The Mad Tea Party

Between Glenn Beck (who makes Howard Beale look ‘rational’), Sarah Palin (who makes George W. Bush look ‘brilliant’), Michelle Bachman (who makes Charles Manson’s eyes look ‘sane’), and the rest of their sign-carriers with their blatant ignorance, it is very obvious to me that the Tea Party people are completely unhinged.

Recently Dick Armey, one of the driving forces of the so-called “Tea Party Movement” was a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The exchange between them was very odd and at one point the conversation went like this…

Armey proffered that if the two of them were stuck on a deserted island, “one of us is going to be the government.”

“I’m going to have a gun”, said Armey.

“I’m going to have a boat”, replied Stewart.

To which Armey answered, “I’m going to shoot a hole in it.”

So, in the event of being “stranded on a deserted island” Dick Armey would shoot a HOLE in the boat that could rescue them both if Jon Stewart won’t do things exactly Armey’s way. That kind of rationale sounds reminiscent to me of that crazy woman in Nevada who is saying that if the election doesn’t go the way they want, it’s time to engage in a “second amendment remedy”. Which sounds suspiciously like a candidate for a seat in the United States SENATE, actually advocating armed revolution if they don’t like the way a legal ELECTION turns out. She’s talking about this as a means of fighting against “tyranny”.

I have news for Ms. Angle, if the election were to be cancelled by the government so that voting could not take place…that would indeed be “tyranny”.  In fact, in the event of something like that happening, I might even pick up my gun and stand the line with her. But a legal election not going your way is NOT grounds for armed revolt. Unless of course Ms. Angle would like to live in a banana republic where armed brute force is acceptable to overturn an election, in which case I suggest she find some third world state to live in, because she can’t have this country.

Now, I understand completely that these people are angry and that they literally HATE the man currently occupying the White House. That is a feeling I can certainly sympathize with…I lived through it for the eight long, miserable years of the last administration. I think I can honestly say that I doubt anyone has the kind of animosity that I felt (and in honesty, still feel as we’re still suffering the consequences of his horrendous leadership and the Right’s unbridled power for all those years) for George W. Bush and everyone associated with his administration. Everything that they did…Enron, Katrina, Terry Shaivo, the financial and oil deregulation, the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the pandering to the religious Right, the unfounded dual front wars, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, torture, extraordinary renditions, the economic collapse…the list goes on and on. All these horrors that George W. Bush and his vice presidential henchman inflicted on this great country, completely sickened me to such a degree that I was actually beginning to become embarrassed for this great country that I love so dearly.

I was so relieved when the Bush era ended and the country overwhelmingly elected President Obama. But it didn’t take long to see that the Right was going to do exactly the same thing to this Democratic President that they did to the last one. The first part of the plan is to get the big money people to write a lot of really huge checks to fund the movement.  Back in '94 it was Richard Mellon Sciafe and his "Arkansas Project", this year it's the Koch brothers and their "Freedom Works". 

The players may have changed, but the game remains the same...tell one outrageous lie after another, completely erode the President's support among the people, and then come up with some plan to trick the American people into giving them back the control of the country. In 1994, they called it the “Contract with America” and/or “the Republican Revolution”, this year they call it the “Tea Party” (though some are still babbling about “revolution” as well).  But, it doesn’t matter what they call it, it’s still the same game.  Like the song goes…”same old story, same old song and dance…”

And then, if they do manage to take back the power (as it looks like they might), they will again do the same things that they did before, mark my words. They will further obstruct government with senseless hearings,  “investigations”, government "shutdowns" and other distractions. In fact, the first book on the “Case for the Impeachment of Barack Obama” is already written.

Then, also just like before, they will wield their power like a cudgel, probably pulling the same tricks they played last time they had the gavel... locked committee door meetings, threats of arrest for demanding access, teamed with threats to remove the "Filibuster", thereby taking the one shred of power that the minority possesses.  I was appalled when they threatened their "nuclear option" to abolish it before, but then recently found myself wishing that they actually had, because then they would have been the powerless ones the last months and wouldn't have been able to block and obstruct as they have.  This time if they threaten it again, perhaps we should just let them.  They won't hold the majority forever, though they think they will. 

Then, again just like last time the Right had unbridled power and a president whose character has been completely assassinated, they will run roughshod over the government. So while they’re tying up the President with all that ridiculousness, they will also take us back to the same old republican policies that put us into this horrendous mess in the first place and likely repeal all the good work that has been done thus far in the Obama administration

And then it’ll be a whole new song…”meet the new boss, same as the old boss…”