Posted on 09/13/2009 3:47:47 PM PDT by Namyak
I spent an hour in an alternate reality on Thursday.
In this grim place of long shadows and short tempers, paranoia is the coin of the realm.
Fear trumps fact.
Anger is virtue.
Grievance is universal. Rage is a commodity. Dissent is throatily endorsed, so long as it conforms to majority opinion.
The Mob rules here, fella.
In this alternate reality, history is malleable. If the record doesn't match the Mob's memory or support its agenda, it must be hammered into shape. Nothing is what it seems, anyway, except of course those things that really are what they seem.
In either case, expect the worst. The End has never been more nigh. Everyone really is out to get you, especially the president, a closet communist who would rather install czars than overthrow them. He is Not Like You. His God is Not Your God. He is an evil genius bent on stamping out freedom, brainwashing your kids, killing off the elderly and unborn and giving your hard-earned money to lazy, godless leeches who are Not Like You.
The Evil Genius is also a pseudo-intellectual who couldn't order a veggie burger without aid of a Teleprompter, a puppet of powerful international interests who will stop at nothing to establish a New World Order that would make Orwell's darkest nightmare seem like a bright, blue dream.
The Mainstream Media can't be trusted, either, except for a single network that tirelessly promotes Right Thinking. The Internet is also reliable, but only those Web sites the Mob has judged ideologically pure. If you really want to know what's really going on, the relentless echo chamber of talk radio is your safest bet.
One lump or two?
Welcome to the Tea Party. Pick up a sign and start shouting.
The Tea Party Express rolled into Scranton for a rally on Courthouse Square on the morning after the president's national address on health care, drawing about 500 Americans who fervently believe the nation is being destroyed from within by an illegitimate president, a corrupt Congress and millions of "sheeple" who either can't see the threat or are in on the conspiracy.
The tour, sponsored by a host of conservative groups including lobbyists for the health care and oil industries, was scheduled to end Saturday with a rally in Washington, D.C. The Scranton rally drew supporters from all over the northeast.
"He wants to be (Hugo) Chavez," Margaret Petrakis told me when I asked why she holds such distrust for President Obama. Like the Venezuelan dictator, the Republican from Tobyhanna said Mr. Obama is moving to abolish the Constitution and take control of the airwaves and the Internet to stamp out all dissent.
Jackie Leonard, 40, and also from Tobyhanna agreed, adding that once Mr. Obama has control of communications, he will nationalize major industries and the banking system and redistribute the wealth of working Americans to those who are "too lazy" to support themselves.
Both women expressed disgust with the two major political parties and said it is time for a clean sweep of the White House and Congress. The ladies said they vehemently oppose government-run health care and are also against programs like welfare, Medicare and Social Security. Self-sufficiency is the cure, they said. Charity should be an individual choice, not a government mandate.
I noticed Ms. Leonard was wearing a crucifix and noted that among the most basic tenets of Christianity is caring for the sick and the poor.
"The Bible also says 'If you don't work, you shouldn't eat,' " she countered. She was apparently referring to a verse from Thessalonians that's been getting a lot of play on right-wing Web sites of late. Citing the Bible is a tricky business. It also says you can stone your children to death for showing you disrespect, but I don't know anyone who thinks it's a good idea.
Like most of my conversations with people at the rally, my chat with the ladies from Tobyhanna was cordial and revealing. We even agreed on a few things, like Congress being "our most toxic asset" and that the middle class is being nickel-and-dimed to death. These were not the raving lunatics who have received so much media attention, but seemingly reasonable people who happen to believe some wholly unreasonable things.
That is no accident, said Bill Walsh, 78, a retired ironworker from Scranton. The registered Democrat and Korean War veteran whose curiosity drew him to the rally dismissed it as nothing more than a vehicle for spreading right-wing propaganda.
"A lot of this is just lies," he said, wondering aloud where the tea party movement was when the Bush administration was fighting a pair of wars off the books and engaging in warrantless wiretapping and torture.
"You don't hear about any of that here," he said. "They started a war on lies, and Obama was against it, and now we have to pay for it. Why don't they talk about any of that? They knock Obama for (the federal stimulus package), but do you have any idea how many people would be unemployed if he didn't put that money into the economy?"
While much of the rally was focused on killing Mr. Obama's plans for health care reform, Mr. Walsh said the true goal of the tea party movement is killing his presidency.
"They know if he doesn't pass it, he'll be in big trouble, and they're doing everything in their power to bring him down," he said. "They'll say anything, and now they've got all these people all scared and screwed up, and a lot of it is lies. It's just not right. If you want to disagree, fine, but don't come out here and lie."
What Mr. Walsh decried as lies have become articles of faith for devoted tea partiers. Some told me they watched the president's speech to Congress on Wednesday, but didn't buy a word of it. Mr. Obama's visage, smeared with the white facepaint of the Joker from "The Dark Knight," has become the face of evil.
