Does it matter that the Tea Partiers are just a small bunch of ragtag losers? If the polls can be believed, it seems like those ragtag losers are about to get a lot of representation in Congress. Even P.J. O’Rourke has gone insane judging from his latest screed: They Hate Our Guts.
I love how he tells the baggers to get out and vote at the same time he promotes a book telling them to do the exact opposite. Is there no cognitive dissonance left in the world?
But O’Rourke’s commentary is cognitive dissonance writ large. You haven’t seen progressives railing against minorities and immigrants and the beneficiaries of government spending. Progressives haven’t been hating on anything (excepting Rahm Emanuel); we’ve been begging the government to help people who are going bankrupt because of medical bills, who are losing their homes because they’ve lost their jobs, who can’t even begin to pay for their kids to go to college. Progressives haven’t been bashing the military, we’ve been begging our country to get back on the right track on civil and human rights, and to hold those accountable who took us down the wrong path. If we hate anything, it’s needless human suffering. We haven’t been railing against productivity and success, but against theft and a rigged game where the big bettors cannot lose.
We’ve been warning people that it’s wrong to take out your pain and insecurities on the insecure who are in pain.
When we should be holding people accountable for ruining our country’s reputation and economic standing, we have people on the right who want to shift blame onto migrant workers and gays and minorities and intellectuals. Enough. Just follow O’Rourke’s latest advice, and get out and vote!
