For the last few years the Tea Party has been storing up Kool-aid for the rest of us. They think it’s an all-healing ambrosia, a magic elixir that solves the problems posed by the creeping menace of Socialism. They have been wrong. Their Kool-aid is laced with a poison fatal not just to democracy but to civilization. It’s time for the Tea Party to drink its own Kool-aid. Go home, shut the door and drink up, change their minds wisely.
As I write, the House of Representatives, or mis-representations if you will, has come to the “eleventh hour” of opportunity to save the country from government shutdown. A number of radical right members seem to have been seeking this all along. They have striven wrongfully to use shutdown as a lever to get concessions otherwise impossible. President Obama has just spoken. He denies they further possibilities. The shutdown will be on their heads and a deeply damaging mark against the Republican Party which they have been abusing for their own purposes. Their time is coming to an end.
A few wrong-headed, sold-out people of great cleverness but doubtful intelligence and selfish motivation helped all those little, voting members of the Tea Party to build the big bubble of disinformation they have been living within. The bubble is formed from the loose and slippery associations between glittering maxims and half-truths, phrases elevated to mantra status. “Government is the problem, not the solution.” “Best rule is least rule.” “Deregulation is liberation.” “Taxation means taking my money.” “It’s MY money.” “Let the lazy look out for themselves.” “The takers want my property.” “All I worked for and gained, I earned and deserve. My golden parachute shows how smart and good I am.” “We are worthier than They are.” “The Founding Fathers provided for all contingencies and no changes made to their arrangements were beneficial or valid.” “Don’t confuse us with lower class people.” “They’re not our brother, we’re not their keepers.” “Socialism and Individualism are incompatible.” “Free enterprise means, I can change the law to let me do as I please, if I’m rich enough to buy the court.”
Drink up, Tea Partiers! It’s time to gather around the pot and swill down your own noxious brew. You have it coming. The party is over! Nothing left but the hangover!
No Comments