I am resigned to the fact that since I am an Obama loyalist, the tea baggers will turn up their collective noses at me. If I managed to sneak into one of their parties, I'd get no sugar in my tea and probably no tea at all. From what I have read of these groups of patriots, I have concluded that they want their country to return to the past, almost to the Norman Rockwell America their parents (and I) grew up in. They wouldn't want to lose their Social Security or their Medicare but apparently they haven't seriously considered that grim prospect. What they want is an old-time America where certain people know their places and stayed there. President Obama's book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER comes in here. A true tea bagger would never even consider reading it but it is an eye-opener that makes one look at American life from his and his peoples' point of view--to see it across a fence that should not be in a land in whose Constitution are the words "All men are created equal" and whose pledge of allegiance promises "liberty and justice for all".
Now here comes the race card. I agree with many other people that race is at the bottom of the tea party movement. Most of its members undoubtedly consider themselves good Christians and by instinct they distrust and abhor Muslims. They feel the same about homosexuals who are dangerous because they are not "normal". They are doubtful about Jews and in some cases, violently anti-Semitic. It is however, those uppity blacks who drive them crazy. They refuse to dignify them by calling them African-American and instead use the offensive "n" word although not in their public pronouncements. Oh no--here they proclaim loudly that it is unfair and hitting below the belt to accuse them of being racists. This they deny indignantly in spite of the fact that some of the more extreme tea baggers or their ilk, described Obama as another Hitler--an utterly ludicrous, totally outlandish analogy. In 1957 the parents of some of these folks, the ones who lived in Little Rock, Arkansas may well have been among the jeering, menacing crowds that tried to keep nine teen-age black students from entering a public high school. This scene must be etched indelibly in the memory of anyone who saw it either live or on TV.
Currently there are strong feelings against people with brown skins. Are they legal or have they sneaked across our borders to take away jobs from Real Americans?
These are angry, confused people, following first one leader, then another and never satisfied. They listen eagerly to the incoherent babble of Palin and Taitz and like Orly, demand to see the President 's birth certificate. It seems logical that White Supremacists should be among their number. Many of these people are suffering from economic bad times. They have forgotten, if they ever knew, that it was during St. Ronald's administration the "trickle down" theory gave tax cuts and extra benefits to the very rich. Unfortunately the trickle didn't reach those it was supposed to help. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Vital revenues ceased to flow into government coffers. George W(orst) Bush went on with this disastrous policy, adding two wars, one of which can be called criminal. Now we are in a serious recession. Tea baggers, members of the great middle class are furious, frustrated, and bitter. To top off their economic woes, those uppity black folks are in the sacred White House. Like swarms of enraged bees whose hives have been invaded, they are flying in wild, erratic circles, trying to unite. If they ever suceed, behind a strong leader-queen, they could be extremely dangerous.