As I see the massive effort to undermine the tea bag protests by attacking the participants, I'm reminded of this:
The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded.
Here's the thing. I'm not moved at all by some of the conservative movement leaders trying to use this to their advantage. Yes, I do see hypocrisy for many of the participants. But, like Lambert, I'm pretty pissed off that we've thrown trillions at the banksters who engaged in fraud.
Its stunning to see how tone deaf "the left" is. Truly stunning. It seems like most of the left does not want to see how people honestly angry at the bailouts can possibly exist at these events. Surely, they have to be crazy nut jobs who want to overthrow the government if they went to this event. But I don't expect much more from progressives who want to treat me like I'm an idiot. Sadly, they are ridiculing the millions of people who may not be Republicans or wingers who are sympathetic to the anti-bailout message and who would be allies in bringing down the gross fraud and corruption. As Kurt Vonnegut would say, So it goes.
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Blowing the opportunity
Tea parties -- people angry about what's happening to them and protesting the government's failure to help. Furthermore, at last, at long last, people seem angry about the corruption and angry at the oligarchy. Generally, that's a good thing. However easy it may be to ridicule the incoherence and see the turnout as mere anti-librul tribalism, it would be far more productive to use the anger to educate.
They're right that government is pissing away their grandchildren's money. So let's cut the military budget and adopt a real progressive income tax. They're right that government is corrupt, so let's reduce the power of corporate money. And so on.
We have such an opportunity to advance liberal democracy, but we seem to want to continue the tribalism.
Based on the numbers of participants, the opportunity
appears to me to be limited.
I am no fan of the bailouts to the banks / insurers / financiers. I was a fan of the Chrysler bailout in the 1980s because, frankly, the results were good little affordable dependable cars -- something of a return to the Model T / Model A, maybe -- and the money went to keep American workers on American jobs in American factories using (mostly) American parts made by other American workers, and so on.
But this TEA bag situation (and I too hope they'll pick a less readily vulgarizable symbol for the 7/4/09 next big event) lacks the authenticity of the farmers' tractor protests when I was a high schooler, not to mention the nationwide energy of the anti-war events since 2000.
I think there may be -- and I emphasize MAY here strongly -- a chance to get the word out to people about the need to end corporate personhood and take back our country from the chokehold of Wall Street.
Faux Noise, though, and Rush Limbaugh, are not urging people to see and think about those problems.
Sadly, with the rapid contraction of newspapers nowadays and the stranglehold of defense contractors on the Main$tream Media, I don't know where we'll be able to go to get the word out.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
It's the attitude
No, there weren't many participants, and very few participants at any demonstration will listen to, much less be convinced by, an inclusive argument that they're wrong. The point is, there is visible unrest over an economic system that works for the rich at the expense of everybody else. Our visible response shouldn't be to reject the unrest, but to work to shape it. Otherwise, we're just saying that our wing of the Money Party is better than their wing. Instead, we ought to challenge the premises of the Money Party.
The tea parties were silly, but they expressed widely shared anxiety. We don't want to come across as saying, "You're anxious about your well being? Well, you're silly."
Please understand that "Fuck off, you racist, unhip Bubbas" is
... a term of endearment. Many of my progressive friends talked to me that way all last year.
It's much more enlightened than "I feel your pain" and "It's the economy, stupid."
FWIW...
... I see the central political problem -- which is not the same as the policy problem --- as getting Hillary's 18 million represented. I don't think the Money Democrats, the faction that now runs the party, does that, or even cares about doing it.
So, when I see people that might be part of the 18 million, even if FOX did bring them out, I get interested.
I do understand that the teabagger circlejerk has a role to play -- it's important to discredit Republicans and Conservatives, which I know, because I spent about five years working at it -- but that's not the same as saying that I have to play that role.
Further, I see that role as being a negative one. Just because the teabaggers are getting ridiculed doesn't mean that the people doing the ridiculing reflect my values or interests. They might, but it's not a necessary consequence.
UPDATE Oh my goodness! Not only are these people crazy, would you look at them? They're just ugly! They're just not our kind! And they probably have bad teeth:
Tell me about it.
Double shot with your latte, Thers? Cinnamon? Thank you, sir!
NOTE * Gee, wouldn't it be nice if the A listers used their bully pulpit for that? I dream, I know.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Caste? based on dentistry? No. Based on appearance, yes.
And thanks for the chance to bring up Susan Boyle. She's about my age and about my size, and I only wish my skin were as clear and lovely as hers. No, I cannot sing.
But you should go and listen to her, because
1. it is a privilege to listen to such a voice
2. it is delightful to watch the judges' faces change as she sings
3. it is a reminder to us all that judging a book by its cover deprives everybody
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
As a woman with bad teeth
I have to disagree with you on that. Bad teeth is very much a class marker, especially where I live, which is a rural/urban hybrid. I don't have it as bad, as someone with bad teeth and a unkempt appearance, but I've had my teeth remarked upon by college professors and prospective employers.
And +100 about Boyle. I got goosebumps listening to her, and I am not the kind of person who gets goosebumps over voices, just not my cup of tea.
Of course my joy at her discovery is immediately negated by the observations of all the people around me, that now that she is about to be famous, hopefully she'll get a makeover and put more effort into "herself".
*punches fist through wall*
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
- Sir William Drummond
Bad teeth as class marker
Up here in Zone 5b, too.
Imagine the discourtesy of remarking on somebody's teeth! What a dominance game.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi