You knew it was a matter of time: Psychology Today is here to tell us what makes the Tea Party tick. I think the piece is both insightful and bizarre at the same time.
Insightful:
Psychologically speaking, however, it offers relief from helplessness and a sense that things are falling apart. It offers a sense of cohesion and identity based on certainty, a commonality of interests, innocence, and even martyrdom. While the world of the tea-party'ers is filled with danger, it is a danger mitigated by moral certainty, clarity of purpose, and a definable external enemy.
The "problem," then, is not the paranoid story line but the anxiety, helplessness, and pain that generate it. And that pain is not irrational or crazy. It's real. We all feel it. Most of us do feel helpless in relation to the most important aspects of our lives, from the nature of our work to its security, from our politicians who are on the corporate dole to those perpetuating gridlock through their narrow ideology, from the quality of our health care to its availability, and from the isolation and loneliness of everyday social life.
The piece by Michael Bader makes the point that I completely agree with, which is that people who've lost their job or who are frightened by conditions in America right now deserve empathy -- these are folks who in making cases are looking for answers and are turning to the simplistic ones oftered by the likes of manipulative folks like Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. The only sane approach is to offer these people a better alternative, as opposed to heaping scorn, which is very bad politics but more importantly bad humanity. The "Teabagger" joke was funny for a day or two when some of the protesters naively called themselves that, but people who still call them "Teabaggers" now are hurting their own cause, greatly.
And so the thing I find bizarre about the article is a purported plea for empathy with such a condescending tone, especially this part: "I hate these folks but I also understand them." Huh? How can you empathize with someone and hate them at the same time? I do have tremendous contempt for the extent that racism is involved in the Tea Party movement (based on what I've seen, that would be a lot for a few and a little for some more) -- but at day's end individuals should be judged...as individuals.
I've also wondered if it's over-the-top to call the right-wing movement "The American Taliban," as Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos will do in a coming book. I would say generally, yes, it is over-the-top, but not when referring to this alarming group called Repent Amarillo:
An evangelical Christian hate group called “Repent Amarillo” is reportedly terrorizing the town of Amarillo, Texas. Repent fashions itself as a sort of militia and targets a wide range of community members they deem offensive to their theology: gays, liberal Christians, Muslims, environmentalists, breast cancer events that do not highlight abortion, Halloween, “spring break events,” and pornography shops. On its website, Repent has posted a “Warfare Map” of its enemies in town. Calling Repent an “American Taliban,” blogger Charles Johnson notes that the group’s moniker “Army of God” is a rough translation of “Hezbollah.”
The only thing I would add to this is, wow! The original piece on Repent Amarillo is here.
Comment removed.
Jughead, you just proved a point -- thank you (sort of).— will- Comment removed.
- Will, let me help you. You're just confusing yourself by trying to over-analyze concerned citizens who realize that politicians are out of control. They aren't representing us; in fact they're working against us. But you're confused because, as a member of the punditry, you feel that citizens should just accept the two-party special-interest politics as usual. Pundits haven't noticed, but it's not working for the rest of us. Will, take a deep breath and try some stronger coffee.— Falls Ed
- Comment removed.
- also just like a republican candidate for the texas governership who hauled in 18% of the primary voters...jus saying the crackpots come from both ends of the spectrum.— nj2az
From "The Times Online": "The evidence that human activity is causing global warming is much stronger than previously stated and is found in all parts of the world, according to a study that attempts to refute claims from sceptics. The “fingerprints” of human influence on the climate can be detected not only in rising temperatures but also in the saltiness of the oceans, rising humidity, changes in rainfall and the shrinking of Arctic Sea ice at the rate of 600,000 sq km a decade. The study, by senior scientists from the Met Office Hadley Centre, Edinburgh University, Melbourne University and Victoria University in Canada, concluded that there was an “increasingly remote possibility” that the sceptics were right that human activities were having no discernible impact. There was a less than 5 per cent likelihood that natural variations in climate were responsible for the changes."- Comment removed.
- Wow, Gualt. You're just crazy. Anyway, great post, Will. I'm very close-minded to anything on the right wing. I never thought of approaching the tea party from a psychological, humanistic point of view. After dealing with some real pain, tragedy, and loneliness in my own life, perhaps I should try to see that the other side feels the same things, even if our solutions are different. I am terrified of where the right wing is trying to take this country, but I honestly never considered the fact that it may be some of the same fears that lead them to the opposite conclusion.— HandNik
So the author starts from the assumption that liberals live in "reality." Is that the reality where government creates wealth? Nowhere in any Econ book is that taken as "reality." When government spending as a percentage of GDP passes 18% growth slows to 1%~1.5%. We're at 22% and heading towards Greece levels of 26% by the end of Obama's term. It looks like indentured servitude is making a comeback. That's not paranoia, it's reality.- Comment removed.
- I still have a job, in fact I am as financially secure as I've been in 20 years. But, since the early days of the Bush II administration, I have seen the disconnect between the Constitution and our government. Obama has only exacerbated this notion. I think there are others, like me, who feel that regardless of party, our country is slowly being lost to "big government" types of both parties. This feeling amongst the citizenry started long before Obama, Palin, Glenn Beck and even before Bush. Americans have come to realize that the lesser of two evils is still evil. America is waking up.— Mark Glaeser
Yes, of course. It's not Obama, or spending , or liberalism that's the problem. It never is. It's just that people are afraid. Liberals need to explain things better because our under-developed brains are just not grasping these heady ideas. But somehow, us neanderthals are winning every battle against a government dominated by liberals. All that brain power in Washington can't get us in line. It must be frustrating. Now excuse me while I practice walking and chewing gum at the same time.— jmc- Will, the only thing the TPers feel helpless about is the amount of debt the government is racking up. They understand that govt cannot solve our problems, and that spending aove ones means is poor economic policy.— RG
- Good point Mark. Many continue to mis-interpret Bush's negative numbers as a repudiation of conservatism, when in reality much of his negatives were driven by his "non-conservative" pursuit of the growth of government.— Mirror
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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