Why the Tea Party? Why the absence of civility, what my mother called good manners?
It is the inevitable result of our devotion to various boneheaded ideologies. It makes no difference what the ideology is.
It’s time we recovered from this childhood disease of devotion to ideologies.
The incompetence of our politicians for the past few decades is to blame. They are in the game of politics but never learned the basics.
Parties play many roles. Parties can either be ideological or umbrellas. Umbrellas? An umbrella party is one that is deliberately non-ideological. It has no litmus test. If you want to join the party, come on, as long as you behave yourself.
So, why even have such a party? To help you get elected. That’s what politics is all about. If you don’t get elected, your chances of seeing any of your agenda enacted is severely curtailed.
No one ever accused George Wallace and Ted Kennedy of being ideological bed mates. But, they were both Democrats. I’m certain they didn’t relish the opportunity but when it came to endorsing each other they bit the bullet, smiled and said nice things about one another.
It wasn’t just a Democratic peculiarity. The Republicans likewise indulged. The distance between Arizona’s Senator Goldwater and New York’s Senator Javits was not merely geographical.
Given the rabid ideological posturing that has of late commanded the fields of battle, it is understandable if the behavior of those dinosaurs is perplexing. Why would they yoke themselves to people with whom they shared few, if any, positions on the issues of the day?
If you want to be a politician in the Deep South next year, your odds of success are much better as a Republican. The mirror image of that can be found in other locations.
The concept was not difficult. If you want to get elected, you position yourself to best advantage, at least as long as the others in that party are people with whom you can associate socially. They don’t have to agree with any of your policies. They just have to be willing to help you get elected and accept your help in their time of need.
Such arrangements can flourish only in an ambiance of cordiality. That atmosphere has an element of contagion. The supporters of the candidates are less likely to misbehave in public.
Two Is Enough
With umbrella parties two is all that’s necessary. Everyone, excepting the loonies, can find a home. The result is stability. Yes, I know that stability often translates as no change. I prefer to see it as allowing for deliberation and providing time for adjusting to changes. Although, the Great Depression proved alacrity was not forbidden when the times and events demanded.
Let me reminisce. I think it was in the 1980s when I took a look at Italy’s postwar political situation. The numbers may be slightly off, but only slightly. After about 39 years, the Italians had endured 37 administrations. There is a reason. Ideology. It produced a couple of dozen parties.
People seem never to be satisfied with just disagreeing. Catholics and Protestants disagree. Baptists and Presbyterians take issue with each other. Foot-washing Baptists don’t see eye to eye with Snake-handling Baptists. To some extent, the closer you are, ideologically, the more apt you are to produce another schism. Once you start splitting along ideological lines it’s just as difficult to stop as eating potato chips.
Hence, 37 administrations in about as many years. Political instability can lead to paralysis in the operation of a government. Do you commit to a significant project based on the orders of someone who will not last as long as the planning stage?
It was so bad that every few months the Italian post office would take all of the undelivered mail, bulldoze it into large piles and set it ablaze. Remember that the next time you complain about government efficiency.
We can see the beginning of that counting to 37. We have a Tea Party. Well, really, we have several tea parties. Seemingly, no one is ideologically pure enough to satisfy the rabid. They really don’t understand politics. They really don’t give a fig for democracy. They just want their way. They want to take their country back. Back from whom? From people who actually respect the concepts to which this nation has for so long been devoted?
Perhaps they should be speaking of giving the country back to the original inhabitants.
Are You Up For Some History?
We know that Michele Bachmann and St. Sarah are estranged from history and facts. That may be a requirement to belong to one of the tea parties. My first degree being in History, I have a fidelity to facts. Therefore, I will never be qualified to wear those silly outfits.
The original tea partiers dress as Indians. I probably would have tried to conceal my identity had I been involved. I guess that means I would have behaved cowardly too. If they weren’t Indians, who were they? Were they performing an act of patriotism for their fellow man’s liberty and posterity? Well, the answer has to be no.
Ninety thousand pounds of tea was dumped. Was it because of the tax? No. Really? Really. There were two reasons, neither was taxes.
The colonists were buying more tea from smugglers than from the East India Company. They wanted to change that. Parliament wanted to help. They passed the 1773 Tea Act. This was meant to accomplish the two things the Company wanted. First, it would give more emphasis to the Company’s monopoly. Sellers needed a license to legally sell tea.
The Company shipped tea from China and India to England, then to the colonies. A tax was collected for landing in a British port. The Tea Act eliminated that tax. Why? So that the Company could sell their tea for a lower price than the smugglers and the unlicensed sellers.
Now, can you guess who the ‘Indians” were? Just a hint: they were smugglers and unlicensed sellers.
Not all of their fellow colonists thought very highly of them. It was more than six decades before they first called it the Boston Tea Party. It was known as “the destruction of the tea.” That doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. For the most part, those who were around at the time didn’t consider the destruction of property laudable.
Many condemned their little party; Ben Franklin forcefully so. He insisted that the cost of the tea must be paid.
This was an act that was unnecessary and not indicative of the general mood of the colonies. New York, Philadelphia and other ports simply boycotted the tea. That tea was returned to England.
My Way – Or Else
So, what do we have? We have people who know no history. We have people who don’t understand politics. We have people who don’t like democracy. Despite their uninformed claims, they have no allegiance to the Constitution. They are missing any fraternal feeling for their fellow Americans. They are not patriots. They are spoiled brats.
Obviously, that is not a description of everyone who feels some sympathy for their averred aims. Americans, perhaps 98% of us, have good reason to be upset with our lack of influence on events. The Tea Party is not an acceptable response.
We don’t need these fake populist groups, funded by the plutocracy and corporations. We don’t need this distraction from the real, basic issues. We don’t need simplistic policies based on lies and ignorance.
I don’t appreciate being used and otherwise ignored by those running the country. However, the only alternative is not to be threatened with a gun by an ignorant bully who despises the things I cherish. Some make a lot of noise under the guise of patriotism and other laudable banners. Others put an unwarranted trust in those claims.
I would rather see them spend more time learning the facts, including historical ones, than making fools of themselves.
Look that up in your Funk and Wagnell’s.
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