oh, look. a rock. is that a Roman numeral? really?

[mellowtigger]

So many more interesting things are happening in the world, but this teabagger nonsense is what I finally settle to pondering today.

The irony is rich. I think these people are the same ones who spent their lives believing that minorities should be kept in their (lower) place. Now that they themselves are the minority, they don't understand what has gone wrong in their lives. Why has their democratic authority disappeared? They don't realize (even as they saw it happening) that minorities gain what they want by cooperatively soliciting help and intelligently describing their plight so as to warrant compassionate response from the majority. They've experienced no compassion themselves for the suffering of other minorities, so it doesn't occur to them that they could receive such generosity too. Instead, they're reaching for their weapons while claiming that they're the ones trying to save the democracy that they care so much about.

I said before in my own words that I do not trust these people: "I'm arguing that the threshold of violent behavior has already shifted and will continue to shift." It's no longer about political disagreement.  It's about people who failed to make their intellectual point, who failed to make their democratic point, who now want to rely on bully threats to win their way.

These people seem comfortable with abandoning the current government in favor of something else.  I wish they were smart enough to correctly name the "something else" that they want.  Unfortunately, they're not that smart.  They keep insisting that they want to save democracy... which is the very process that they're unhappy with because they aren't getting what they want.  Is it too late to explain to them that minorities get what they want by asking for the help of other empowered groups?  Blacks in America convinced whites to fight on their behalf; women in America convinced men to vote on their behalf; gays in America are convincing straights to argue on their behalf.  Democracy is powerful and transformative.

Republicans still think the teabaggers are on their side.  They're trying to nullify the recent health care legislation.  One (Reagan era) former administrator says "similar attempts at "so-called nullification" led to the Civil War."  Republicans are almost cute in their childlike ignorance; they still think they can control the teabaggers even while goading them onwards.  At least one of them knows better, though: "The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party."

Ah well.  I'll leave you with their images and their words.  As Rachel Maddow warns today (after bricks shatter glass at some Democratic party headquarters), let's see what happens here in America on April 19th.

---

Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: "Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!" Pls see my Facebook page.
- Sarah Palin, http://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/statuses/10935548053


So, if you wish to send a message that Pelosi and her party cannot fail to hear, break their windows.
Break them NOW.
Break them and run to break again. Break them under cover of night. Break them in broad daylight. Break them and await arrest in willful, principled civil disobedience. Break them with rocks. Break them with slingshots. Break them with baseball bats.
But BREAK THEM.
The time has come to take your life, your liberty and that of your children and grandchildren into your own two hands and ACT.
It is, after all, more humane than shooting them in self defense.
And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary.
- Mike Vanderboegh, http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2010/03/to-all-modern-sons-of-liberty-this-is.html
(the same guy who is telling whoever will listen that we "need to be forming neighborhood defense organizations")



Proverbs 8:36: ... All they that hate me love death.
Editorial translation to Teabaggery:  Jesus wants us to use our guns on you.  Or our waterboards.  Whichever is more satisfying (for us).

Comments

[tbrough.livejournal.com]

What really irks me about these knuckle dragging punks is what cowards they are. I am willing to be that as the group actually ties to go for the 'revolution,' most of them will run to their basements and hide. Or stay home and watch Faux. Or when they get caught, like that punk-ass James O'Keefe who, when caught trying to commit a federal crime, jumped into the wAhmbulance and tried to crybaby his way out of it.

Sadly, the lone wolves, like the abortion doctor assassins and the IRS Airplane Terrorist, will still succeed in deadly missions with Beck and Limbaugh cheering them on. Republicans who think oinking "Baby Killer" or applauding (literally) disruptions in the House gallery makes for got politics are the ones that really need to get fired. Here's hoping these pubic servants are the first to go in Novembers to come.

