Us, Them, and Everyone Else

I've been trying a new approach with Tea Party types.  It stems from the incessant mantra that Obama is a raving socialist liberal.  It started with some conversation or other about the plethora of liberal hosts on Fox News and the lack of conservatives on MSNBC.  Now, I fully agree with the latter, but liberals on Fox?  This fellow went on to cite Alan Colmes as the most iconic liberal in the universe. 

And this is where it began.  I respectfully disagreed and explained that just because Colmes (or anyone) is more liberal than you, that doesn't make him a Liberal.  See, it's not one or the other;  that's why it's called the "politicial spectrum."  Spectrum, not a bimodal system.  (oh no, I did not use such a fancy, latte-drinking word as bimodal).  There's Tea Partiers on the one end, and Communists over on the other, and in the middle lies a whole bunch of everyone else. 

This middle zone contains a HUGE pool of what are rightly called Centrists.  And this is where Obama stands.  Is he more liberal than a Tea Partier?  Hell yeah.  But to someone on the Far Left, he's dead center.  But apparently Partiers (TP-ers?) can't grasp anything more complex than a simple them/us scenario.  Call me crazy, but I thought the idea of a spectrum was pretty simple, and I really expected this guy to come around and agree. 

But see, it's that dang faith in humanity that bit me in the butt.  I have tried this approach several times since, and NOT ONE person would admit the existence of anything other than Conservative (them) and Liberal (everyone else).  This phenomenon goes hand in hand with being Tea Party conservative;  other Conservatives can and will have this discussion and acknowledge differing degrees of Right/Left.  I don't expect to win anyone over to my political views, but I shake my head in disbelief that there are people who are so ignorant that they can't even allow that things are not so simplistic. 

But of course, that's the way our Corporate-bought politicians like us: simple.  It makes us easy to control, easy to lie to.  If you think everyone else is a liberal lunatic commie, then you'll be scared and will vote for all kinds of crazy policies that are not in your best interest.  It's time for everyone to realize that we have more in common with each other than we do with the billionaire corporatists.  The us and them isn't Right/Left, it's working people vs. the insanely rich.  Which none of us will ever be, no matter how many lottery tickets we buy. 

So please, please, PLEASE Tea Party Nation: can we stop with the polarizing slurs and just, for one brief moment, acknowledge that there's a whole lotta space between you and the Left, that's filled with different ideas?

Yeah, I know: somewhere, monkeys fly out of somebody's butt.

Uncivil Disobedience

Last night I posted a pretty angry article on how the Baggers think they are having some sort of little revolution.  Thankfully today I feel a little more myself, and as such I would like to address the same topic with a little more aplomb.

There is a HUGE difference between what the Baggers are doing and anything the Left has done in the past.  (WTO and similar dumbheads excepted -- we don't claim them as our own).  Civil disobedience this is not. 

Civil disobedience has been a cornerstone of the Left for decades.  Sit ins, chaining oneself to a tree, going limp when being arrested for these actions......The key is that all these actions, while disruptive, are inherently nonviolent.  In fact, participants in and advocates of civil disobedience routinely disavow any acts of violence.  Personal assault (spitting), racially based hatred (n-word), and violence (brick throwing) are not tolerated, much less promoted.

I'm not sure what to call what the Baggers are doing.  Rioting, maybe?  Whatever label you give it, it's wrong.  It's criminal!  And so is the act of encouraging these things -- inciting someone to commit violence or crime is itself a crime.  And it's bad enough that we have Beck et al encouraging it -- but we actually have elected GOP officials egging them on too! 

I feel like I've followed Alice right down the rabbit hole.  Where is this strange place I've landed?  What kind of rules govern this place where such acts are considered acceptable? 

These people are just getting off, feeling powerful or self-satisfied in their stupid acts.  Just like the idiots who burned police cars in Berkeley during the Gulf War protests way back in Bush I's rule.  We legitimate protesters publicly denounced them and their violence.  Where are the reasonable conservatives denouncing the Baggers? 

