Be Very Afraid

Perhaps I was too sanguine in my previous post. This is my mea culpa.

The above quote, from "The Fly" screenwriters David Cronenberg and Charles Pogue by way of actress Geena Davis, is not the only salient quote I wish to cite in my analysis of a current American political phenomenon. The other, equally famous, is from George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

And so, we have the Tea Party Movement. What was at first an undercurrent of grumbling by mindless losers has now gained a foothold on the Republican Party solid enough to scare Michael Steele and threaten all moderates who dare stand against its vehemence. In Florida, vacillating Republican governor Charlie Crist is trailing a Tea Partier in the senate race. A defeat there would cement the political legitimacy of this right wing tsunami.

Now let's step back and consider some historical precedents and the character of this movement. It evokes anger from the unemployed, the intellectually challenged, the purveyors of ignorance, and the racists. If you think this is an unfair accusation, how about Tom Tancredo's speech to their convention decrying those who voted for Obama as too ignorant to spell "vote". Obviously, a racist comment. Easy for him to make, because how many people of color were in his audience? Although there are legitimate concerns, mostly about fiscal responsibility, that weave their way through the Tea Party orthodoxy, the following is also sadly true: this movement feeds on all the worst of human emotions--fear, prejudice, selfishness, hatred and racism.

The Tea Partiers also hold fast to proved untruths: that Obama is a socialist, that Obama is a Muslim, that Obama was born in Kenya, etc. Any documentary proofs that belie these beliefs are totally ignored or shouted down. A majority of Republicans (not just Tea Partiers) still hold to these falsehoods. Almost all the Tea Partiers do. Truth be damned. We'll make up a new truth.

Like the Big Lie. Like the calumnies that Adolph Hitler and his cronies used to fire up the Germans against the threat of "internal enemies"--when the true enemies of Germany were the Nazis themselves. So Sarah Palin and all do not blame the Jews, though they are condemning anyone left-leaning or "intellectual". A lie to foster hatred is still a lie to foster hatred.

I know it is an easy kneejerk reaction for anyone to call an enemy a "Nazi." I do not make this claim without a sense of historical perspective. Nazism rose in the late 1920s as a result of economic depression and the threat of a new political wave, which was Soviet-inspired communism. It is not unusual for poor domestic circumstances plus perception of a radical threat to inflame the reactionary forces that exist is a society. So when Obama was elected, this sparked a Newtonian political reaction that is the ultra-right Tea Party.

The Nazis had their "persuasive" spokesmen in Goebbels and Goehring. The TeasParty has its loudest advocates in the media. Glenn Beck is a screeching Goebbels; Rush Limbaugh a fatuous Goehring. What the Tea Partiers do not have, quite, is their own Hitler. The founding voice of Tea Partiers is actually the relatively benign libertarian Ron Paul, whose principles have been so coopted and twisted by the more radical Tea Partiers that even Paul is being challenged in his congressional district.

Now they scream and rant as though volume is the only truth. But I'd like to counter their vehemence with another favorite quote, this one from William Butler Yeats: "The best lack all conviction/ while the worst are full of passionate intensity."

Their leading spokesperson currently is, obviously, Sarah Palin. Full disclosure, I really hate her, but the only thing she truly shares with Hitler is charisma. She has not written a "Mein Kempf," though her "Going Rogue" is a flailing attempt to present herself as a political force. She does not have any programs or ideas behind her talking points/aren't -I- pretty presentation. She is fully funded and presented to the public by Fox News. Yet she has been named 2009's biggest liar by a non partisan website from the St. Petersburg News for her "death panels" Big Lie. So she is slowly learning from the past, but in the very worst way.

If any of you readers think this Tea Party/ Nazi Party comparison is over-the-top, then let's tweak it a bit. There was a local movement in the late 1930s--also a time of economic woe and international concern--called the "America First Committee." It was led by the most charismatic American figure of that era, the bold and handsome Charles Lindbergh, who gave it an attractive face. Its major political purpose was to keep America out of the European conflict that was about to erupt into World War 2. But it was also an anti-semitic, pro-German fifth column, no less heinous than the German Bund that also existed in America, but swathed in its own lie of American values. Nazism with a pretty face.

I suppose I could present a close parallel between "America First" and "Country First" as slogans that belie the political cynicism of their spokespeople. In whose mind is the preeminence of Sarah Palin among all the Republicans something that the nation or the world should not dread? George Lincoln Rockwell must be rising and applauding in his grave.

Just Do It

There's a song lyric from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe" (an operetta that satirizes the ineffectuality of Parliament) that goes "Faint Heart Ne'er Won Fair Lady." I think that clearly applies to the feckless Democratic Party, which struggled so hard to gain a majority and now is pissing away its advantages by weak-willed vacillation.

The Republican Super Minority of 41 senators is now controlling the legislative process by monopolizing all discussion with filibustering tactics. They have used the filibuster more in the past six months than it was used entirely in the decades of the 50s and 60s. And because procedural details are too arcane to engage the public at large, all the people know is that the Democrats are not getting anything done. The result? Scott Brown and the upcoming deluge of Republican adventurers trying to take advantage of voter confusion and resentment.

They no longer have their patron saint Ronald Reagan to speak for them, but there are still echoes of Nancy's "Just Say No," which has been their obstructionist creed. Thanks to the pandering by their Propaganda agent, Fox News, this strategy of keeping the Democrats from legislating has totally resuscitated the Republican Party, even as it shows signs of fractious in-fighting by the weird and horrible Tea Party wing nuts.

Finally the one Democrat who still merits national respect--President Obama--has utilized his bully pulpit to try to energize the party again. It worked somewhat in his face-off during "Question Time" with the Republicans, who were forced to display their simplemindedness in such an embarrassing debate that Fox News decided to cut away from it. Now Obama has challeneged the Republicans to another televised meeting regarding Health Care. They will find a way to refuse, because they can only succeed through obfuscation of the facts that Obama can easily refute. So this is a game of "chicken," which may or not be coming home to roost with the addition of Scott Brown to the Senate.

Here's what I don't get. The Republicans brazenly abuse the one procedural rule that can keep their case afloat, the filibuster, without any mind toward what they are doing to the uninsured families and the soaring cost of health care. Country first, sure. But the Democrats have just as many procedural tools to work with, including majority vote. If hey wanted they could just pass the Health Care bill as it sits currently in the House, then send it back to the Senate for reconciliation tweaks that only have to pass with 50 votes (and Biden's if necessary). This is the same tool that Republicans used in the early 2000s to pass their budgets. There's precedent all around. So, as they used to say in the Nike ads, JUST DO IT. What can the Republicans say? That the Democrats did exactly what they did eight years ago? Sure, Fox News and Sarah the Asshole can declaim all they want, but that can't undo legislation that the President can still sign.

So Dems, just show some balls. Independents may be looking for that.

Coming soon: MY NOVEL