Driving back from one of the groups I co-facilitate, I found out that the pick-up truck in front of me had political opinions. That car noted that it was a right wing conservative, called people socialist bastards, and also was plastered with the declaration "I was anti-Obama before it was cool." Now, what trucks have against Obama, especially given that he helped the bailout of the auto industry, is beyond me. But what really struck me about this is that there is some sort of belief that it is now "cool" to be anti-Obama.Is there some sort of weird swing in 'coolness'? Are ignorant, uneducated racists somehow the new trend setters? Will fashion become all about bedazzled flag pins? Are musicians going to start rapping about socialist agendas? Will adolescent boys start brushing up on their birther rhetoric in order to win some young girls heart? Are anti-Obama tattoos going to start showing up on the ankles or lower backs of co-eds?
Tea Party Movement, you may be a lot of things, but I don't think you've quite gotten around to mastering "cool."
The Tea Partiers did not base their early opposition to Obama on facts, of course, but rather they based it on such things as the fantastic lie he was a Muslim, or not an American citizen. If it is cool to be an ass who believes such fantasies as those, then how wonderful for the Tea Partiers!
ReplyDeleteYeah - I suppose if "fear tactics" are cool, if lies and conspiracy theories are cool, than the political beliefs of tea partiers are cool.
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ReplyDeleteI was just thinking how happy I am these days that I have so many people on the internet to talk with who are not irrational asses like the Tea Party folk. Can you imagine how much it might wear on you if you had no one who was sane to talk with? If you were surrounded by Tea Partiers. I just now counted, and I only have one friend offline who is a like the typical Tea Partier. Just one.
ReplyDeleteYou have one friend like that offline?
ReplyDeleteI don't have any - but, it probably makes sense, given that tea partiers probably aren't usually friends with us evil lesbians.
This hasn't much to do with the Tea Partiers, Astasia, but it's something you might be interested in. If not the particular article that I will link to for you, then the blog itself.
ReplyDeleteMarty is really smart and knows his field, which is sex therapy. His blog is here. Today, he is discussing the sexual repression of folks like the Tea Partiers. Which made me think of this post.
"Evil lesbians"
ReplyDeleteMy favorite aunt, growing up, was a lesbian. A lot of times, I get warm family feelings around lesbians. I'd probably think you were my kin if we knew each other offline, Astasia.
I think a lot of what helped bring the Tea Party into such prominence was bandwagon-jumping. There are SO many people who are politically unaffiliated (or just plain ignorant) that they see this "movement" and hop on because they want to feel like they are helping make a difference.
ReplyDeleteThe Tea Party is built on ideas that don't require any critical thinking and misleading populist rhetoric like "lower taxes" and "less spending" that are easy to grab on to. When you're scared and you see your friends who are scared grabbing on to this nonsense, it's easy to just join your friends and feel a little less scared.
At least that is what I've seen with some of the people I know who have joined up. They couldn't explain tea party policies (or the consequences of them) in any depth, but by golly they knew this Rand Paul guy was right!
Finally, I used to work with an anti-tax anti-environment conservative lesbian. It was the weirdest thing.
As usual, Sean, you seem to be spot on! And you make it look easy to be spot on, too! What is it? The water where you live?
ReplyDeleteSean G, I think, unfortunately, that that bandwagon jumping is too common in all political elections. I don't like to admit it, but, probably, some of that was what swept Obama in, as well. People who supported him because it was 'cool,' rather than caring about where he stood on the issues.
ReplyDeletePaul - I do live in Portland Oregon, so it's a little easier to be a progressive. :) And to be honest, we had great schools in Oregon in the 80s, so I can thank that as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Astasia, and I suspect that many of the bandwagon-jumpers for Obama are now the bandwagon-jumpers for the tea party. Sadly, I think this is a larger percentage of voters than we give credit to. The politically inactive are very numerous and base their voting on a very limited bit of information... much of which, I suspect, comes from the word of mouth of their circle of friends.