Tea Party: A New Brand for the Far Right

I attended the Boston Common rally organized by the Tea Party Express in order to counter-protest the appearance of Sarah Palin. I held a sign specifically directed at her lies, mischaracterizations, and general un-truthiness (it read simply: "Lie, Baby, Lie"). I was asked several times "what lies?" when I mentioned Death Panels, for starters, the response I got each time was "that's not a lie" ..and then spent my time arguing over misrepresentations of the Health Reform Bill.

I figured that this particular "2009 Lie of the Year" was a throwaway and I had better be prepared to defend my claims of additional lies. (Darn, I meant to list them on the palm of my hand!) Ok, so the crowd came in below even my initial low expectations in self-awareness and reality literacy (sorry if that's a bit judgmental -- It's something I'm working on!). I'd estimate there were a couple of thousand Tea Party supporters surrounding the stage (from where most could not see nor hear Palin when the sound system crapped out while she spoke) and AT LEAST that many non-Tea Party attendees outside the core crowd who were either counter demonstrating or simply standing far back observing.

Talking with people there and seeing the Queen of Wasila made me see much more clearly how much these people are being played by the Tea Party! A corporate-funded Republican PAC disguised as a grassroots "movement", with a goal to subvert Obama's electoral mandate by preying on the fear, frustration, and anger of the average person in these trying times and offering simple slogans, cause-and-effects, and "solutions". Many Americans want solutions to be simple and quick to digest - like our fast food - and the Tea Party organizers are promising that, even though such easy solutions are difficult because, well, the problems *are* difficult.

One guy said to me "the tide has turned". I don't think so. I think the Tea Party will eventually extinguish itself due to the extreme, intolerant, and yes – racist – factions they have *also* attracted with its appeal as a forum to vent gripes, long-held prejudices, and anger, and that will be their unravelling as they eventually repulse the mainstream This will also be the undoing of GOP politicians who try to ride their coattails. Damn right newly-minted Senator Scott Brown didn't show up on the Common, because he has nothing more to gain from these folks who helped get him elected. They and Palin can only bring *down* his popularity. He knows it. The polls show it.

The nicest thing someone said to me looking at my sign was that I was a jerk. I said “you don’t know me” and he said ‘I know all I need to know about you by looking at your sign’ (which after all said that Palin was a liar, and expressed no opinion about the Tea Party movement). After he told me Death Panels were real, he said that Obama would soon have army of brownshirts enforcing his views, and that he was even going to take way our right to VOTE within 3 years! I thought that told me all I needed to know about HIM, but you be the judge …

I wish I had seen the NYT/CBS Poll of the Tea Party before I went to the Boston Common. It’s VERY revealing and confirms a lot of suspicions about who the active participants are – the answer: Republican, white, male, older than 45. (hmm, that matches me, except for the Republican part - maybe all those dirty looks and angry comments reflected a view that I'm somehow a 'traitor"??). The survey shows that they are at the very conservative end of the GOP scale, and will even turn on GOP politicians who stray from a hard right position. They are fairly well off economically, and are mostly concerned with protecting what they’ve got (INCLUDING GOVERNMENT-PROVIDED Medicare and Soc Security, but they see no contradiction in that). They are significantly more likely than all adults to say that too much has been made of the problems of blacks, that they don’t believe in Global Climate Change, and thet are generally anti-Choice. See the study for more fascination revelations. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html?th&emc=th

I do hear the warnings that the Dems ignore the Tea Party at their own peril …BUT these people never voted for Obama (or any Democrat) and never will: (NYT/CBS Poll: ”… usually or almost always vote Republican” and "nine in 10 disapprove of the job he is doing overall, ....versus 50% approval from overall survey"). So these are the people whose GOP candidate LOST the last election and they CANNOT ACCEPT IT. They’re still carrying on with the last Presidential campaign. They’re still repeating the same lies from the last campaign to delegitimize Obama (socialist, muslim, hitler, Death Panels, terrorist, and in some cases, racism.). They’ve finally noticed the debt, but they were apparently snoozing contently on those couches or easy chairs (that Rep Boehner spoke about) while the debt climbed from $5 trillion to over $10 trillion over the 8 years of the Bush regime. No outcry then.

So I’m wondering why Democrats and progressives should really care or worry about the Tea Party? I suppose the disproportionate attention the media is giving them *might* pull in some independents, but again I think they’ll pull in only the IINOs (Independent in Name Only) !

More power to you who engage constructively in the political process, no matter your political views :-)