“AFTER OUR DISGRACEFUL BEHAVIOR ALL YEAR, WHAT COULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE, THAN TO WEAR EGG ALL OVER OUR FACES.”
photo from The Satirical Political Report
2009 -- the year Americans proved just how arrogant, cruel, big-headed, rude and bombastic they can be!
Locally, I give Kathy Kershner the baffoon of the year award for posting comments on blogs and websites that are highly critical of Americans who have lost their jobs, health care and homes to the great recession.
She deleted one or more of the sites and posts just before she filed to run for the County Council on a platform of hearts and chickens. After all, you don't want the voters to know what you really think!
Now, I support every American's right to voice an opinion about the government. But I draw the line when those same individuals publicly attack and ridicule their neighbors and other Americans for no other reason, except that they enjoy being cruel and inhumane to people who are less fortunate than they are.
Heads up local social service providers! Kathy Kersher, a social service professional herself, may not be very receptive when you appear before the county council to seek funding for badly needed assistance progams.
She doesn't believe that we should be providing food, shelter or medical assistance to Americans in need.
After all, if your unemployed, you must have done something bad to get there. It couldn't be a company closure, rift, or the great recession that created a hardship.
You see, Teabaggers and their supporters think it's cool to blame, name call and punish other members of the community for what they call "government excesses."
Can't pay your mortgage because of the recession... move into a tent!
It's not hard to find local examples of their cruelty and backwardness. Last fall, a well dressed 19 year old woman testified before the county planning commission on land use. The man sitting next to me, (who disagreed with the young woman politically), stated loudly, "I bet she doesn't have a job!"
Actually, she does. And, she is also a full time college student. The young woman was the target of the teabagger's hatred and intolerance for other people's beliefs.
And, as I discovered last night, being a contributing member of the community doesn't protect you from ridicule either. Even if you pay taxes, it is assumed you get them all back in the form of a refund, which also makes you a non-contributing member of society. Never mind that I have spent years signing the front side of paychecks. (That business provided more tax write offs than any job I ever held). There are some really sick people out there!
"The hatred was palpable today on the State Capitol's steps. Hatred for taxes, hatred for government, hatred for state workers, hatred for teachers, hatred for Democrats, and hatred for all of the straw men that leap from the imaginations of talk radio jocks. But the most hated figure of all at today's "Tea Bag" anti-tax rally in Sacramento was President Barack Obama." Joseph A. Palermo - reporting from the Teabagger hatefest in Sacramento.
The crowds at Tea Party rallies are largely white, very Republican, and on the "older" side. At many of these gatherings, the crowds chanted in unison: "No More Bail Outs! No More Stimulus! No More Taxes!"
At one rally, An elderly woman on a scooter -- I wonder if Medicare paid for it -- had a sign affixed to her chair: "If I wanted Socialism, I'd Move to Europe."
On the Bellingham Tea Party website, visitors are offered a list of slogans that tea party proponents say capture many of the principles and issues that Tea Partiers believe in, and are concerned about. According to the author, they make good sound bites, tweets and Tea Party signs, too! (Portable hate)
- Armed and Dangerous--WITH MY VOTE
- Born Free, Taxed to Death
- Cap and Trade = Trap and Raid
- Congress: Read the Constitution
- Cut Government Spending; Fire a Politician
- Debt is the Problem; How Can it be the Solution too?
- Don't Bail Out The Boat; FIX THE LEAK
- Don't Mortgage my Child's Future
- Don't Stimulate; Liberate
- DOWNSIZE D.C.
- Government Doesn't Create Jobs...They Cremate Jobs
- Got Money? Don't Let the Government Know
- High Taxes + Big Government = SLAVERY
- HONK for Capitalism
- HONK if I'm paying your Mortgage
- I Am an American and I vote
- I will keep my Freedom, my Guns, my Money
- If Everyone Paid Taxes...We Would All Be Equal
- If You Think Health Care is Expensive Now, Wait Until It's Free
- If You Voted YES to Spending, Consider this your Going Away Party.
- I'm Taking Back My COUNTRY; One Politician at a Time
- Just Say NO to Socialism
- Kick 'em Out in 2010
- Let the Free Markets Work
- More Government for The People = Less Freedom of the People
- Next Time, Read the Bill Before You Sign It.
- No Public Money for Private Failure
- Our Congress IS a TOXIC ASSET
- Pay for your OWN Mortgage
That pretty much sums it up.
It remains to be seen if the Tea Bag phenomenon can be sustained or if it is just a one-time Republican gimmick.
But Kathy Kershner is right about one thing -- the teabaggers will be remembered in history-- as some of the most spiteful, hate-filled, cruel people to ever line the streets of America.
Welcome to America's hall of shame!
You and I will clearly disagree on policy. Fair enough. But I'd like to offer a factual correction...
ReplyDeleteThere are two different Tea Party movements.
One is definitely, as you say, Republican, and has gotten substantial media coverage from both Fox and MSNBC.
The other is a movement of disaffected Americans who would describe themselves as Independent or Third Party. They think both parties -- yes, the Republicans too -- are part of the problem.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteAgain, I don't have a problem with the Tea Party movements. What I have a problem with is Tea Party members ugly behavior towards other Americans who have been adversely impacted by the financial crisis and economic recession.
Your anger shifted from the government to the people.
Big mistake if you wanted to build support among the population.