“For anyone who anticipates that Republican presidential candidates will move towards the center in 2016, this weekend’s festivities are a very loud wake up call.”Just who are these people who believe the Tea Party is ever going to move to the center? I swear, every time a pundit says “The Republicans will have to pass an immigration bill because demographic changes threaten their electability.” Tim Russert rolls over in his grave mumbling “idiot.”
I’m in a mood today to say what most everyone knows in their heart to be true, yet rarely admits aloud. The Republican Party of Karl Rove is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tea Party. The Tea Party accomplished this takeover by instilling in every elected Republican a testicle-shrinking fear of a primary challenger coming at him from the right. The Republicans of old, except for Ronald Reagan, who they like to pretend shared their stone-hearted philosophy, are no longer relevant.
This
new Tea Party controlled Republican Party does not want to attract any
“ethnic” people to its membership. They do not want black people to
join. They do not want Hispanics to join. They do not want people who
aren’t Christian, and they especially do not want Muslims. They do not
want women who don’t know how to be “demure” and “feminine”, and they do
not want new gay Republicans. To the contrary, they have done
everything but put a plank in the party platform pledging to reinstate
sodomy laws, trying to make the Log Cabin Republicans feel disrespected
enough to go away and play with their own kind. Or better yet, to go
visit Russia.
That
said, nothing pisses off a Tea Party member more than being called a
bigot. I understand the argument. To a true Tea Partier, someone’s skin
color or social status is not the deciding factor of their
“acceptability”. They like, and genuinely admire, refined, classical
piano playing, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who believed in
“American exceptionalism”, a philosophy Tea Partiers believe means, “Do
what we want, or we will drone your ass.” They adore Justice Clarence
Thomas, who thinks affirmative action is an insult to blacks. And they
practically had public orgasms when former congressman Allen West called
out the NAACP, President Obama, and told liberals to “Get the hell out
of the United States.”
The Tea Party accepts black people who in their minds, “think like
white people.” Same with Latinos. They like Marco Rubio just fine, as
long as he doesn’t try to cross the amnesty line. Tea Partiers proffer
the argument: if they are fine with a few people of color, it proves they
couldn’t possibly be racist, even if they gleefully circulate
photoshopped images of President Obama with a bone through his nose.That doesn’t mean I’m pronouncing the Tea Party a misunderstood group of ecumenical goodwill. To the Tea Party “acceptable” members of minority groups are an exception. Some of them would say a “rare exception.” They see everyone else as “takers.”
For some reason, news commentators are fond of isolating the issues of the day. Republicans and immigration. Republicans and voter suppression. Republicans and marriage equality. Republicans and women’s rights. But in the real world, these issues are all connected; all part of the larger vision the Tea Party has for America, and they should be discussed that way. They are all separate battles in a larger war for all the marbles.
When
the Tea Partiers talk about “taking my country back”, it’s true they
yearn for a time when white made right. But it isn’t true that they want
to go back to slavery, or ship black citizens “back to Africa.” They
think there is a way to return to a time when people of color stayed in
their ethnic ghettos and white people had the rest of the country to
themselves, and in their minds, everyone got a long just fine. Mexicans
were content to stay in Mexico, except during harvest season, and there
was no need to “push 2 for Spanish.” Women had dinner on the table by
six and deferred to her husband at all times, and was judged by how
clean she kept her kitchen and how many babies she pushed out. Dad was
king of the castle, because he made the money, and because he was the
man. And of course, the family spent every Sunday together in church,
with neighbors who were just like them.That vision cannot be accomplished by embracing diversity.
The Tea Party would rather lose, while adhering to their vision, than win by compromising. The way they steered the Romney race right, right, right off the highway, shows their commitment. They would rather lose than bend, but they don’t intend to lose. Intellectually, they know demographic changes threaten them, but they don’t see the answer as changing themselves to be more attractive to minorities.
The plan is to overcome the diversity advantage. That’s why felons can’t vote, and states are passing onerous ID laws, cutting down on early voting and ending same day registration. That’s why they have gerrymandered out of their districts every last liberal household they possibly could. That’s why they are trying to break the unions, who act as the foot soldiers who help Democrats get out the vote. That’s why Acorn had to go.
The
Tea Party vision is to establish a “Christian Country”. But they have
adopted a modern standard of Christian conduct, where everyone is armed
just as Jesus and the apostles would have been, had firearms been an
option in 18 AD. Things would have gone a lot differently for Judas and
Pontius Pilate if Jesus and his boys had been packing AK-47s.The Tea Party wants schools to teach a Christian curriculum, and students to be led daily in Christian prayer. They want schools where science takes a back seat to Bible Studies. Where evolution is given the same weight as creationism. And where bullies are given a pass if they are motivated by a deeply held religious belief that suspected gay kids should be given swirlies.
In
a Tea Party America, taxes should never go to improve the lives of
citizens. They believe government benefits make people lazy. They
suspect everyone is on the take. Everyone is looking for ways to cheat.It may be culled from the preamble of their favorite document, the U.S. Constitution, but Teaists are not believers in promoting the “general welfare.” If you lose your job, they truly believe giving you unemployment benefits will just make you slow to look for a new one. If your children are in desperate need of food, or shelter, or healthcare? That saddens them, and on a personal level, they may reach into their pockets to help. But they are opposed to the government offering any relief. They call it “redistributing wealth”. Making sure your baby’s belly is full should not be the government’s concern. Taxes are for bombs and soldiers, and executing criminals, not for school lunches and Head Start. In a Tea Party America, not a dime would go to help the “takers.”
The Tea Party has a hope that if they can just capture all the levers of power, the House, the Senate, the White House and the Supreme Court, they can stall modernity. More than a few of them are ready to take up arms in the cause, though except for the TSA, who they think of as President Obama’s private army, I’m unclear who they plan to shoot. It’s a grand vision, and they are executing it while our political pundits pretend they are merely a bunch of conservative leaning folks who are all about the deficit.
Matthew, the Matthew of the Bible, says “By their fruits ye will know them.” Look at the fruits of the Tea Party:- Women across America have lost reproductive freedoms.
- Voters have lost power because of gerrymandered districts and new voting restrictions.
- Anti-gay amendments to state constitutions now retard the spread of marriage equality.
- Unions have been weakened.
- And then there’s the sequester…
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