Jim Stillman
Nevar
Some protesters are self-defeating
October 22nd 2009 19:58
Back at almost the same time I became old enough to vote, a candy manufacturer, Robert Welch looked at the world and saw interconnected conspiracies all with one goal: the destruction of the United States and its being replaced by something he called the “New World Order”, a force dominated by Communists, the threat of the day. Mr. Welch saws things in “black and white”; there was no room for nuance, no allowing any differing opinions. There were only four groups into which all Americans fell:
"Communists, communist dupes or sympathizers, the uninformed who have yet to be awakened to the communist danger, and the ignorant."
Mr. Welch, after a flirtation with politics and politicians, founded the John Birch Society, an organization that has grown from 11 or 12 like-minded wealthy men to a membership that the Society claims exceed 100,000 with chapters in every state. The John Birch Society has lost whatever influence it might have had and was repudiated by intellectual conservatives, such as William F. Buckley, when Mr. Welch went to extremes. According to Mr. Welch, Presidents Truman and Eisenhower were communist sympathizers and possibly Soviet agents of influence. He said that President Eisenhower was a "conscious, dedicated agent of the communist conspiracy", and that his brother Milton was the President's superior in the communist apparatus. Finally, Mr. Welch surrounded himself and his organization with notorious racists and anti-Semites.
The John Birch Society became an object of ridicule. Its members refused to support or even consider the views of the most conservative office holders; none of the conservative politicians of the day was pure enough. Like Lancelot of Arthurian legend, only the purest of the pure, the chastest of the chaste were suitable. Compare this to the rants about RINO's!
The world was one big conspiracy aimed at destroying the United States and replacing it with a United Nations-led and managed group of internationalists, greedy bankers, and corrupt politicians. If left unexposed, the traitors inside the US government would betray the country's sovereignty to the United Nations for a collectivist new world order managed by a "one-world socialist government." Anyone who professed to see worth in any other country was suspect, anyone who accepted the notion that different good people could have different outlooks was a dupe or evildoer. The Society still believes this and, accordingly, has little or no influence in the Republican Party; extremism was and is its flaw.
The lesson that is being ignored today by thoughtful conservatives is that if a group is too far outside of the mainstream it will be marginalized and any claim of legitimately.
As satirist Tom Lehrer sang,
[I]Oh, we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save our country from a communistic plot
The CIA's subversive and so's the FCC
There's no one left but thee and we, and we're not sure of thee
Oh, we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save our country from a communistic plot
Join the John Birch Society holding off the Reds
You cannot trust your neighbor or even next of kin
If mommy is a commie then you gotta’ turn her in
We only hail the hero from whom we got our name
We're not sure what he did but he's our hero just the same (© Tom Lehrer)[/
What does this bit of history mean today? What is its relevance?
The Tea Party protesters include many people who are frustrated and frightened, dismayed, and sincerely worried about their future and that of their children. Many of them are honest and patriotic and not given to illiterate signs that suggest that Barack Obama is Hitler-like, a subversive, an evil man who is determined to destroy the United States. Many, if not most, do not excuse brandishing weapons at political meetings, screaming boorish shouts to drown out elected representatives. Many, if not most, believe that Americans change the direction of the country by the electoral process and not be threats of rebellion.
But not all of the protesters are responsible. Some led and egged on by opportunists in the media have lost any hope of being taken seriously by the American public. There is some sign that the rational protesters are rejecting the loony talk of the Rabid Right. Governance is too important to be left to the Glenns, Rushes and their ilk.
Witness the repudiation of the Tea Party Express by the blanket umbrella group, Tea Party Patriots. Mark Williams, Vice-Chairman of the “Our Country Deserves Better” political action committee of the Tea Party Express, referred to President Obama as an “Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug”. Mr. Williams in September, 2008, before the 2008 election:
Our choice this November is between a man who has fought and suffered for our flag – John McCain or a man who considers our flag to be trash – the former Barry Soetoro, Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug turned anointed.
The official website of the Tea Party Patriots now recognizes that the wild rhetoric of the Rabid Fringe attaches itself to the majority of its group.
