The Hypocrisy Of The Tea Baggers

By: Troy J.

Well during the lecture circuit I’m on right now I cited a statement uttered by South Carolina State Senator John M. “Jake’ Knotts, Jr. whose vocal outburst has captured the fancy of the Tea Baggers everywhere. In a radio interview he was lamenting about Nikki Haley whose alleged sexual peccadilloes dominated the Republican Gubernatorial Primary. The very conservative Miss Haley is supported by Sarah Palin, is from an Indian family; so she’s an Asian-American. Senator Knotts supporting a more conservative opponent of Miss Haley complained, “We’ve already got one rag head in the White House, we don’t need another in the Governor’s mansion.” Miss Haley incidentally defeated her opponent, Lieutenant Governor Bauer, and two other equally conservative men, and will be the GOP candidate to secede the ubiquitous and wandering Mark Sanford.

On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart addressing Senator Knotts concerns noted that his bigotry was geo-politically confused. The Senator exposed his ignorance in a variety of ways, but most significantly he argued his comments shouldn’t count because the interview took place in a bar. I think his remarks do count, and I suspect that they were politically calculated, appealing to a prevailing Tea Bagger sentiment. They argue that they are not racists and that their major concern is opposing big government, except when they’re screaming at the Obama Administration to solve the oil spill in the gulf. I would think for consistency they would be calling on the private sector to clean up the mess; one which was started by an unregulated private company. An ad in a right-wing publication I read this week has a headline “Turning America into the newest world center for Islamist bombers. Another two years of Obama and America could become the next Pakistan.” Even the most effective and accurate critics of the inefficient Bush Administration wasn’t that extreme; even after an eight year old war created on lies, which resulted in 4,000 dead American soldiers.

Publicly the Tea Baggers deny that race is the issue, but Senator Knotts seems to be speaking for them, even if his comments were stated in a bar. In fact it’s the off-the-cuff remarks in unofficial locales that actually reveal the true feelings. I’ve heard them all my life – in locker rooms, restaurants, bars, and on street corners. The Tea Baggers politically are sophisticated enough in public relations to muzzle their extreme views, and they celebrate Christian-Judaic traditions, and they wave American flags, but privately express fears, disapproval, and lies about people of color. When Rand Paul, the Tea Bag candidate for the Senate in Kentucky suggested that the 1964 Civil Rights Bill be reconsidered; he knew what he was saying and to whom he was appealing. Sharron Angle, the Tea Baggers victorious candidate to be the GOP challenger for Harry Reid’s Senatorial seat in Nevada, argues for a privatization of Social Security, but surrounded by smiling Anglo faces at her victory celebration; it was the Anti-Obama posturing that mobilized the lunatic right.

Look back a few years. Democratic candidates Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore, all political centrists, unless measured by the Tea Baggers, were all subjected to lies and taunts by the fanatical right, but Barack Obama is facing an assault unprecedented in Presidential history. Some of it bordering on sedition and incendiary. They can deny the obvious all they want, but they’re playing the race card to the hilt. Some media neutralists are calling for Obama to take off the gloves show some fire. I see no reason why this man should emulate the savages slandering him. Part of what people supported and voted for was a new style in the Presidency. Certainly after the years of George W.’s pathetic performance, the quiet intelligence and class of Barack Obama is a welcome addition. Throughout the world American prestige has been elevated.

But let’s take a vital issue like unemployment. It remains a crisis and Obama is said to be the man who must solve it. But government programs creating jobs might need a tax increase, best achieved by taxing the wealthiest of Americans. But why aren’t the conservatives asking private industry to hire more people – for the CEO’s and other top execs to shed some of their bonus dollars and use that money to hire the unemployed? I’ve made these suggestions in the past. Try calling Time-Warner, my cable TV carrier, Jet Blue, Verizon, try calling a movie complex, or a dozen other large companies, and you’ll be put on hold for fifteen to twenty minutes. The tape recording will inform you that, “Operators are busy with other customers.” Solution? Hire more operators to give faster services to your consumers. Did you hear that Time-Warner? Movie theaters, and drug stores with ten cash registers and only one open with long lines waiting, could use more workers. I could walk around my city, New York, and find a thousand jobs needed to fulfill corporate advertising claims.

The Tea Baggers want more from the private sector. Stop demanding solutions from the government for problems created by oil and mining companies and other conglomerates. With Jake Knotts as your poster boy, and candidates threatening to be elected, you better stop belly-aching and have some solutions if you find yourself in the corridors of power. If you don’t want big government, ask General Motors and Verizon to provide the answers.

I’m Troy J., out on a limb.