Myron Pitts explained the behavior of the Tea Party Republicans in the Fayetteville Observer today with a vivid clarity I have seen nowhere else. Read it by clicking this link. The election of President Obama was so offensive to conservative white Americans who believe in a white dominated racial hierarchy that they are willing to destroy the United States to restore racial order.
They get strength by exploiting the visceral and all-consuming hatred for President Obama harbored by some Americans. Districts gerrymandered so they are heavily conservative and almost all white feed this beast.
The only thing tea party congresspeople can do wrong as far as the folks back home are concerned is work with this black president on anything. Committing that sin will draw them a primary opponent willing to be more dangerously extreme.
I live part time in Jacksonville, NC, the home of Camp Lejeune, United States Marine base. All the old racial rules have fallen here. You can see mixed race couples of all possible combinations. And there are a few good men who are gay, out and proud. They are led by a president who's mother was a "hippie chick" and who's father was a Kenyan intellectual. This is a reality that some conservative white people cannot accept.
The election of President Obama was the last straw for conservative white people who believe in racial order.
The point is: He cannot be legitimate, no matter how many votes he received.
Because if he is legitimate, what does all they have been taught about the inferiority of black people really mean?
How could one group go from slave to servant to Civil Rights to president?
For a small but significant number of Americans, that trajectory doesn't compute. It doesn't make sense and will never be acceptable.
Better to secede from reality than deal with that.
We cannot negotiate with the Tea Party because there is nothing to negotiate. They don't want to govern. They don't want to improve "Obamacare" or budget legislation. Their goal is to nullify the election and reelection of President Obama.