Tuesday, August 31, 2010

"The Waterworld of White Self-Pity"

Christopher Hitchens just wrote a brilliant article about Glenn Beck and the Tea Party on Slate.com, that I highly recommend you read.

Hitchen's basic premise is that tea partiers perceive themselves as an oppressed minority, and seek to reverse the advances of other oppressed Americans, because they fear losing their white privilege. He writes,

In a rather curious and confused way, some white people are starting almost to think like a minority, even like a persecuted one. What does it take to believe that Christianity is an endangered religion in America or that the name of Jesus is insufficiently spoken or appreciated? Who wakes up believing that there is no appreciation for our veterans and our armed forces and that without a noisy speech from Sarah Palin, their sacrifice would be scorned? It's not unfair to say that such grievances are purely and simply imaginary, which in turn leads one to ask what the real ones can be. The clue, surely, is furnished by the remainder of the speeches, which deny racial feeling so monotonously and vehemently as to draw attention.

I love that last part about how much the speeches focus on a denial of racial feeling as to make you question why. Methinks thou doth protest too much.

Are Tea Partiers really going to win in November, as they constantly boast?

Tea Partiers pretend they are an oppressed minority, while at the same time they brag about how they are going to win in November. According to a CBS News poll, 84 percent of Tea Partiers believe they represent the views of most Americans, but overall Americans disagree: 25 percent say the Tea Party represents their views, while 36 percent say it does not.

The Tea Party wants to have it both ways: they claim are both an oppressed minority (89 percent white according to the poll), AND at the same time they are the majority of voting Americans.

Something's got to give. My bet is that all this braggadocio about winning in November is nothing more than boastful bullying. Let the Tea Party be the minority they claim to be - they are the last gasp of a dying population: bigoted, fearful, and exclusionary.

Win in November? Hardly. Not if we GOTV.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Beck's Rally, and the Spiritual Foundation of the Christian Taliban

Recent news articles - including those on left leaning publications - have been marveling at the fact that Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally delivered a "Religious, not political message."

Really? Anyone who writes about politics and claims this event was more about religion than politics needs to have their head examined!

They are forgetting one of the most important things about politics: All politics is moral. This rally attempts to build a religious underpinning to Beck's radical political ideas.

It attempts to blanket his followers politics under the cloak of religion, much like the way the Taliban cloaks their radical politics under religion.

We know what these folks believe, by now there should be no question about it. They have radical ideas that subvert our constitution. They believe they are the only true Americans, and anyone who disagrees is to be treated like an enemy. They believe they are at war with anyone who disagrees with them. They believe only their ideas have validity, and they are willing to engage in extreme measures - such as armed revolt - to enforce their far right ideology.

So when Imam Beck and the former Republican vice presidential candidate stand before this crowd and talk about Christianity, it must be noted they are talking about a very specific kind of Christianity: it does not include you or me, or anyone else who takes a different view. It is no less than the beginning of a spiritual foundation from which to grow an American Christian Taliban.

"Not political?" Give me a break!