Tea Time

 

 The Tea Party protests were out in full force on tax day with their colourful signage protesting, well EVERYTHING. What started as a conservative movement has become a collection of wingnuts who can't agree on anything except for they're not happy and want the whole world to know about it. 

 Here are a few of the more common whines and my opinion on them.

  "Obama bailed out the big bankers" - Actually, he really didn't. He just signed in concessions and bailouts that Bush had already guaranteed his cronies and then had the balls to publicly chastise those who misused funds. It should come as no surprise to you that while Republicans have publicly blamed banks, their political campaigns are funded by those same bankers. That's why they attacked the bailout as opposed to individual organizations. They aren't going to REALLY bite the hand that feeds. If McCain had been voted in, the same bailouts would have occurred, possibly greater. 

 "We hate public healthcare. Everyone should pay their own way." - but don't you DARE touch my Medicare. Medicare is a public health program that all taxpayers pay into . What's the difference? Well, because white senior citizens collect Medicare and the highest Social Security Payments and tend to vote Republican, and the working poor tend to vote Democrat, Independent, or not at all. Unhealthy kids do fare worse in the long run, and there's nothing scarier than the vibrant offspring of the little guy growing up to be educated, voting adults.

  "Obama is an evil Marxist, Communist, etc" ; "Obama creates taxes" - If Obama hated capitalism, why would there be MORE working people then before this tragedy that he was handed? If he was a Marxist he'd be really pissed off at the idea that the stock market has rebounded by 3000 points. Working-class folks have enjoyed tax BREAKS, not increases. Americans paid less tax than under Bush on average. Another tasty tidbit- one of the fundamental tenets of communism is atheism and Obama believes in the same God most of the TeaBaggers do. Holding corporations accountable scares the crap out of people who worked for them before they were elected, as many conservatives did. The idea of unions is scary because the idea of paying a fair wage interferes with the bank accounts of the corporate overlords. ...which leads me to...

  "Obama wants illegal immigrants" - NO, the corporate overlords do. Who else would work 20 hours a day in your mansions, cut your lawns, raise your children, and work in factory farms for $2 an hour? Without aggressive recruitment of border-jumpers, agribusiness- the former employer of so many Reps- wouldn't be as profitable. Legal migrants scare the crap out of righties because they might have to actually report fatalities and not live off of slave labour. 

  "Obama is racist" - No, you idiots. The idea of a powerful ethnic minority scares you, just admit it. You long for the days when a guy who looks like your president had to pick cotton for years on end without pay. The thing that scares you most is the fact that inner-city kids see a fellow like Obama and decide that they too can reach for the American dream. With black and brown people in your schools and suburbs, they might actually grow up to become something. And there's nothing scarier than a generation of healthy, educated ethnic minorities. "Reverse racism" has been the argument of disgruntled southern men for decades. You didn't invent the lie - your scared, entitled grandfathers did. 

  "Obama isn't a real American" - Would you be arguing this if he were white? Absolutely not. Due to a viral urban myth propagated by a fringe newspaper, the Baggers now TRULY believe that Barack Obama is a Kenyan and not the "real" president. I completely debunk that argument HERE if you want a read. 

   The problem with the Tea Party is that it has now become a catch-all for a group that is now primarily composed of pissed-off bigots and has become overcome by the next generation of domestic terrorists. We have the freedom to disagree with policies and feel sad that "our guy" didn't win, but at the end of the day we are humans. And human beings are sometimes mistaken.If you want to make a credible argument, at least make your lies believable. 

  Meet you in the Middle.