Sunday, September 19, 2010

The ironic civil war

Rumor has it that the Right isn't playing nice. So, what's new, you might ask? Well, I'm talking about the in-fighting that has escalated between the good ole boys at the GOP and the new blood of the Tea Party movement. Here's the basic rundown as I see it: The republicans of the GOP put up people like Tea Partiers as figure heads, the Tea Partiers just put them up as actual candidates. In other words, the GOP makes a poster with the hard working average American and puts it up on their wall next to their Harvard degrees, family tree and pictures of their yacht. The Tea Party takes that poster and makes it a poster for a candidate. The result: a civil war brewing between the elite right and the lowlier, uncouth variety. Ironic, considering who the Republicans usually count in their constituencies. Take Christine O'Donnell for example. She has about as much political background as any other "average American" and will mostly likely prove to be just as ineffective in governance. Aside from apparently being a witch (google it, I'm serious), she barely scraped through a nondescript college, had heavy economic problems and has recently landed a long coveted Republican seat with a dumb smile on her face and not much upstairs. Why is she so popular? The same reason people supported Bush. "I could see myself having a beer with him."
Unfortunately many Americans can not separate politician from drinking buddy, or church from state or Satan from fossils...pardon my tangent. I don't want my senators to go drinking with me, I want them to fucking get things done. On one of my previous posts, I shared a video of a man video taping supporters outside a Sarah Palin book signing. When asked what policies of hers they supported and agreed with, not one person could answer, or even tell what her policies were. It made my soul hurt and my brain cry. The uneducated American public think this way. It's an evolutionary (yep, evolution, I'm a demon seed) need to fit in. If you feel you're a part of a group, a pack, it gives you a sens of belonging and purpose. Now, why the hell you'd vote for someone when you don't even know what they're gonna do when they get into office is a whole other story. However, that's how the Tea Party works, and they are quite successful with their "block party" mentality of likable candidates that can play at the heartstrings of the average American.
But if you look at their agenda and compare it to the GOP agenda, there's not a lot of open air between them. Except for a few issues that push the Tea Party closer to loony-land, the GOP and Tea Partiers are cut from the same political cloth. The problem lies in the social cloth. It's really a class war. The elite GOP slither and scheme, whisper and make back door deals while the Tea Partiers are uncouth and palpably insane in full view. Very few people in the senate are just senators (democrats and republicans alike). Their back door deals with corporate lobbyists and private interests balloon their pay checks and their status in the social elite. There's not really such a thing anymore as public service, it's career politics and business is good. As we saw from Karl Rove's condescending comments on O'Donnell, there's no attacks on the issues, there's the good old fashioned "checkered background" attacks. Karl Rove and his political idols, the Bush's don't know what foreclosure means (maybe because it's a three syllable word), they never had to scrape by. When the average American with bills, a shitty job or no job, looks at two candidates on the right, they are more likely to go with the one they feel can "relate." This was also the case with Clinton. His southern drawl and lower middle class background was cause for pride and support in the typically right wing areas of America.
So where is this civil war headed? Will their be a right wing Appomattox where both factions can come to terms and celebrate with a BBQ atop Darwin's "Theory of Evolution?"
Only time will tell. Political experts are a little splintered on that question. Some say that the in-fighting will prove costly for the GOP, who is looking to gain seats this November. Moderate Republican voters may begin leaning to the left when confronted with the "proud to be extremist" mentality of the Tea Party candidates running. However, the split may give right-leaning voters touched by the Tea Party's grass roots, mom and pop feel, the extra push to head out and vote on the way to Wall Mart. As O'Donnell said, "We cannot elect any more liberals to Washington, D.C., especially ones who wear the banner of being a Republican. It is an honor to be a Republican." The patriotic pride could injure Democratic chances at holding on to seats. The outcome of this right wing tiff is very much up in the air. The Democrats need to jump on it and do their best to point out the absurdity, inexperience and unprofessionalism of the Tea Party candidates while maintaining that the right is not right for America. Republicans need to stop shoving the Tea Party away as if it were an annoying fly. It's escalated into a hornets nest and shooing will only make 'em more pissed off. They need to be dealt with and recognized as a worthy adversary, by both parties. And unfortunately, while I too can appreciate a grass roots, working man organization, the Tea Party is a sad excuse for a remedy for the broken two party system. They are for the most part, uneducated, bigoted, racist, extremist religious, hateful and inexperienced.
As I say in almost every post, unless you educate yourself, unless you study the system, it's pros, cons, history and present, you will be unable and unfit to contend with it. An overhaul is needed but the Tea Party is more of the same, more of the problem, not the solution.

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