The Spirit of 912
Sorry I dropped off the grid yesterday. I spent the day catching up on some chores that went undone while I was disabled and following the progress of Glen Beck's big 912 Tea Party. The one that was supposed to capture "the way *we* felt on the day after 9/11." I'm sure you all remember how the entire country went into a criticizing the president mode on that day. But that aside, just what exactly these *tea party patriots* are protesting still remains rather murky. The NYT asked them.
The Beck-Limbaugh-GOP- et al. agenda is pretty clear. As this interview on CNN notes Republicans Are Stoking "White Racial Resentment" and it's working all too well.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
“I want Congress to be afraid,” said Keldon Clapp, 45, an unemployed marketing representative who recently moved to Tennessee from Connecticut after losing his job. “Like everyone else here, I want them to know that we’re watching what they’re doing. And they do work for us.” [...]Actually, it's not all that murky. When they say "everything" they really mean they can't stand that the Democrats not only won the election by a wide margin, but did it by running a black man. I'll do a separate post with the photos, but what struck me about a lot of the signs is their slogans were ripped directly from Glenn Beck's tirades. And he didn't even show up to his own rally.
Ruth Lobbs, 57, a school teacher from Jacksonville, Fla., said she flew to Washington on Saturday to protest how she believes the government has violated the Constitution. She said she did not vote for the president, adding that her anger has been welling for years.
“It’s more than Obama. This isn’t a Republican or a Democratic issue,” Ms. Lobbs said in an interview, as she held a yellow flag that declared, “Don’t Tread on Me.” “I don’t know if anything will come of this or not, but this is a peaceful way of showing our frustration.” [...]
Ms. Davis said that no single issue prompted her to come to the capital, saying, “It’s everything.”
The Beck-Limbaugh-GOP- et al. agenda is pretty clear. As this interview on CNN notes Republicans Are Stoking "White Racial Resentment" and it's working all too well.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
posted by Libby Spencer at 2:28 PM
3 Comments:
It's easy to spot the original signs. They're usually painful to read like "Obama is a Muslin"
I think it's a big thrill for the little minds to have a ready made opinion and an occasion to shout it and maybe get on TV, but before the parrot starts squawking tu quoque, I know - it's a very human thing and a good part of the 60's protests were also a fashion statement.
But that was then, this is now. Those who opposed the Vietnam war were a majority. Now we have a ragtag fringe group, many illiterate claiming to be "We the People"
My favorite comment was on our local news, an old man telling the cameras that the government couldn't turn a profit on Medicare, Medicaid or social security, so how could it ever run health care? You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.
It's pathetic.
It's an indictment of our public education system that so many of our citizens apparently grew up without having learned the skill of critical thinking.
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