[mellowtigger]

Your link deserves to make the rounds too, but I felt that my own main post was already a bit heavy on the supporting documentation. :)

Still, this article is very good at explaining the hyperbole, hypocrisy, and hatred of many (not all) conservatives in America right now.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/a/m/americandad/2010/03/an-open-letter-to-conservative.php/

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if this overload on emotion can actually work against them come November. Right now they're getting increasingly nasty and I'm starting to wonder if this will work against the Conservatives come election day.

[mellowtigger]

As long as enough of them still care about elections.

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

I see a different struggle going on--a generational one. Gay rights is the best example of this, where research has shown that support for gay-rights-related initiatives is directly correlated to a voter's age. I think the same is true of race politics, though it's a lot less obvious. Yes, living in the rural deep south, I know that a lot of young people are still racists (indeed, living here I've discovered just how racist I can be), but I don't think they(we) are in the way their parents are. E.g., I think younger white folks around here objected more to the fact that Obama is a democrat than that he is black. (Though, they did object to both.) Older folks wouldn't have voted for a far right-wing, flag-waiving, cross-toting black candidate even if Ronald Reagan had risen from his grave and given this hypothetical negro his personal endorsement.

The Teabaggers and Faux News and such feed a lot off of retired folks. Yes, there is a very visible Young Republican element running around out there--indeed, there's a 22-year-old standing as the lone Republican candidate for parish president, here in rustic St. John the Baptist Parish. (Also the only white candidate, which should be a bad thing, politically, since the parish is overwhelmingly black--this was one of a handful of LA parishes to go to Obama in '08--but there are four black, democrat candidates, so "Buddy" will likely benefit from a seriously split vote. Though, I hope not. The democratic front runner is, AFAICT, significant more qualified and funded than her fellow democrats. A woman? Apparently not an issue, strangely enough. Indeed, I believe the deep-southern racist ideology ranks black women as preferable to black men--they're seen as more reliable, harder-working, and less like to steal our wimmins.)

But as I was saying, I think there is a lot of Baby Boomer death throes at work in current politics. The left should probably to try to get younger people back in the game by explaining that their fight will get easier over time. And start pointing out to the Democratic old guard that currently they are part of the problem, not the solution.

Oh, and I think you take the whole "minority" thing way too literally. "Minority", to what have become the Teabagger crowd, has always been a euphemism for "non-whites". Hell, the left used the term euphemistically too, since they threw in women with the "minorities." For them the term simply meant "the people not in power".

To be completely honest, though, I think it's all beyond repair. The ultra-wealthy have lost their collective minds, and have given up all pretense of ethical or socially-responsible behavior. The vast majority of Americans are just screwed, and the only idealogical difference that matters is whether or not you know you're fucked.

There's a political party I could get behind: "Fuck me? No, fuck *you*!"

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

On a less ranty, self-indulgent, note:

The right-wingers who keep talking about their guns, have obviously forgotten about--or never knew about--the Black Panther Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party). Yes, dear Teabaggers, the right to bear arms extends to everyone.

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, there are also the Pink Pistols. I have at least one reader here who is strongly pro-gun. I agree with the concept. I go farther actually. I think citizens should have access to every technology which their government does.

The implementation of this guarantee to armaments has me pessimistic right now. I disagree that these people are all being peacefully democratic while displaying their arms. They're not. I think that they're taking advantage of a constitutional right in order to intimidate via images on television and weblog (which I perpetuate here, I know). Some of them are armed because they dislike what democracy has wrought.

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

So true about the generational thing. Even in Western Canada where you find some young people racist towards natives or anti-gay, they're fairly uncommon whereas with older folks you find that they are consistently like that. It's a matter of degree and it eventually influences politics. (Well one hopes anyway.)

It's so weird about the way they frame themselves as oppressed because they're no longer superior. Before they didn't have to even try, they were automatically in a better position. Also funny how the white suprematists consider gays to be non-white regardless of their race.

I also find it funny that one of the two far-right wing parties that Americans have to choose from is referred to as "the left". It's like referring to November as "summer" because it's less cold than January.