This whole thing is just so unbelievable....I really do feel like I smoked with the Caterpillar or ate some of his magic mushroom.  This is no way to have a revolution (not that there's really anything to revolt against, frankly.  See yesterday's post).  This is just stupid people doing stupid things that make them feel big.  Kind of like a guy with a small penis driving a monster truck. 

Thoreau, Gandhi, and other proponents of civil disobedience are rolling in their graves.  They are appalled.  But then, I suppose the Baggers haven't really read any of these people's works;  after all, that would put them in lefty-elite territory. 

Disobedient, yes.  Civilized, no.

Hope Springs Eternal

Someone once asked me why I was so pessimistic.  I corrected her and noted that I am cynical, which is not the same.  As I like to say, cynicism is a protective cloak used by optimists to keep their hopes from getting (too) dashed. 

And damn if that didn't just get proven.  Silly me, I went and posted something to some Tea Partier friend's Facebook page.....He was bitching about 'how will we pay for health care' -- and I gave my usual response about how we are already paying, etc.  I wasn't angry -- I try to be factual when I engage the Enemy.  You know, expecting that rational discussion could be had.

What was I thinking?

Why, time and again, do I think one can actually have some rational discussion with these people?  They were nutjobs, every last one of them (my friend wisely refrained from further comment.....).  Not one of them even responded to the points I made or questions I raised.  Just straight up barf-back of Faux News talking points.  I may as well have been watching Glenn Beck for all the dialogue going on. 

I should've known better, you might be saying right about now.  Yes, I should have.  But for every 100 or so nutbags I suffer, I find one really cool person with whom I can actually discuss and debate.  I guess I only encountered 99 today......

But it just goes to show: I really am an optimist.  Only an optimist could continue to engage such dopeheads in such fruitless conversations that inevitably contain personal attacks.  Now, where did I put that cloak of cynicism...it's around here somewhere........

Getting 1,000,000 People to Join your Facebook Cause Doesn't Equal a Protest

One thing I have heard repeatedly during the last year -- as the economy tanked, as people lost their homes and jobs, as the Republicans' obstructionism watered down the health care debate -- was, "Where are all the protests?  Why aren't the progressives taking to the streets?" 

Yeah, where were we?  Protesting has been the mainstay of the left since the 1960's.  Heck, as recently as the 90's we were out there with our "No Blood for Oil" signs.  But where are we now?  Why, when so many critical issues are coming to a head, are we silent?

At first I thought that maybe we had just gotten too old as a generation -- that most of the GenXers (who carried on the mantle of the 60's hippies) had reached middle age and retired their protest signs.  And that the Millenials were just too damned optimistic and naive to protest (and they are). 

But that's not it.  The real culprit is the rise of the internet and social networking.  Back in the old days, the only way to commune with fellow lefties en masse was to attend a protest or gathering of some sort.  These days?  Join a Facebook group called "Get Rush Limbaugh to Leave the Country" or "1,000,000 Facebookers against Iraq."  And that's it.  Join, and you're done -- you've felt like you've added a voice.  But to what?

Some of these groups actually have some meat behind them -- if the pages are sponsored by a specific non-profit.  But have you really taken a close look?  Most are nothing more than a page created by someone who cares about the issue -- which is admirable, but it isn't going to create any measurable result.  Obama isn't going to be getting any morning briefs about Facebook pages.  Well, he might -- but I think 1,000,000 angry progressives standing on the Mall would have a greater impact.

Meanwhile, the Tea Baggers --- I mean, Tea Partiers -- are getting the jump on us.  They actually have rallies (lame as they are).  Which gives the "news" media something to cover.  Now of course I don't expect Faux News to cover a progressive rally -- except perhaps to make it look like it was an angry socialist mob coming to kill granny with their death squad -- but maybe the local news stations would.  And it would make us visible to others. 

But we don't.  Somehow we've been brainwashed into inaction.  Into thinking that joining some doofy group online means anything.  It's a false sense of security, and we shouldn't allow ourselves to be mollified by it any longer. 

Be loud, be proud, and let's show those Tea Party nutters what a REAL protest is like!