into the minds of a voting majority of the U.S. population?
I am often afraid that this choice is the only one that is left to us.
Let us pray.
AG
Wow .. even the possibility seems too marvelous.
Pray.
It can happen.
They reconsidered as Bush failed.
AG
How the Real Third Party…the Mediacrats…Will Try To Spin The Tea Party Out Of Contention.
AG
I posted another article around the general area of this idea recently.
The Rev. Terry Jones: An Appreciation From The Leftiness Side Of The Fence.
It sank like a stone here…maybe because I posted it on 9/11. Or maybe because people have been hypnomediated out of being able to take an impartial look at what went down in Florida. I think I made some good points in it. Check it out if you have a mind to do so.
Later…
AG
I may not agree with Arthur on the Democratic side of things, but he’s right about this sleeping giant of tens of millions of scared, pissed off, desperate middle class white folk who now see their vote as the last bastion against THEM.
We can make all the reasoned, impassioned, CULTURESTRIKE arguments to vote we want to.
These folks’ votes count exactly the same as you or me.
And for now they still have the numbers.