[mellowtigger]

Yes, I'm taking the word "minority" to mean those people with less political power than other people.

I agree about the generational issue. I think that fear of "other" is innate but that hatred of "other" is learned. Liberals won. Hatred of women, hatred of non-pink-skins, and hatred of homos is not the lesson that a generation has learned (after efforts of generations like mine, I'm glad to point out).

I agree that the Democratic old guard is part of the problem too. Personally, I think that Nancy Pelosi is a traitor and should be tried in court alongside Dick Cheney from crimes against the Constitution. But that's a different issue.

I agree that the nation is in a severe state of disrepair. I think it might still be repairable, but what I want is to start over. Let's try something new. I want to experience demarchy. I want to experience a constitution with a new bill of rights. (With a Privacy clause, for instance, and an Information clause that insists all information is free for use and therefore eliminates copyright, and a Generational clause that insists we have responsibilities to the natural resources of future generations of Americans.) Conservatives rail against Democrats as being progressives. *LAUGH* They really have no idea how much change some of us are ready to experience. Democrats are slowing us down. :)

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

My earlier rantery spurred me to start a thread on reddit: "Right-wing-nuts keep intimating about violence and guns. I'm curious--how many left-wingers won't shoot... but will shoot *back*? (http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/bhlkv/rightwingnuts_keep_intimating_about_violence_and/)" At the moment, it's got 141 up votes, and has spawned 273 comments.

Point being, a number of those comments point out that a lot of the right-wingers comments about guns and violence are most likely so much hot-air. They're just being small-minded bullies, with way more bark than bite. Should bullets fly, they will hide in their basements.

Sure, some windows have been broken, but I think that is really just an expression of a sense of shock. A lot of people must feel like the rug has been pulled out from under them, that the world has suddenly "gone mad." They are confused and frightened by change they thought impossible. Like old people encountering black cops.

Some will act out, but I suggest that you are worrying too much. There won't be much violence, and most, if not all, of it will be of the vandalism sort. And I believe that said minor, isolated violence is not a pre-cursor or worse to come, but rather a death-rattle, like someone flipping you the bird as they race off in their pick-up truck after you stood your ground.

Keep standing, Tig. They'll keep backing down, and talking shit as they wander off.

[mellowtigger]

I told myself that I would wait a year before reviewing my Predictions tags to decide if I was being accurate or paranoid. I still have a few months to go. The chatter on your thread is very interesting (and mostly reassuring).

This link from one of your participants was the best find of the day:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/17/826081/-The-day-the-Klan-messed-with-the-wrong-people

[mellowtigger]

And that reminds me, do you remember the FORUM name of that guy who made the threats and then the police got involved? I remember thinking he was just a skinhead initially, but he got so bent out of shape over that characterization that we realized he was likely KKK instead. (I heard other death threats back then from other guys, just no incidents that the police got involved with investigating.)

That was an important lesson to me, actually. I realized that the Klan puts a LOT of value in their "story". I unintentionally insulted him by dismissing him and his motivation as a mere skinhead seeking public attention for his bad boy persona. That lesson was good preparation for many years later when I attended a Klan rally here in Saint Paul on the steps of the capitol building. They are quite skilled in using their "story" to rile up other people to get their own kind of attention. Reacting to them builds the resentment in sympathetic onlookers, increasing their odds of recruiting more people to their story. Some poor white guy with short-cut hair got harassed while trying to leave the grounds. It's likely that he wasn't even interested in the Klan but was just unfortunate enough to look like them. The government snipers on rooftops all around were keeping a close watch on the crowd that followed him away.

It was the Nigerian immigrant who disappointed me most by asking why they were allowed to speak such words, why they weren't prohibited by the government. I didn't have an easy explanation for him to illustrate that creating such a division is a line that can easily move when somebody else gets to define that line. It's better to have no lines. Let them air their stupidity; just be there to stand unmoved before them.

Enough of a distraction for tonight, I guess. Time to try to sleep.