Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Tea For Who?


This was something I wrote on April 21, 2010. I think I was very kind in my description of the Teabaggers. Who knew what the enormous clusterfuck America would become as a direct result of their takeover of the Republican Party (But let’s face it, they’re really just the uneducated extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, not anything new. One more step to the right and they’ll actually be in a militia group.). Had I written this today - well, let’s just say I think I was very kind in my description…


On April 19, armed and unarmed Tea Party protesters gathered around Washington DC either to celebrate the anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 or the terrorist attack by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City in 1995. Or both.

The point of Tea Parties is allegedly to protest taxes. For some reason they also think everyone carrying around guns all day is a good idea (apparently there are no Barney Fife's in that crowd).

Since taxes are the lowest they’ve been in 60 years and the ONLY thing Obama did concerning guns was to allow open carry in national parks, what exactly are these people protesting?

“These people” are also statistically comprised of those with higher than average income, mostly men, mostly white, mostly around the age of 50 and over, mostly self-identified conservative, mostly self-identified Republican, and a whole lot of Christian Fundamentalists. And 6 black people – go figure.

When I see these signs at rallies…











 
…I can’t help but boil the facts down to this: If you are an older, well-to-do, white, male, Christian, Republican who “wants his country back”, you are an ignorant racist.

In this country, we democratically elect our officials - by voting. Which is how Obama won. We don't threaten the government with insurrection because our guy didn't win. And claim the President that we do not like wasn’t born here (do you realize how utterly impossible it would be to pull that off?) just to try to make his authority sound illegitimate and accuse him of being a socialist, Marxist, fascist, communist, Muslim, atheist (a cursory investigation would show all those philosophies to be different and even contradictory in some cases – but something so simple as investigation is beyond the purview of their intelligence). Their favorite is calling Obama a socialist. Yeah, socialism sucks. We should get rid of public transportation, the police, fire departments, roads, schools, Medicare, national parks, social security, the EPA, the CDC and libraries. I'm not saying if you disagree with Obama, you are automatically a racist. I also don't agree with a lot of what he's doing. My point is that almost everything the Tea Party people are complaining about doesn't make any sense. They complain they want stuff they already have and they don't want the stuff they actually do want. If you remove all that from their equation, all you're left with is that a black guy is in charge and they don't like it. And that conclusion has the added benefit of all the proof in the racist things they say and write on signs. What exactly do they mean when they say "I want my country back?" From who? The black guy. And what freedoms has he taken away? We can live anywhere, go anywhere, work anywhere, eat anywhere, gather anywhere, say anything, wear anything, buy anything - and vote. In America, if you have a legitimate complaint, you vote your conscience to try and make a change for what you believe will be better. You don’t threaten violence by misquoting 200-year-old dead people - water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants – your ignorance, extremism and racism are showing.

They may want the country back, but I would like it to move forward.

However, it may be a good idea for Tea Partiers to go back... to school. 

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I just found this link from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It explains the Teabaggers quite well. Enjoy!



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