Restoring Honor

[oselle]

Read Frank Rich's column, if you want:

The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party

There is nothing new about extreme right-wing conservatism in America. There is nothing new about these unimaginably wealthy individuals supporting the cause of extreme right-wing conservatism because they know it is in their own financial interest. I even think that some of the filthy rich are so warped that they actually believe it is in their (and the nation's) moral interest as well -- that their wealth is proof that some higher power has anointed them to be above the rest of us, and that anything that challenges their position (such as public schools that provide free education to those who haven't "earned" such a privilege) is an outrage to the natural, God-given order of all creation. But once again, this is nothing new in America.

What is new is that this element of America now has such strong popular support from the very people who will suffer from it. Because this brand of conservatism doesn't "just" hurt those who are considered minorities -- immigrants, gays, Muslims, blacks, even women. It hurts all of us. Or at least, it hurts all of us who are not rich enough to insulate ourselves from the inevitable toxicity of extreme right-wing conservatism as currently embodied by this so-called "Tea Party."

The Tea Party, and its Croesus-like backers, say they're about "liberty" and "freedom." But their idea of freedom is not freedom at all, it's a permanent free-fall in which some will manage to claw their way to a tenuous safety (that must be constantly and perhaps violently defended against encroachment), others will hit rock bottom, and most of us will just live and die with no ground beneath our feet, never knowing which way the wind may blow us or where we'll wind up. Countries that allow the majority of their population to subsist that way are called third-world countries. In the extreme, they are called failed states. They are hopeless pockets of the world where poverty, ignorance, disease and violence are daily facts of life.

And yet even in those places, there are those who profit, often quite handsomely. Human degradation can be a goldmine for the right sort of person, the right sort of company. Those sorts of people, those sorts of companies, are the ones who are seeking to profit from the degradation of the American people. And the American people are helping them do it. Men like Dick Armey and the Kochs, and those in the media who speak for them, like Glenn Beck, have been clever enough to giftwrap their hideous motives in red-white-and-blue ribbons of patriotism, Christianity, "traditional values" and -- my favorite -- honor. For some of us, too many of us, that's a very pretty package that we eagerly embrace with no thought to what's really inside. And I am telling you...what's really inside will bring a lot of suffering to a lot of people. Not some marginalized "other." But to you. To me. To our families. Our loved ones.

Glenn Beck predicted that yesterday's "Restoring Honor" rally would be a "turning point" in American history and as pompous as that claim is, I believe he may be right. But we have turned a corner that is going to take us down a very dark road, and we are going to be on that road for a long time. I have faith that America will eventually right itself, because we usually do rise above the lesser demons of our nature...but I do not believe that this will happen in my lifetime. This will be the work of generations, and I won't be around to see it. I presumably will be around for the next few decades, and I think they will be hairy indeed.

What do I do? Do I try to get out now or do I hunker down and hope that I can ride it out? Where do I go? Is Canada far enough? Is it safe enough? Will I make a move like that only to have a Canadian "Tea Party" brewing up there in a few years? Seriously...what do I do? What do we do?

Comments

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I agree with you. I am so scared by this new movement that I'm burying my head in the sand...but I just have a bad, shivery ominous feeling. I guess I keep thinking that people will come to their senses and laugh the Tea Party away, and that just hasn't happened. The blatant racism against Muslims and fear-mongering is worse now than it was right after 9/11. I don't know what to make of that.

And I have lived in one of those Third World countries. I know how bad it can get (and where I was was NOT the worst of the worst by any means, being way more developed than a lot of third world countries).

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

I ask myself your questions on a regular basis. I find these people terrifying. Remember that book, What's the Matter with Kansas? Only it's not just Kansans making these crazy decisions anymore.

I think my little enclave will be all right, but there's a part of me that dreams northern Cal-Oregon-western Washington can secede, or be merged into British Columbia.

[corbyinoz.livejournal.com]

When I saw the crowd yesterday, and heard the Palin screeching about restoring honor, I had to take a deep breath before I put my foot through the telly. Because, you know, not helpful.

How the hell - and I mean that quite literally - did the conversation, such as it is, get framed in those terms? How can extending health care benefits be dishonorable? How does establishing mutually respectful relationships with previously spurned nations constitute dishonor? This kind of rally would have made sense after Vietnam, after Nixon. But during Obama's presidency?

It makes me despair. You have summed it all up brilliantly. Joe Bageant's book 'Deer hunting with Jesus' helped me to understand a little better, but as you say - the grassroots support for the Tea Party is bewildering. Please. Exploit us some more.

It's like Palin's Mama Grizzly Bear crap (rearing up to protect her young from - better access to doctors and hospitals? Not being deployed in combat in Iraq? Those big, nasty threats?) - it defies all rational thought.

[slipperieslope.livejournal.com]

They are my Bible-thumping, gun-toting, incredibly angry relatives, so very pissed-off because there is a Black Man in their White House and they frighten the shit out of me.

[sixth-queen.livejournal.com]

It's the hypocrisy of the sheeple that gets me.

When globalization moves the Joe Next Door's job overseas, it's Joe's own fault: lazy bum needs to get off the couch and get a job. Of course, when they lose their own jobs, are they lazy bums now? Heck no, it's Obama's fault.

Or, if the minorities get diabetes, it's "They ate badly; their fault; I'm not going to pay for someone else' health care." When they get diabetes from all the cheap high fructose corn syrup-laden bad food they are forced to eat because it's all they can afford, they scream "get the government out of my Medicare."

Ot they rail against Obama the teleprompter-reading empty suit. Meanwhile, the emptiest suit I've ever seen does nothing but read off a teleprompter and is praised to the gills by the blow-dried lady newscasters while the men mastrubate under the newsdesk.

In the name of "honor."

Just burns me up.

[merylmarie.livejournal.com]

You said it all so well. Frighteningly well. :((

Besides all the stupidity detailed above, the thing that bugs me most about the Right is their sense of entitlement. They don't just lose an election to another party, they are robbed by evil socialists and Nazis of their rightful place in the world. All of a sudden the "Don't Tread on Me" flags come out and guys bring guns to rallies. Lies are shouted out and duly consumed. Sucks to be an American sometimes.