Cross-posted at my blog project Amierkana Magazine. If you read Daily Kos, you know most of this already, but it's still good reading.
There's something weird happening in the country these days. Strange rumblings that anyone half-paying attention feels intuitively, but no one is quite sure what they mean. Sales of ammunition are up and most reasonable people are probably stocking up on canned goods. Even the Villagers, the last people in the nation to become hip to a new political trend, are restless. Meanwhile savage geeks lead by a manic-depressive Mormon dress up in Revolutionary War costumes to make thinly veiled threats and unintentional sexual innuendos and misquote Thomas Paine. Beneath the carnival atmosphere there's a real ugliness to it all; a vicious meanness that hasn't existed in this country since the early 70s. If the good Doctor Thompson hadn't blown his brains out five years ago, he'd probably be reaching for a firearm about now, preferably in a Large Caliber.
The good news in all this is that the rise of the strange mutant political movement known as the Tea Party will probably save America from taking the final steps into total Corporatist Fascism by snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for the GOP. Make no mistake, the Democrats in no way shape or form deserve to stay in power. At every opportunity to define themselves as the party of regular Americans and against the corporate elite, they have dithered, pandered and at best delivered half-measures designed to give the appearance of delivering on their campaign promises, without offending anyone Important. The fact that they must remain in power is a bitter political necessity for anyone who values Freedom, and does not want to see America reduced to a Corporatist Serfdom anymore than it has been.
Make no mistake, the current ideological war in America, if not in the world, is between democracy and corporate power. Anyone who tells you that the political debate of this country is still between left and right is lying to you. The Republicans of 60 years ago would be as disturbed by the rise of Corporatism as the most militant new leftist is today. The only people who still talk in terms of a Left/Right ideological struggle either haven't figured out what's going on, or know damn well but who have a vested interest in keeping people in the dark.
Which brings us back to the Teabaggers (a name they choose unwittingly and now get pissy any time anyone else applies it). It is hard to think of a larger collection of rubes, suckers, marks, and half-wits to have ever been gathered into one cohesive, much less effective, political movement in the history of Humanity. They are the political equivalent of a divide by zero error, so ideologically incoherent that labeling their beliefs is nearly impossible (at least in proper political science terms, "bat-shit crazy" is not academically correct but it is accurate). Bankrolled by corporate money, and organized by Corporatist political operatives, they rage at the very same economic policies their corporate puppet masters lobbied for. Their rage, stoked by fires of racial resentment (anyone saying the Tea Party is not racist is baldly lying, however there is far more to the movement than pure racism), is directed at a president who, if they had any political consistency at all, would be their foremost hero for his heroic efforts to Save Capitalism.
Barack Hussein Obama was elected with an overwhelming mandate for chance. But his administration has become the model for attempting to preserve the status quo. Every thing is done in half measures, and with an eye to not rocking the boat too much. This might be understandable for a president elected by a thin margin or during a time of public contentment. Yet President Obama was elected by the largest margin any Democrat had reserved since 1964, and with a massive mandate for change. The failure to act on this mandate is nothing short of gross political malpractice and is the only reason the GOP has a shot in hell at getting a majority in either one, let along both houses of Congress.
Yet this is where the Teabaggers rear their ugly heads again. While not smart enough to realize just how badly they've been played, the Teabaggers and the main carnival barkers running the show have decided to take a more active role in electoral politics than planned. Rather than just disrupt Town Hall meetings and convince the Villagers that an imaginary popular uprising was taking place (and conveniently reaffirming the Villagers pro-establishment narrative against any assault by the "hopey-changy" president), the Baggers now feel they should actually have a seat at the table.
Last night, on September the 14th, the Teabaggers pulled yet another in a string of GOP primary upsets in which the hand-picked establishment candidate was tossed aside in favor of incoherent populist score. Remember that this is the party that ran Bob Dole for president for no other reason than "it was his Turn." This kind of political insurrection is unheard of in the tightly scripted hierarchical world of Republican politics. This might be inspiring if it were not for how bad the Teabagger candidates are. Each one is a walking disaster of extremist views so far out of the mainstream that members of the 1994 Republican Revolution have balked at them. This is nothing short of the lunatics running the asylum, and it's all that is saving the Democrats from Certain Doom.
The latest barbarian to breach the gates is a middle aged marketing consultant (a job I suspect is a hustle designed to part rich people from some of their money without doing any work for it) who won a come-from behind victory in the Delaware GOP primary. This follows closely another Teabagger offing the incumbent and Senior Senator from Alaska, and a number of similar races earlier in the calendar. The only Teabaggers to run with institutional support are Rand Paul, a vicious Corpratist in Kentucky, and Sharron Angle in Nevada (who was welcomed by the Establishment after she defeated their embarrassing favorite, saving everyone a lot of discomfort). This latest victory for Tea Bagging turns what was a nearly sure-fire Senate pick-up for Republicans into a likely Democratic hold. The National Republican Senatorial Campaign has said they will not waste their time or money on the race.
The Corporatist thought they could raise an army of angry populists, propagandize them into attacking the enemies of the Corporate Order, but keep the cool heads who know the score in charge of things. This plan has backfired, and now the ugly mess of scared White Americans with more anger than they know what to do with have turned against the establishment that breathed life into them.
So what happens when Corporatist Power clashes with Militant Radicalized Conservatism? No one knows what comes next, but I'd be reaching for a firearm about now.
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Update [2010-9-15 11:23:4 by Goldfish]: It seems some people didn't understand the meaning of the last line in this diary. Given that the first paragraph should have made the meaning obvious to anyone who's been conscious in the past decade, this is slightly disturbing. It seems people have been so infected by The Fear that they project it onto anything they see that seems vaguely threatening.
For those who understood the line, thank you, and I hope to see you around next time. For those to who misinterpreted the line, or whom got it but were still for some Unknowable reason offended, this is my response to you:
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