I'm sure I've only seen a faint smattering of things people have said over the past few days. One of the best, which just grabbed this as part of a longer narrative arc, was Rachel Maddow:
"The Washington Times" reporting today, on the founder of TeaParty.org threatening Michael Steele and the Republican Party, saying, quote, "We are turning our guns on anyone who doesn't support constitutional conservative candidates. It's not going to be good for them. If they don't get that and their party chairmen don't get that, they are going to be ostracized."
It should be noted that the guy making that threat, the head of TeaParty.org, one of the founders of the tea party movement, is this guy, Dale Robertson. Take that in for a second. Yes, that is the "N" word, and yes, it's misspelled.
You know, it's usually ad hominem attack when you call someone an illiterate racist. But in this case, when the guy is both using and misspelling the "N" word, I think it's fair to say, just descriptively, without comment-you, sir, are an illiterate race. You are also the founder of TeaParty.org.
But even without exhaustive searching, I'm pretty darned sure that this point hasn't been made a whole lot: Slaveholders themselves are the origin of America's anti-tax/anti-government tradition. This history has been well documented by Robin Einhorn in her book, American Taxation, American Slavery, which is a penetrating look at what policies were actually implemented by which politicians.
In the post below this one, I asked if teabaggers (and some lefties) would work to support Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate campaign. This is because Brown's unlikely, though not impossible, victory in the January 19th special election is pretty much the only chance left to defeat the health care reform bill.
So, what action are the teabaggers planning for that week? Why, a completely unrelated, entirely symbolic, national strike to protest President Obama's one-year anniversary in office. From The Hill:
Tea Party activists are planning to go on a "national strike" later this month to protest both President Barack Obama and the businesses and other groups that support him.
Their effort, which focuses primarilly on corporations that "employ individuals backing the leftist agenda," will occur in major cities on January 20 -- the date President Barack Obama was inaugurated last year, according to Allen Hardage, who is leading the campaign.
That's very cute. From the "official" statement:
On January 20, 2010 we will demonstrate our power and reach to those companies who employ individuals backing the leftist agenda in every major city, every congressional district and every small rural town in America to spread one unified message. That message is simple: Stop funding socialism. When they refuse to stop backing the major opponents of Liberty, liberal media outlets and socialist leaning elected officials, then we proceed to financially cripple them.
Yeah--demonstrate your power to stop socialism by completing ignoring the one chance you actually have to stop what you consider the biggest instance of socialism in the "Democratic-Socialist" agenda. Opt instead for a type of action that will have no impact except to identify yourself as someone who hates Obama:
Fred Taub, president of Cleveland-based Boycott Watch, said the national strike sounds like a one-day boycott - something he said never works.
"If I choose not to buy gas on Tuesday, I'm going to have to buy gas on Monday or Wednesday instead," he said. "I still have to eat. These one-day boycotts are completely and totally ineffective."
Who cares about effectiveness? This isn't about effectiveness-this is about identifying yourself as someone who hates Obama!
This helps explain why the teabaggers are taking a pass on action that could actually stop "socialism," and opting instead for ineffective, symbolic, identity-based actions: they don't care about actual issues or legislation. Whereas only 6% of Democrats and Independents,a nd 10% of "others" consider health care reform "not at all" important in determining their vote, 51% of Republicans hold that position.
That is a remarkable, stunning, and very important poll finding. It also helps explain the mentality of the current conservative, Republican and teaparty opposition. It isn't about issues, or policies, or legislation. For many, even a majority, it is just about demonstrating that they hate you (and yes, I mean you). Everything else is simply a sideshow.
Last Saturday, veteran right wing watcher Adele Stan of AlterNet covered the Tax Payers' March on Washington (aka the 912 March or the DC Tea Party). About 70,000 conservative protesters converged on Washington to air their grievances, including opposition to President Obama's health care reform agenda. Protesters carried signs warning of death panels, tax-funded abortions, and healthcare for "illegals."
In this interview, Stan explains that while the event was billed as a grassroots convergence, it was in fact orchestrated by Dick Armey's FreedomWorks and the right wing Americans for Prosperity. The rally also received massive amounts of free publicity from Fox News host Glenn Beck, coordinator of the 9-12 project. Stan describes how all the abortion-, immigration- and death panel-talk binds social conservatives, nativists, and big business interests into a cohesive rightwing coalition.
Stan says that ,while the tea baggers have cropped up recently, the leaders of the movement have been at this game since LBJ trounced Barry Goldwater in 1964.
To learn more, check out Addie's recent writing on the Tea Parties at AlterNet. The Wing Nut Code explains the significance of those creepy yellow snake flags and other right wing symbology; and The Same Old Faces explains how old guard Goldwater partisans are still pulling the strings for the right wing.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care and is free to reprint. Visit Healthcare.newsladder.net for a complete list of articles on health care affordability, health care laws, and health care controversy. For the best progressive reporting on the Economy, and Immigration, check out Economy.Newsladder.net and Immigration.Newsladder.net. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of 50 leading independent media outlets, and created by NewsLadder.
The 9-12ers are here in DC today, "tens of thousands!" according to FOX News. While I am of course happy for them, enjoying their constitutional rights that their ideological forbears fought against (that whole Bill of Rights thing was bitterly opposed by the conservatives in the 1790s, and states' righters don't even think it applies to the states at all), I do find it odd that for such an incredible mass movement, promoted day and night by Fox News and every right wing radio host in America, they couldn't turn out more people than this. Oh, well, maybe next time.
I do worry about them though. I mean, a lot of them are older, and this anger they carry around must be terrible for the toll it takes in terms of the high blood pressure, hypertension, heart disease. They really should take a Valium like a normal person.
Oh, and I also worry about their political beliefs. If this gang of Palinista, birther, secessionist, tea bagger, scream-at-the-President-and-members-of-Congress-rant-and-raver ever took power, this country would truly be in a world of hurt- I mean we tried a slightly milder version of it from 2001 to Jan 20th of this year, and look how messed up we got.
Rachel Maddow did a superb piece on this gang of misfits and hooligans last night, which was especially fabulous because she did an interview with me you can see here. It was fun, although it's always hard to calibrate how perky to look when you are just staring into the remote camera with an earpiece in your ear. Hopefully, I didn't scare anybody. Although speaking of scaring people, my company inbox last night overflowed with angry right wingers saying, well, really angry things: calling me all kinds of names, making their usual threats, even calling me ugly (okay, you might not think one is so crazy, to each their own).
So, again, I appeal to you guys: relax, take deep breaths, maybe take your blood pressure medicine before your veins pop. I promise that after I get appointed to the death panel, all the euthanasia will be painless.
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