George H. W. Bush liked to talk of a "kinder, gentler" nation with its "thousand points of light." It was an attempt to portray conservatives as compassionate after the orgy of greed during the Reagan years. Well, no one can accuse America of being a kind, gentle place after a thousand pointed Tea Party heads were elected. While the sane and the sober understand that the Tea Party was a marketing ploy to sell the same old corporate welfare and religious fundamentalism of the Republican Party as new and improved, the only amusing part of this ruse is that the Tea Party puppets did not get the memo.
One of the best examples of puppets with attitude came from Judson Phillips, head of Tea Party Nation. You may remember Judson as organizer of the convention in Nashville that paid Sarah Palin $100,000 to read from her hand and charged tea-swilling racists $549 to watch. While Mitch McConnell, the second worst Senator from Kentucky, was talking trash to President Obama, Judson had a message for Mitch. "Grow a pair."
A letter to Mitch McConnell
Dear Mitch,
I am trying to find a way to say this that is both polite and perhaps a little subtle. Unfortunately, people tell me I am neither polite nor subtle, so I'll be blunt.
"Grow a pair."
You have had quite a transition. You have gone from being the minority leader, where the Democrats had a filibuster proof majority, to being almost equal. You can also count the numbers and look at 2012. You know that in 2012, the Republicans will gain a majority in the Senate. It is almost a mathematical certainty. And you will be majority leader.
Not so fast.
Remember, you were a part of the problem that led to the Democrats getting sixty seats in the Senate to begin with. ...
The part about Democrats having a filibuster proof majority was chuckle worthy, but the rest accurately represents the toxic arrogance of the new insanitea-driven Republican Party. They fervently believe that taking control of the Senate in 2012 is a certainty, along with electing a suitable religious conservative, corporate shill like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, or Newt Gingrich. They also blame the old guard, like Mitch McConnell for election losses in 2006 and 2008.
And maybe McConnell got the Tea Party memo before Judson Phillips had a chance to send it. His recent bombast about making Obama a one-term president shows he unzipped his pants before the election to prove his pair was not shriveled and he was still waving his member at a gathering of conservatives at the Heritage Foundation after the election.
McConnell was smart enough to genuflect to the Tea Party before the election and claim to be blissfully ignorant of their bigotry. Unfortunately, too many authoritarians can spoil a parade when there is no clear agreement on who gets to lead. McConnell knew the establishment was funneling millions into the faux populist Tea Party, but the useful idiots want more than rallies to bully elected Democrats, stomp progressive activists, arrest reporters, and call the president a Muslim from Kenya determined to bring Sharia law, communism, and fascism to America as part of a super secret agenda to create a world government.
Anger helped elect Tea Party Republicans along with the apathy of 60% of Americans that did not bother to vote, but anger is not a stable foundation for government. Behavioral scientists have long studied the cognitive, neurophysiological, and cardiovascular effects of anger. Anger has valuable effects for political puppet masters to exploit. It is a powerful source of motivation. In fact, one recent study showed that people have a strong preference for objects associated with anger. In this study, the emotional manipulation was subliminal presentation of facial emotion, so people may not even be consciously aware of the effects of anger on their choices. These effects are typically interpreted as a trait with survival advantages in times of scarcity. Anger serves as preparation for aggression in the face of competition for scarce resources like food.
Anger also serves to limit attention. When we are angry, we tend to devote most of our attentional resources to what we desire and focus less on everything going on around us. Think of it as anger makes you myopic.
Anger-driven energy and mental myopia are excellent tools in a political context. Angry crowds attending rallies for angry candidates promising paradise, ponies, and vestal virgins gets the base fired up and into the voting booths. Those traits are of little value in addressing complex problems that require cooperation and broad social participation to develop solutions and implement them successfully. The creative use of anger is a major reason Republicans have been effective campaigners but have driven the economy, infrastructure, and social fabric into the ground when in power. Anger is the 'help yourself' emotion, appealing to our basest and most primitive of instincts. It destroys social cohesion without an external enemy to channel the energy, narrow focus, and readiness for aggression.
Anger has been the hallmark of the Tea Party rebranding of Republicans. Since the 2008, we have nonstop rage directed at Muslims, Hispanics, homosexuals, atheists, the less fortunate, environmentalists, those with liberal political views, and, of course, a president with dark skin.
The Tea Party Republicans did not even bother to hide their bigotry and hatefulness. For example, Tea Party Nation proprietor Judson Phillips proudly proclaimed he has "a real problem with Islam." Most Tea Party Republicans share that problem, which is why there has been so much uproar over whether a Muslim community center should be built near the sacred ground of the World Trade Center site. The ridiculous people of Oklahoma went so far as to pass a Republican-sponsored ordinance against the adoption of Sharia law in the state to stoke and channel anger at Muslims. And when Juan Williams said people in Muslim garb makes him weak in the knees, he became an instant celebrity for conservatives like Palin. Even though they tried to dress it up as him being fired unfairly, they were not put off by his bigotry. In fact, they were turned on by it and he parlayed the controversy into a $2 million contract per year to talk for a few hours a week on Fox News. Similar examples can be found for each of the targets of Tea Party hatred.
What should scare you about the well-stoked anger of the Tea Party Republicans is what happened when it crossed the line from verbal to physical aggression. There was no remorse among the Tea Party Republicans for incidents like the stomping of an activist trying to mock Rand Paul. In fact, the faithful cheered those acts of violence as justified. Even more disturbing was the lack of outrage and disapproval among the American people. Each act of violence, vandalism, or intimidation had little effect on the acceptability of Tea Party candidates.
The targets of Tea Party anger are useful in dispelling the myth that the Tea Party is a bunch of libertarians outraged over government spending. It is a nice cloak, but the hoods and burning crosses are a dead giveaway. The overwhelming majority of Tea Party members and candidates are "social conservatives" that oppose abortion, civil rights protections for homosexuals, and tolerance for anyone outside the Judeo-Christian faith tradition. Religious fundamentalists were quick to remind the Republican establishment of their role in electing Tea Party Republican candidates.
It remains to be seen whether Tea Party minions will obey their well-funded overlords like the Koch clan, Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Judson Phillips' bellicose warning to Mitch McConnell is amusing, but highlights the limits of anger in keeping the troops loyal. Judson is not the only Tea Party Republican talking tough to the Republican establishment. Queen Tea Palin scolded uber Republican strategist Ed Gillespie as"out of touch" for even suggesting compromise on any issue with the Democrats. Michele Bachmann is claiming to be the only true voice in the House for Tea Party Republicans "constitutional conservatives."
We are truly cursed to live in interesting times. Mr. President, I hope you are up for the political fight of your life. Personal charm and Slurpees are not going to persuade Tea Party Republicans to work with you. As eloquently noted by FishOutofWater, the conservatives in this nation not only disagree with your policies, they hate you. You are not alone. They hate most of us as well.