Have you heard? The Tea Party is angry. America is angry. Anger is the watchword of the election season. When pundits wax eloquent, they speak of this ire with reverent awe. When commentators comment, they seem to be squeezing themselves with delight every time they mention voter rage.
Is anyone but me completely puzzled by this reverence for anger? Since when did anger ever amount to a political position? Since when did we start thinking of anger as a plank in a political platform.
Where I come from, anger is something that we try to avoid. In my family, when one of us gets angry, the next step is apology. There's nothing you can say in anger that you also can't say in more measured tones. Most of us recognize that when we get angry we have "lost it." What is the "it" that we have lost? We've lost our cool, our rationality, a concern for the other, and a general sense of decency. In life we don't respect habitually enraged people. We might even suggest "anger management" as a solution to a perennial sorehead.
Of course there is a place for anger in relationships and even in politics. But anger is not a permanent state of being in either, nor should it be. Isn't politics the art of the practical and the possible. Government involves compromise and alliance. In the old days, politicians used to make strange bedfellows -- nowadays, as in a marriage gone bad, they don't even get into bed together anymore.
If you look at what the Tea Party is angry about, it's out-of-control spending and big government doing the spending. They want to "take back their country," and they are angry as hell about it. OK, so when the anger cools, you have to ask. How do you balance the budget? What programs and entitlements do you want to cut? From whom are you taking the government back? In other words, once your anger has cooled and you've stopped yelling at your wife, your friend, or your country, what follows?
Obviously, what needs to be done is to create more jobs and jump-start the economy. And how do we do that once we've stopped yelling? Then you have to get into the complex and rational business of analyzing which economic ideas work and which don't, which approaches have the best track records, which experts to allow into the White House, and so on. All of these are knotty questions that require cool heads and very rational approaches.
But the Tea Party members are like drivers with road rage. Every one else is wrong, but once your anger dies, you're just another driver on the freeway. What ennobles you and makes you feel that only you know how to drive is the beeping horn, the finger thrust out the window, and the yelled expletive. Voter rage is not something to be cultivated in a democracy, because we all know that ironically road rage causes accidents, it doesn't prevent them. And voter rage, while all the rage now, can easily cause a huge accident come Election Day and beyond.
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I think the problem with politics today is that people seem to be more focused on gaining power and position than they are in actually solving problems. Hell, you gotta be rich to begin with to run a campaign with any reach - so what do these guys even *care* about us low-rung folk?
My signficiant other and I are trying to start our own, tiny, two-person very angry political party, the Screw Them All party - but you see, we are turning our anger into humor.
And, just like now, but now it is even worse, those pleas fell on deaf ears. Sure, I had one rep that listened and was sympathetic, but he was ONE of 435 people. He had some influence, but not enough to turn the tide.
The only thing that will put the necessary controls in on this run-away spending mentality of the House and Senate (borrowed, ever-increasing national debt spending) is a constitutional amendment that caps spending based on a certain percentage of last year's GDP or something like that. And, along with this, where even one penny of national debt exists, all federal employees are put on a base pay only status (no benefits of any kind, no health care, no pension funds, no bonuses, no expense accounts, no staffing priviledges, no Congressional rent, no free or subsidized travel, no francing priviledges, no nothing) until the national debt is paid off. Such an amendment also needs to cap the current income tax percentage at 10 to 15 percent or do away with the income tax all together.
The above is needed to force Congress to be good and prudent stewards of tax payers monies.
Absolutely. Get angry because someone has fouled up, remove them from office, get over being angry. Sounds like a plan to me.
Maybe you are referring to his statement that: "Then you have to get into the complex and rational business of analyzing which economic ideas work and which don't, which approaches have the best track records", but you could only think that this refers to liberal ideas if you are willing to admit to yourself that liberal economic ideas have better track records than conservative economic ideas.
Government is NOT primarily about accomplishing things. Not even about national defense. It is about preserving the domestic tranquility. Put briefly, the government is the mechanism by which we all are able to live together without violence.
That's why anger is important here. The government was supposed to have widespread support. It was not supposed to be 50.01% of the people in a tyranny of the majority over the other 49.99%. It was not even supposed to be 80% of the people enforcing their will on 20% - if the 20% feel that strongly about the issue.
Obama forgot this. He pushed policies that had a bare majority of support (if that) but that had intense dislike by a sizable segment of the population.
Obama created the tea party and their anger. Unless he reverses course, it will only get worse....
I've seen a ranting Keith Olberman for every angry conservative. Check the manners and language on this blog.
See, now that's your first mistake - giving some sort of validity, or even coherence to what the Teabaggers are angry about. Bottom line - they are angry that there is a "stranger" in their White House. The teabaggers don't give a rat's patooty about gov't spending or balanced budgets - otherwise they would have been screaming at the top of their lungs at the two unfunded wars and the profligate spending of Dubya and his Rethugs over the past 8 years. They are angry alright, but not at what you think!
My anger is for the fact that "foreign affairs" seem to take precedence over domestic affairs - that our educational and health systems are falling further behind those of other industrialized nations - that we seem to be involved in endless wars - and I feel that that anger is justified.
Disappointment for promises not kept - disgust at the tone of politics (both parties) - and then there is the fear that no one in our government has the strength and wisdom to pull us out of the wars, the economic morass and the seemingly lack of moral values that we see in government and business today.
