The tea partiers have their talking points, which they
repeat loudly and forcefully (and often misspell). But I wonder if they�ve actually
really thought about the points they�re parroting. I suspect not.
They rail against �Obamacare� and anything else that the
White House (and Pelosi and Reid) might advocate, even though their protests
fly in the face of their own best interests.
In repeating their talking points, here is what they�re
really saying to the Obama administration and Congress:
- How dare you force
insurance companies to cover my preexisting conditions?
- How dare you not allow the
insurance companies to drop my coverage when I get sick?
- How dare you try to
regulate the financial industry that got us into this economic mess so
that they�ll be less likely to repeat the same greedy mistakes?
- How dare you pass a
stimulus bill that has created some 3 million jobs so far?
- How dare you expect the
wealthiest 2 percent to pay their fair share of taxes even as you extend
the tax cuts for us middle-class folks?
- How dare my tax dollars be
spent on your �socialist� agenda? (Of course I will gladly take advantage
of our socialized fire departments, police departments, schools, roads,
bridges, and clean water.)
- How dare you try to
restrict more offshore oil drilling that could lead to even more
environmental disasters like the recent BP oil spill? (As our Saint Sarah
says, �Drill, baby, drill!�)
- �Illegal� immigrants are
stealing all the great lettuce-picking jobs.
- Oh, and keep your
government hands off my government-run Medicare! (Huh?!)
Absurd stuff in an absurd political environment.
Which is what makes me believe that they�re not really
thinking about their talking points. Instead, it seems, they�re only reacting
to the brainwashing by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the
conservative fear mongers who indulge these people�s intellectual laziness,
fuel their fears, and dictate their thoughts.
And it all boils down to the following:
- How dare you elect a
president whose skin color does not match mine?
- Many of our ancestors
immigrated here without papers, but they were white. We don�t want more
brown people.
- I want my white-controlled
America back.
- And I�ll demonstrate in
front of the Lincoln Memorial, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King�s most famous speech, to show
the world just how frightened I am!
Perhaps saddest and most frustrating of all, I�m sure they
don�t even see the irony.
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and
activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a
former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights
group Amnesty International, and her views appear regularly in a variety of
newspapers, magazines, and websites. Note that the ideas expressed here are the
author�s own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty
International or any other organization with which she may be associated.
E-mail: mary@maryshawonline.com.
