TEA PARTIERS (NIHILISTS);

 

 

REPUBLICANS, AND DEMOCRATS;

 

 

WHAT IS NEXT?

 

            In one of the six pages that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (our little State’s behemoth daily) still allows our local (Rogers Morning News), on February 15, 2010, the News ran what was truly a frightening opinion piece by a gentleman named Robert D. Werner, a “local” resident from Bella Vista, Arkansas.  Mr. Werner, a well-spoken, clearly intelligent man, painted, while perhaps not knowing it, a truly terrifying portrait of one of the possible “futures” that awaits our beloved United States.  Some may believe it trite to use the expression “perfect storm“, but if we carry Mr. Werner’s thoughts expressing disgust with all things political and fiscal just a little further, that expression seems to best describe the forces that have coalesced within the U.S. in the last seven to nine years–which have already led to an almost completely fractured American society.  The only meaningful question that remains is whether President Obama will somehow be able to pick up the reins of government, overcome the Tea Party doomsayers, awaken the strident naysayers of the Republican Party to the new reality, and provide a degree of focus and real leadership to his own Democratic Party?

 

          At present we have over-whelming National debt, primarily amassed in by the Bush Administration in fighting two wars on money borrowed from the autocratic regime of China, but also steadily added to by the “Californiaesque” passion of so many Americans to routinely demand more in public services (and earmarks) than can possibly be paid for by the taxes that they will agree to pay.  The latter is not a recent phenomenon that can be laid at the feet of either President Bush or President Obama.  That, folks, is just the way, or direction, we as an entire People have long been heading…with California, fortuitously, demonstrating what awaits us all if we do not bring a little common sense to bear.

 

          What are the forces that have collided to bring about the storm?  In our current roiling, even raging society, we now have:

 

          a.) a Democratic Party with an awareness of much of what is wrong with American public policy, e.g., a financial system controlled in truth by a few super-wealthy and often unprincipled plutocrats who, in shorthand, we have all come to describe as “Wall Street” which–along with  many unprincipled real estate lending firms and brokers–sparked a state of economic recession with a “real” unemployment and underemployment rate approaching twenty per cent of our workforce; a privately funded healthcare delivery system–mightily defended by the plutocrats–for that that is where they obtain much of their revenue!!!–which is the most inefficient yet most expensive among all “Western” nations; an Internal Revenue Code that, ironically, exacts from both the wealthy and the middle class fewer taxes (as a percentage of GDP) to run our society than any other Western Nation; and we are entangled in two foreign asymmetrical wars and a violent, long and draining contest for survival with a radical form of Islam;

 

          b.) a Democratic leadership which I believe is well-intended and desires to tackle each of these problems, and many others, but which has been totally unable to take control of the direction of policy and fulfill what were the dreams of a strong majority of Americans but thirteen months ago–despite holding over-whelming majorities in both the House and the Senate;  we must ask, “Is this due to hubris or lack of experience at the top?”; “Is it because the Pharmaceutical and Insurance industries have bought too many Democrats as well as Republicans?”; or, “Is it because there is, in fact, no true Democratic Party as we read of in the daily newspapers, but, really, is it really but a dysfunctional group of a number of competing sub-parts, such as the “Blue Dogs” (who are but Lions (Dixiecrats?) in Lambs clothing), which Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are unable to manage?”; and, finally, “Is it a Democratic leadership which, because of its rarely exceeded numerical superiority, stupidly determined to carry out but a pretense of bi-partisanship which does not in fact allow for real input from the Republican Party?”      

 

          c.)  a Republican Party that knows that it is without the numbers to enact any ideas or programs of its own and which has now, because of that, simply abandoned any consideration of the welfare of America and Americans, and which has, instead, simply determined to obstruct any and all ideas or proposals of the Democratic Party–so as to eventually be in control of whatever remains of America;

 

          d.) a Republican Party which also continues its ostrich-like, surreal policies of ranting in rhythm, despite the unemployment numbers and already ruined lives, that anyone who wants to work can always work; of screaming that the Democrats (who are supposedly ill-disguised socialists!) want to destroy capitalism and America!; who rage about Democrats wanting to re-distribute the wealth of America by using the Tax Code to take our money “away from us and give it to the poor;” which is itself a party composed in large part, in many parts of the Nation, of persons who paint politics and everyday events, even to this day, in terms of xenophobic, racist myth; which, as well, persists as a Party of subterfuge which has successfully laid many of its own failures at the feet of the Obama Administration, so as to be able to paint the latter as ineffective (the Senate filibuster rules play a large role in even making this possible); and, finally, it is a Republican Party which is openly “owned” by the plutocrats (and their K-Street” middle-men) of whom we speak above; and,

 

          e.) an anomalous group of millions of Americans, former Democrats, former Republicans and former Independents who call themselves “Tea Partiers,” which neither major Party has yet figured out how to “handle”, but which can be characterized as disaffected, disgusted, angry and clearly dangerous to any degree of stability in American government; while I am certain there are many capable, intelligent persons behind this nascent political organization who might ultimately bring it into some sort of order, simply put at present, the “face” of this nihilistic movement now are but the personalities and total lack of experience and intelligence evoked by “Joe the Plumber” and Sarah Palin! (It makes one wonder if Ross Perot is still around?)

 

          I am among the first to say that these so-called Tea Party folks (who were, oddly enough, given their original impetus by former Speaker Dick Armey’s “FreedomWorks” group–a plutocrat organization if there ever were one!!) have a lot to complain about; but in order to be effective as a populist movement, whatever their goals may be, they must bring to the forefront some meaningful and dependable leaders; for to simply yell, scream, and cheer in rallies and accumulate truckloads of endorphins is not a formula for determining and effectuating public policy for a powerful yet needy nation of three hundred million persons.

 

          You will recall I mentioned the “perfect storm” earlier.  The points listed above are the elements that have coalesced to comprise it. But the really fearful part is that if the Democratic Party does not somehow awaken from its disastrous slumber, this storm may result in a United States that will have become a form of “failed state,” one without direction, one without clearly defined leadership and which cannot govern itself–somewhat like the semi-functioning nations of Italy or Greece.  We must expect more of ourselves than that–regardless of what one might think of the mantra of “American Exceptionalism” which our super-patriots plant upon our shoulders!  Otherwise we will not make it in whole.

 

Don Switzer

Rogers, Arkansas

(c) February 15, 2010