Tea Party Patriots disagrees strongly with President Obama on many issues, but we believe such statements are inappropriate and harmful to the healthy debate our country demands on challenging issues. Furthermore, Williams' antics play into the hands of mainstream media attempts to paint the Tea Party movement as a racist, radical fringe as opposed to the genuine grassroots movement representing all walks of American life that it truly is.
I have serious doubts that the Tea Parties are a result of spontaneous “genuine grassroots” efforts rather than well-organized and well-funded by interest groups and PAC’s on the Right, but that is, for purposes of this essay, irrelevant. Many of those who support the Tea Party protests believe that they are self-motivated and directed. It may be too late and their movement may be left as an empty vestige of a valid political viewpoint, sort of a coccyx, and the remnant of a vestigial tail. The point is that every time a conservative urges that Mr. Obama is (or may not be) a citizen of the United States or that his name is not “Barack Obama” but “Barry Soetoro” or that he is promoting the policies of a man who caused the extermination of 13 million people, the loyal opposition labels itself as a lunatic fringe.
Are the concerns of many protesters rational? Yes.
I can understand the anxiety and frustration of many members and supporters of the Republican Party. While the party has, as a whole, chosen a cynical and (I think) irresponsible tack to just obstruct and criticize the Administration, not offer any meaningful alternatives and then, hope that the 2010 and 2012 elections return them to power, the vast majority of Americans see a disconnect.
Most, if not all, observers recognize that our financial crisis was caused in great measure by the George W. Bush administration; we went from a budget surplus to an overwhelming deficit, financial institutions were intentionally allowed to engage in behavior that would not be permitted in a nursery school, vast amounts of money were spent on wars that may or may not have been necessary but, in all events, were not matched by revenue, taxes were reduced for the wealthy.
I do not question, here, the merits of these decisions, but the end result was an economy on the brink of depression. The Barack Obama administration infused huge sums into the economy to stave off that threat and, as a result, our deficit already at record levels has grown. Are these remedies reasonable? Perhaps only time and history will be the judge but it would seem that both parties have pandered to groups of voters or campaign contributors and neither party has been forthright with the American public and warned that benefits and “entitlements” are going to have to be reduced while we provide universally available and affordable health care and other truly essential services.
Meanwhile, the economy seems to be recovering. Sort of. The stock market is resuming its upward trend, world confidence in the dollar is increasing; on the other hand, people are unemployed, housing is still out of reach for many, foreclosures are all too common, and many Americans are insecure and scared about the future.
Many otherwise reasonable and rational people have, for the first time in the past century and one-half, advocated the violent overthrow of the United States; in other words, treason as a viable alternative to the electoral process! The Texas Governor says that his state has an absolute right to secede from the United States; there is no such “right”, at least not without a second Civil War! The angry and frustrated protesters must, themselves, marginalize the nut jobs of the Rabid Right, the “Birthers” and their brethren.
Regardless of the anxiety and frustration, they must, in the words of the Tea Party Patriots statement:
[After noting that the Tea Party Express is funded and directed by Republican political operatives], “ there is nothing improper about this type of partisanship, it is our belief that this is not what the tea parties are about. Tea Party Patriots has worked very hard to be issue oriented regardless of political party affiliation. We support our core values: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets over any political party. In order to remain non-partisan, we must separate ourselves from organizations that are partisan and are attempting to raise money using the non-partisan tea party movement.* * * We have no room for those who attack grassroots organizers, use the tea party movement for partisan political fund raising, or who go out of their way to make offensive statements that serve only to drive people away from our cause.
I have written extensively in the past that during a Republican administration there is a need for a vibrant and strong Democratic opposition. Conversely there is a need today for a strong and responsible Republican opposition. By giving credence and attention to the loudmouths of the Fox News showmen, by giving weight to the bloggers who talk about Hitler and the Nigerian birth of the president, by granting the spotlight to those whose only qualification for public office is total and absolute ignorance, by continuing the foolish conspiracy theories of one-world empires, the influence of those thoughtful people on the Right is diminished.
| 45 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
