Government Is The Problem

How about this picture? We are at a Tea Party rally in the South. Sarah Palin is the speaker. The audience is made up of elderly whites only. A large number of the gathering are breathing oxygen from a tank while sitting in motorized wheel chairs (scooters). All paid for by Medicare. And guess what? The seniors are ranting against government spending, while Palin intones the Ronald Reagan mantra: “Government is not the solution, government is the problem.”

This is a moment to remember. You are witnessing the opening salvo of the ding-a-ling revolution. The problem is they are all full of horse-pucky. They are around the bend, suffering from paranoia. But these are the crazies that the right wing Republicans are using to limit Obama's power and eventually get him out of office. It is becoming more and more obvious that it isn't “socialism” or “welfare” that bugs these people. Rather it is the fact that a black man was elected to the highest office in the land. That is what these “redneck crackers” can't handle. "How in the world did a “black Moslem” from Kenya become President of my country?" It is not your country. It is our country. So what do these yahoos want? "They want their country back."  But, nobody took it.  Instead, they are giving it away to the right wing Republican power brokers.

So it is not the socialists who are stealing their country. It is the super-capitalists. They support lower taxes for the rich and no government programs for the poor. If the Tea Party Wingnuts think they are going to get their country back in the polling booth, they are sadly mistaken. They don't recognize that the country is controlled by a deeply embedded plutocracy that prevents political change of any consequence. The Tea Party fantasy is that it is a third party but it has no chance of surviving. It will be run over and wrecked by the entrenched 2-party system. It will be swept away by the Republican party first and then the remainder by the Democrats until there is nothing left.

We should keep in mind, however, that the Tea Party people are conservative Republicans who supported for 8 years the Bush doctrine of lower taxes for the rich and no regulation. So in effect, they have contributed by their vote to the economic crisis and the national debt. They rant about government spending now, but never a word while Bush was in office. There was a surplus before Bush came on the scene and he turned it completely around with lower taxes and a 3 trillion dollar war that was launched with lies.

Paul Krugman, the economist and NY times columnist, has pointed out that the Tea Party is not a grass roots movement, but rather is AstroTurf (a fake grass roots movement) and the events are manufactured by a right wing Republican, former Congressman, Richard Armey.  Financial support comes from the billionaire Koch Brothers and Koch Industries through the organization, Americans For Prosperity. The AFP is an ultra right wing political organization started by David Koch in support of very little government and hair-brained free market policies. The Koch Bros are worth a 100 billion dollars and have given 100 million to the Tea Party organization. They own numerous oil refineries, 4000 miles of pipe lines, Georgia- Pacific Lumber, Stainmaster Carpet, Dixie Cup, and Brawny Towel. The Kochs are hard line libertarians who fight government. They use the anger of the Tea Partiers for their own purpose, by training “rednecks” to fight against regulation, energy reform, environmental reform and finally to wage all out war against Obama.

FYI - the Koch Bros are known to support zany causes, to mass produce bad ideas, and are just a little daft. Their father, Fred, was a founding member of the John Birch Society. Some of you will remember those crazies. I think you get the picture.


References:

Frank, Thomas. What's The Matter With Kansas.
Green, David. Common Dreams.
Mayer, Jane. The New Yorker.
Taibbi, Matt. Rolling Stone.
Wikipedia