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"A loose definition of the Tea Party might be millions of pissed-off white people sent chasing after Mexicans on Medicaid by the banks that advertise on Fox and CNBC."
Over past few months I have been hearing a ton about the whole "Tea Party" issue and what it sounds like to me is a bunch of ignorant people getting together and making inaccurate statements about political topics, and blaming all their issues on the government. Now, I could be completely wrong in that statement, but this is the type of "reality" Matt Taibbi creates in his article "The Truth About The Tea Party", in the October 14th issue of Rolling Stone.
While reading the article you can almost feel how angry and annoyed Matt Taibbi is and I don't blame him. I mean, the people he talks to within the article are extremely contradictory. An example of this would be about three pages in when Taibbi refers to a conversation he had with an elderly couple it went like this:
""I'm anti-spending and anti-government," crows David as scooter-bound Janice looks on. "The welfare state is out of control."
"OK," I say. "And what do you do for a living?"
"Me?" he says proudly. "Oh, I'm a property appraiser. Have been my whole life."
I frown. "Are either of you on Medicare?"
Silence: Then Janice, a nice enough woman, it seems, slowly raises her hand offering a faint smile, as if to say, You got me!
"Let me get this straight," I say to David. "You've been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?"
"Well," he says, "there's a lot of people on welfare who don't deserve it. Too many people living off the government."
"But, " I protest, "you live off the government. And have been your whole life!"
"Yeah," he says, "but I don't make very much.""
You get the idea. As I kept reading it suddenly became clear to me that I was only getting one side of this argument, Taibbi's. Which is fine, it's just I would like hear both sides of the story. I mean, Taibbi's all about stacking the cards the way he wants them so the Tea Party followers are the ones that look like complete incompetent idiots. "...They are all furious at the implication that race is a factor in their political views - despite the fact that they blame the financial crisis on poor black homeowners...."
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Its amazing to me how subjective this article is. Taibbi just says how he feels, whether that means completely insulting these people or not. He obviously feels that they are all idiots, he certainly loves calling them names and insulting them harshly, my favorite example is at the beginning of page four, "...they're shockingly willing to believe that appalling horseshit fantasy about how white people in the age of Obama are some kind of oppressed minority. That my not be racism, but it is incredibly, earth-shatteringly stupid. "
Here is a very "subjective" youtube video about the Tea Party:
This video really sums up everything the Tea Party followers believe, at least the uneducated followers. Now, when I say uneducated I don't mean that they are completely uneducated people, they are just not educated in this subject. Which, is why they are the perfect prey for news and media. But, the truth is they could find people to look stupid anywhere. Tea Party followers could do the same thing to us because believe it or not there are Republican and Democratic party followers who know less about the world and government than these people do. We, as people, tend to make the mistake of believing everything we hear, even if it is from an unreliable source, which then forms crazy party followers, who don't truly understand anything and then somehow come to the conclusion that the president is the new Hitler and, or, the Anti-Christ.
Excellent blogging on the TEA PARTY phenomenon, Cameron.
ReplyDeleteYou are right - Taibbi only gives us one point of view (he is a clever and snappy writer, too.)
You make some fine points about the importance of EDUCATING oneself on the issues.
Go forth and do so,
Dr. W
Great blog Cam. It's my belief that after the last presidential election, the Republican Party needed to plot a new direction. This is where I believe the Tea Party came about. It's a known fact that elderly play a key role in elections, and that the older generation has been very vocal about people on young people who are abbusing the welfare system getting their health care and medication for free. Yet they have watched their prescription cost sky rocket with no increase in monies to pay for them in years. They feel that they have worked and paid into the system for years, but all their money is going to younger people who could work but are taking advantage of the system. The Republicans jumped on this feeling. (Sarah P) is honisting this outrage for her personal and Parties bennifate. However you look at it,it's a powerful strategy, and it also makes for great media. The Tea Party is not realized by the populist yet as Dem. or Rep. (even though it really leans republican.)Another strong positive aspect comming from the Tea Part for the Republican Party is that they will not take a TOTAL HIT in the next presidential election if the Tea Party comes appart. The Tea Party (Republicans) are getting the job done for this election by harvesting and cultivation the angry voices in this election, while beginning to recruit more seniors to their Pary and philosophies without them even knowing. It's sad to say, but it's all about taking the pulse of the people at a specific time before an election, and coming up with the best strategies to get them on your side. The real issues and their solutions become secondary. Tomorrow kicks off the 2012 presidnetial campagine for the Tea Party Democrats. Time for them to counteract the Tea Party stragity and who knows what the puse of the nation will be like two years from now. By the way ,there will always be those people who are never happy with the political climate. So with all these factors in play, as well as a lagging economy, it looks like it could be a big day for the Republicans.
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