The Mad Tea Party

What a week it's been in American politics. It started a week ago today, when the House approved the health care reform bill. I must admit I'd been keeping my head in the sand on this one, not following the give-and-take and machinations of how this bill was put together, so when the vote happened, and it was all over, it was sort of like awakening to find it snowing on Christmas morning. I had been despairing that the Obama presidency was slowly being strangled by attempts to be bipartisan, but it's clear that Obama saw the light and, though there is no public option and he had to grant concessions to the pro-life wing of the Democrats, this turned out be, as Joe Biden said, a "big fucking deal."

What it will all mean is anybody's guess. I haven't had any health insurance since I was laid off more than a year ago, and I still don't, as Obama signing the bill did not magically give me any. But it fills my heart with gladness nonetheless to know that the government did the right thing, acting on the behalf of the have-nots in this country, a vote that puts many of them in peril of losing re-election. What a concept--to vote to improve the common good, regardless of the electoral consequences.

Beyond that there's been an extra degree of glee in all this, and that's watching the response of the Republican party, which has been acting like a spoiled child. John McCain, who recently ran a presidential campaign with the tag-line, "Country First" has vowed to not cooperate with the president on anything. Republicans ended meetings earlier, no doubt to go off for a long pout. It's like the kid who says, "It's my ball and I'm going home," only it's not their ball. They've been saying over and over again that Democrats are acting in defiance of the public, but that's a bad argument. The public voted, two years ago, to send a president and congress to Washington who had campaigned on health-care reform. A democracy hinges on elections, not telephone polls. If this bill is a disaster, and I don't think it is, the voters get their revenge in November. Besides, Republicans didn't heed the call of the public when they impeached Bill Clinton, despite overwhelming disapproval in the polls.

At the heart of the Republican caterwauling is something more disturbing--the Tea Party movement. Of course we all have the right to protest, but there's something sinister about the fringe that have identified with the colonists who dumped tea in Boston Harbor in 1773. For one thing, those citizens were protesting taxation without representation, while in the here and now Obama has cut taxes. No, these folks have something else in mind, a kind of knee-jerk repulsion at anything the president or Democrat congress want, in the guise of a nebulous sense of freedom and liberty. I fail to see how making sure the uninsured get insurance is any more freedom-restricting than say, the Patriot Act, but of course that reveals the true nature of these ruffians--if Obama is for it, they're against it.

In the wake of the health care bill the Tea Party has showed some ugly colors. Bricks have been thrown through congressional offices. Congressmen of African heritage were called the N word and spat on, while Barney Frank received anti-gay epithets. The rhetoric, fanned by the blasts of hot air by the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, has grown increasingly violent, while other groups have used violent imagery, such as Nancy Pelosi in flames or gun-site cross-hairs on other politicians. Beck, in a monologue of the highest lack of taste, suggested any violence was provoked by Obama himself, which is analogous to a wife-beater telling his wife, whom he has just pummeled, "See what you made me do?"

Reasonable people can disagree about policy, but the Tea Party seems to have no reason. I'm sure there are many nice people who consider themselves Tea Partiers, but there's no doubt that at the core of this all-white group is the presence of racism--these people just can't stand the fact that a black man is president. The tendency for Tea Partiers to also be birthers--those who foolishly believe that Obama was not born in Hawaii, despite the existence of a birth certificate, suggests that the prime moving force of these people is a petulant resistance to his right to govern. I've heard many of them say, "I want my country back," but this statement is confusing to me, as the country is still right where it's always been, and in fact the democracy seems to be working better than ever, as we have a president who said what he was going to do and is now trying to do it.

Their may be an up-side to the Tea Party. The Republicans have to listen to them, lest one of two things happen: the Tea Party could field there own slate of candidates, thus draining Republican votes and assuring a Democratic majority for the foreseeable future, or the Republicans have to veer hard right to cater to the Tea Party to forestall primary challenges from the right (something McCain is experiencing). This means the Republicans will abandon the middle, and the Democrats will fill the void. Since only about thirteen percent of Americans say they identify themselves as Tea Party, this means the middle is still a vast place. In some ways the Republicans find themselves in the same situation the Democrats did in 1972, when the fringes seized control of the party, and the convention showed long-haired delegates wearing dashikis. Now it's Republicans carrying guns, holding signs depicting Obama as a monkey.

I'm heartened to believe that though the Democrats will certainly lose seats in November, it won't be as bad as initially thought, as the perks of the health care bill will please many, and when death panels and a communist take-over doesn't happen, people will realize the Republicans were screaming about nothing. Obama, who faced the prospect of a moribund presidency, has been given new life, and if the economy begins to turn around could coast to re-election, particular if he faces an opponent that has been nominated by a crowd of crackpots.