And voting for third-party candidates without any real chance of winning doesn't work. I really liked Ralph Nader, but if no one had voted for him we might never have been stuck with Bush, and we wouldn't have been involved in two wars at once, and the economy would almost certainly be better.
You may think that Democrats are not much better than Republicans (in many cases I would agree), but in our present electoral system the only way to remedy this is during the primaries.
The best thing that could ever happen to this country at the moment, would be for neither party to be the majority in the House and/or Senate. That's really the only type of wake up call that would get either party's attention, to the point where they stop acting like the irresponsible teenagers they appear to be.
http://www.lafn.org/gvdc/Natl_Debt_Chart.html
We can see what is happening in the UK, France, and other European nations, as they grapple with the problems that have arisen from excessively large government. The anger of the French people who are protesting increasing the retirement age from 60 t0 62 is much greater than that of the Tea Party. The luxury welfare states in many European countries can no longer be sustained, despite the expectation and desire of many, or even the majority, to continue as usual.
The Tea Party raises very important issues which should be listened to, and not devalued by referring to it as angry, as racist, and as merely defending the privileges of the rich. Insulting the Tea Party makes a national discourse on these issues much harder.
Instead of Vietnam the TP's have dreamed up the "communist-socialist-fascist-Kenyan-anti-colonialist-Muslim" takeover of America. They know vaguely of the heroic resistance to the war see themselves in a similar role, refusing to let the "big government/big spenders" destroy the country--and they carry guns. Likewise, they are a counter-counter-culture warriors, defending American religiosity against threats real and imagined. Many are old time culture warriors, with no problem mixing church and state.
The anti-war activists of yore unfortunately used exaggerated "revolutionary" rhetoric. Back then most of us on the left thought the Weathermen were stupid and naive. It's no different now, hearing the TP's talking about "second amendment solutions" to their grievances. While they prattle about big government they've opened the door for a corporate takeover. As with the collapse of the 60's leading to Nixon's "Silent majority" so the unintended consequences of right wing activism will soon announce themselves. Sic transit gloria Americana.
Is that so hard to get?
I am also educated and have never taken the word of anyone but always fact check. I believe in our constitution as stands now with all it's amendments. I believe that unless we get the corporate money out of Washington our country will never be the same. That money flows on both sides of the fence but in this election cycle the corporate influence due to the Citizens United SC ruling is on the right, the GOP, the tea party. I'm not sure most involved in the tea party have even checked the facts or asked the questions as to where the money is flowing from. Buying our elections should be a very big concern to all Americans.
By no means is a "revolution" necessary except at the ballot box. The tea party rhetoric as to a 2nd amendment solution is dangerous and should be stomped by reasonable citizens. It could also be considered treason.
I agree there is anger but please fact check your anger - you may find that you have been hoodwinked by those you trusted.
A revolution only causes more damage and irritation among the public and other entities. It has never been resolved by voting or electing process due to the decisions one makes when in a state of irritation it only clouds the mind of the person making the decision; hence, leaving a irresponsible action/decision.
As far as whether the government responds to the public, my personal, view is it use to. Not any longer; because the government is out for control and to benefit them. Power and control are the two main reasons the government no longer listen to the public.
At no point in this election cycle has the tea party or the GOP stated what they would do to improve the economy and reduce debt. The GOP put out a few items that were the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. They say they will not be so irresponsible this time around. How do we believe that rhetoric?
The tea party is just the mad hatter express funded by a bunch of millionaires to upset this election cycle. In essence make a mess of the whole situation. Their answer is to change the constitution where ever they see something they don't like. We can't do that and we all know that would lead to a place none of us care to be at.
We need calmer heads to rise above this nonsense and the buying of our elections. Election reform needs to happen and soon. Take the money out of our elections - fund elections federally with a limit to what each candidate can spend. Stop the other money that comes from PAC's and these wonderfully named third parties like, Americans for Prosperity, etc. Educate our kids on political science and American history and the constitution and why it was set up the way it was. Until then we can just expect more of the same. The media could and should call a lie a lie and state what history has proven out in the past.
Might want to be careful about dissing movements funded by a bunch of millionaires. The left far outstrips anything the right has ever done in that regard.
How about unions--public employee unions giving over 80 million (to democrats) this election. School teacher union--40 million. SEIU- 65 million.
Just in this election. All to democrats.
If you're worried about corporations, don't. They give about 50/50 to each party.
How many Corporations are foreign? You don't know because they don't have to say. When unions donate it's the members that vote to approve it. The GOP is receiving more in this election.
Explain the growing number of blacks in the tea party (even though it is really really hard to be black and conservative, due to the visciousness of the left)
Explain why people voted for him in the first place are now abandoning ship. Suddenly racist?
Why is it so hard for you folks to admit that people just hate the spending and the joblessness?
The beauty of (falsely in this case) accusing someone of racism is that it instantly silences debate and puts the target of that slur on the defensive.
It is much easier to slander us, than to actually look at our ideas.
Now, about spending and joblessness. Most Americans would agree that a balanced budget and full employment are desirable goals. But to imagine that your policies would achive these ends is to be sucked into buying the same old pack of lies your fat cat sponsors have been peddling since the Reagan days. Your clowns created this mess, not Obama. You didn't give him a chance to fix it, obstructed every effort made by those you oppose. So don't cry to me about spending and jobless. Both are the result of your the-market-is-God economic philosophy.