Just about everyone I talked to at the rally insisted that the only way to save our imperiled democracy is through strict adherence to the Constitution. Not today's Constitution, with the 27 amendments that establish such subversive items like extending voting rights to women and minorities, but the original document ratified by the founding fathers.
And which of those great patriots actually penned the Constitution?
Not one of the people I asked knew. The most common answer was "Thomas Jefferson." Nope. He wrote the Declaration of Independence. James Madison, who later served as our fourth president, was the primary author of the Constitution.
I don't point this out to ridicule the tea partiers. Most Americans have never read the Constitution, which should shame us all. If you're trying to launch a second American Revolution, however, you might want to know a thing or two about the roots of the first.
It is easy to understand why the imagery of the Revolution is so alluring to the tea partiers. Many of these people truly love their country - or their vision of it - and believe it is being taken from them. They see themselves as the majority, but the results of the past few elections say otherwise. How to explain that, except that there must be an invisible hand pulling the strings of history against them?
Such paranoia in politics is nothing new, and certainly not limited to the Far Right. Many on the Far Left take it as gospel that 9/11 was an inside job, that President Bush knew Saddam didn't have WMD and that Vice President Cheney was really running the country. That last one is likely true, but you get my point, which is that the alternate reality I visited Thursday isn't the only one out there.
I walked away from the rally thinking about the answer many gave when I asked why they so distrust Mr. Obama. They pointed to the presidential campaign, when he reportedly told audiences they should judge him by the people he surrounds himself with.
Funny. When I was chatting with the tea partiers, I was thinking the same thing.
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, keeps a copy of the Constitution on his desk. E-mail: kellysworld@timesshamrock.com
>>In this grim place of long shadows and short tempers, paranoia is the coin of the realm.
Fear trumps fact.
Anger is virtue.
Grievance is universal. Rage is a commodity. Dissent is throatily endorsed, so long as it conforms to majority opinion.
The Mob rules here, fella. <<
At a Code Pinko protest, I see.
“That is no accident, said Bill Walsh, 78, a retired ironworker from Scranton. The registered Democrat and Korean War veteran whose curiosity drew him to the rally dismissed it as nothing more than a vehicle for spreading right-wing propaganda”.
...poor old, misguided, misinformed, Oprah watching, thumb sucking, government dependant POS!
Somebody call the WAAAAHHHHHHMBULANCE!
How many people is Kelly willing to feed when his Messiah shuts down the PA coal mines with his Cap and Tax scheme? Ignorance has consequences.
I noticed they had to get their little anti-Christian riff in. The most basic tenet of Christianity is caring for the sick and poor. BUT on an individual level, not forced redistribution of wealth by the government. Then it's no longer charity it's servitude.
See? They do get it!
Wow, this clown writes for a living? That purple crap would get a college freshman comp paper a D- when I was in school
It’s funny how the 52ers think they have a universal mandate.
I'm impressed. I keep one in my pocket, and refer to it occasionally. These "columnists" are so formulaic, I didn't need to actually read the damn thing to get the point. Column school must use the same syllabus from coast to coast. The uniformity of style and opinion is stultifying. No wonder newspapers are croaking at the rate that they are.
Muir_Redwoods: Wow, this clown writes for a living? That purple crap would get a college freshman comp paper a D- when I was in school
Or a hit record for lyrics by a Heavy Metal band .....
You must have been in school a long time ago. Now, any “progressive” screed will warrant an “A”, no matter how poorly written. It’s the thought that counts.
Those tea party people are out to scare you... If you don’t pass the President’s health care plan, people will die!
Tell you what, Chris, you can pay 85% of your wages in taxes if you love Obama’s policies so much....
Actually, from what I've read since Joe Wilson's comment, most of the real journalists seem to have fallen back on the old tired page from the playbook, "Play the Race-Card."
Dowd throws it around in today's NYT.
Maybe Kelly isn't that important and wasn't copied on the DNC memo.
Patriots rock.
Liberals get queasy.
The Baraqqi stampede is bogged down like German tanks in Russian winter at 40 below zero.
Now we begin the counterattack!
My thoughts exactly, except I don’t think he would have made it to be a freshman...e.g. His style merits a comparison to: The heavy green fog of the rightwingers flowed over the land like a little cat’s feet...sounds really good, huh?
The Scranton Times has always been a far-left Democrat house organ. The Lynetts, four plus generations of them have run the paper for the Democrats for decades.
There used to be an alternative voice when the Scranton Tribune was an independent paper, but now it’s all-Democrat, all the time. You don’t get a job there as a columnist unless you are irrationally hard left like this guy.
He is a good example of why it is useless trying to debate anything with these guys. They are zealots with very few smarts, just big mouths with small brains.
TWO MILLION PLUS PROTEST BIG GOVERNMENT IN DC
Looks like all kinds of regular Americans to me.
But I think this "contrast and compare" sums it up:
We The People come to Washington (Obama was out of town...or out to lunch.)
Here are pictures comparing the aftermath of O's inauguration and yesterday's march.
Post Inauguration 1-20-2009
Our side...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.