“Liberty!” “Tyranny!” And the A-Holes Who Shout Them!

[Atypical]

Posted by Adam_Kirur March 18, 2010

Well, it’s just about that time again: Congress will shortly be adjourning for the Easter break, going home to their districts, where they shall, as last August, be hearing from alleged “constituents” of theirs, people whom I confidently predict will have two words above all others on the tips of their well-prepared tongues and in the depths of their soon-to-be-freshly-hoarse throats.

Liberty.

Tyranny.

Fine antonyms, those. So fine, in fact, that more and more Tea Partiers, Town-Hollers [sic], Beckerheads and their pandering Republicans are tossing them about willy-nilly, using them in every other sentence as if newly-learned “Words for Today,” embracing them with such ardor as to constitute what I can only describe as a series of linguistic threeways.

Who’d have thunk that Michele Bachmann could be the Linda Lovelace of lexicological politics???

But those words, like so many others employed by the right, are code.

I’m recalling a scene from the movie Reds, wherein Jack Nicholson, playing a weary and increasingly-cynical Eugene O’Neill, says, “Ah, Russia. You know, whenever I hear some young, starry-eyed convert to The Cause talk about Russia, I can’t help but think to myself, ‘Watch out: A new version of Irish Catholicism is being offered for your consumption.’”

Well, that’s exactly how I feel whenever I see one of these astroturfed, out-of-district (and here I thought conservatives were against busing!) drones barking the L-word and/or T-word at their elected representatives. To my mind, it translates as, “Hi, I’m a gun-toting, climate change-denying, the-Bible-is-literally-true-even-the-self-contradictory-parts ‘Christian’ who simply cannot handle the fact that there’s a gosh-darn NEGRO in the White House!”

For, when one truly considers it, what other explanation can there be? I mean, where were these people?

Seriously, where WERE these people???

When George W. Bush was spending money like there was no tonight, let alone tomorrow, where were they?

When Dick Cheney was taking the laws of the country and waterboarding them to fit his own, twisted conceptions of “national security,” where were they?

When John Ashcroft was putting the Constitution into the shredder, where were they?

When Scooter Libby was committing TREASON, where were they?

When America was being led down the garden path to a wholly-unnecessary war in Iraq, the premises of which could be called laughably false but for the fact that the deaths of 4,000+ American troops and God-only-knows how many Iraqis really aren’t all that funny, where were they?

When, for eight years, on every aspect of foreign, military, domestic, fiscal, cultural, legal, and ethical issues these suddenly-”outraged” people were being lied to by their own government, WHERE WERE THEY?

I’ll tell you where they were: Sitting on their asses, watching the tube with other white guys, snacking on corn dogs and freedom fries as they watched the football game, while their wives and girlfriends were in another room having salad with liberty dressing, all of them contented and complacent in the God-given certainty that, in their country, everything was going just fine!

[Atypical]

by Jeff Winbush

My wife once attended a school board meeting where one gentleman, frustrated by his failure to sway the other members to his side of the debate, showed up dressed in combat fatigues and camouflage, opened up his briefcase and produced a shoe which he used to BANG INCESSANTLY ON THE TABLE until the board president adjourned the meeting.

I went on to write a column where I said when you pull a silly and stupid stunt like that it no longer matters whether you are right or wrong; when I can’t hear what you’re trying to say, you lose the argument by default.

For months we’ve heard the loud and raucous anger of the Tea Party protestors wasn’t fueled by racism but by concern over deficit spending and healthcare reform. We were assured the few idiots who did carry signs comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler or depicting him as a witch doctor were only a small lunatic fringe and not representative of the movement .

In fact, the real insult according to leading figures within the Tea Party was how the actions of a few rotten apples were being blown out of proportion to tarnish everybody else.

It must be nearing the midnight hour. Saturday in Washington the masks came off and the true face of the protestors were exposed for all to see.

Yesterday, Tea Party protestors, upset over the upcoming vote in the House of Representatives screamed “kill the bill” and called Rep. John Lewis a “nigger.” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver was spat on by a protestor and Cleaver was hurried away by Capitol police who arrested the person. Cleaver declined to press charges. In a separate incident demonstrators called Rep. Barney Frank a “faggot.”

Whether it is fueled by fact or fear, earnest concern or partisan perspective, honest difference of opinion or a complete disdain for the opposing viewpoint, when you start calling people “nigger” or “faggot” or spit on them and mock them for suffering with Parkinson’s Disease that is when the argument is over and you have lost it.

I believe in every American’s right to demonstrate peacefully for the causes they believe in, but when you can’t control your hatred and bigotry, I don’t have any more regard for you than you do for me.

For months we’ve been told the racists and crazies are only a teeny, tiny minority of the Tea Party protests. Well, you can take that bullshit and sell it somewhere else because nobody is buying it here. If these people are the minority, they’re the vocal minority and the only ones whose matter because nobody else seems to be trying all that hard to repudiate their bigotry. No one in the Tea Party itself and certainly none of the contemptible cowards who make up the Republican leadership who think appealing to racist and homophobic rage will sweep them back into power.

Maybe they’re right. Appealing to the racism of some White voters took George Wallace pretty far before some nut shot him. The same thing might well happen for the GOP in 2010. Rage is a powerful incentive to cast a ballot against someone, but most folks don’t like extremists from either side of the fringe.

The dangerous thing is how much further into anger, resentment and hate the Tea Party can tap into before something even uglier and far more dangerous happens? They keep warning not to push them too far. Maybe they should be worrying what might happen to them if they push everybody else too hard.

My blood doesn’t run cold at the prospect of a Democratic meltdown in November. Big damn deal. After eight years of the Bush/Cheney cabal, the self-absorbed anger of a bunch of Tea Party bigots doesn’t phase me. They don’t have the monopoly on rage.

The Party of No has made a deal with the devil to climb into bed with a motley group of racists, homophobes, and extremists. Let’s see if they can get back out with their dignity intact.

At some point if The Tea Party supporters want to shake the “racist” tag they’re going to have to make it clear they do not welcome, tolerate or support racism (and homophobia which you’re glossing over) AT ALL.

Because until they do, I have no reluctance in deeming the entire Tea Party a pack of seething bigots who are primarily motivated by an intense racially motivated animus against the president.

As Dennis Green said, “They are who we thought they were.”

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I agree that it is time to see them for what they are - not some freedom movement - but a dangerous group that can cause serious problems to the country. Their excesses are not being rebuked or criticized by republicans because those excesses are considered "useful". In effect, that is pouring gasoline on a fire; should anyone respect those who engage in that behaviour?

The answer should be obvious to all but probably not to ideologues.