I Showed Up To The Tea Party With A Flask And Some Blow

Unfamiliar surroundings make some uncomfortable, not me. That's not to say I leap in head first, no no no. I keep to the back of the room, taking it all in. When it's time for me to take some action I straighten my jacket, clear my throat and get up on my soap box.

"If you think Barack Obama's destroying America, it's time to take a good like in the mirror"

Rotten vegetables fly forth from the retched refuse in front of me. I've angered they're sensibilities and they've turned hostile. Oh, they're seething now and about to prove my point.

"KIKE!"
"NIGGER LOVER"
"FAGGOT!"

Oh boy, who doesn't love a good Tea Party?

******

Obamacare has passed and Armageddon is all but certain now, or so the story goes. So now the dissenters are pulling in ranks and pulling out stops. I'm certainly not against a group of people organizing themselves around a cause they care about to make they're voice heard BUT when that collective voice comes out hurling racial epithets, it's time to take a hard look at where we're headed.

Of course what I described at the top never actually happened, but I decided to use my good old friend creative license to make a point. If only the fiction was far off from the truth. As everyone knows by now following the passage of the healthcare reform bill thousands of protesters descended on Washington to let the democrats know that they were none to happy about. That’s all fine and good, in fact it’s exactly what’s great about America, the fact that you can openly disagree with your government and make your voice heard in a public arena. But things went a little bit further then expressing outrage over what the government is doing.

As Rep. John Lewis passed through the crowd there were shouts of “nigger”. When Rep. Barney Frank passed it was “faggot”. Both of these congressmen are Democrats who voted for the healthcare bill, but that’s not what they were being called out for. They were being called out for being who they are. A black man and a gay man, things that have nothing to do with the bill they voted for.

I’m not really all that surprised. I would never put it past the Jesus&Guns loving, marginally educated rabble that make up the Tea Party movement to be anything but racist, homophobic assholes that’ve been whipped up into a frothing furor by the likes of so many Fox News pundits. But how could anyone defend that kind of behavior? There’s been plenty of condemnation from the left, but shouldn’t one of the Tea Party’s leaders come forward and say that that kind of behavior isn’t something they want to encourage? I mean that’s unless they don’t mind they’re movement to be associated with racism and homophobia.

The de facto methodology of the Tea Party movement has thus far been fear mongering, irrational outburst akin to a 2 year old’s temper tantrum. We’re so used to partisanship in American politics at this point it’s easy to just throw up your hands and say the two sides will never reach any kind of compromise, find any middle ground to move this country forward. If that’s really the case than our system is truly and irreparably broken. All we really need is a couple of major political figures on both sides of the aisle to say enough is enough and actually try to open up a rational dialogue. But that’s just never going to happen, is it? No one benefits politically by being rational, and all politics is about in America today is making sure you still have a job after the next election.

Maybe we really should just burn it all to the ground.

-Jon J