Teabaggers Scared Shitless of Globalization
I read this in the Financial Times a week or two ago. I can’t remember if it was a column or a letter to the editor. Basically, the teabaggers’ paranoia runs a lot deeper than we know. They’re not just lashing out at socialists and swarthy minorities. There’s so much more.
(And since the Financial Times is polite and proper and all that, they didn’t use any derogatory terms like “teabagger.”)
The endless slogans about America being “Number One,” “unique in the world,” a “beacon of light” — Manifest Destiny in other words — this is deeply, deeply ingrained in the teabaggers’ belief system. The rest of the world is just a big blob of socialists, peasants and people of Other Religions. America is Different. Special.
The teabaggers are clinging to America’s uniqueness and superiority just as doggedly as they’re clinging to their guns and religion.
It’s absolutely imperative that America be separate from that global faceless blob. Preferably, of course, we should be in complete control — Domination! — over those faceless Other countries. But in any case, we must Never EVER be just a small part of that global melting pot of Other countries.
And unfortunately for the teawads, this is exactly what’s happening. Globalization; the global village; the flattening of the world. Whatever you want to call it, it’s Here. Now. And this trend is going to keep on accelerating, exponentially, whether anyone likes it or not.
G8, G20, the World Court, the IMF, the U.N. — it must be unbearable, intolerable, that America has to deal and negotiate with these international bureaucrats. And it’s just gonna get more and more like this.
If you’re a teabagger, the excruciating but undeniable fact is: America is not “unique,” “Number One!” or “God’s Chosen Country.” It’s just a country. No more; no less. There are about 200 countries in the world — give or take — and America is just one of them. We’re just a cog in one big (but not necessarily happy) global family. Get over it.
Tea Party, meet Ghost Dancing.
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:35 PM
10 Comments:
And now that some of them are about to flex their muscle in DC, they will soon discover that they are under the elephant's asshole and the consequences of that locale.
Off topic, the promised petition to replace Harry Reid is now online.
The right wing follows a certain christian philosophy that parallels Exodus that says white people are the chosen people, God favors the Rich and America is the chosen promised land. Never mind who was already there. I'm reading this in books like "The Family"
Erik
Yep. In Klanbagger circles, it's only the white American who is a "real" American, as Mama Grifter herself is fond of pointing out.
Tom, I'd agree with much of what you say, but I'd bring the cause much closer to home. A lot of these Tea Slaggers are, it would seem, racists, scared about the browning of America, and their impending demotion from the #1 demographic spot. Cause and effect: What made this particular Tea "brand" start steeping now? Could it be not only those demographic shifts, but also the fact that we now have a BROWN-SKINNED President?
All this fuss and bother over the Tea Leaves-Us-Alone crowd is much ado about nothing, in my opinion. In a couple of years, those elected will either have been assimiliated into the lamestream Republican party, or will be so marginalized within the House and Senate as to be voiceless and invisible. Those who voted them in will still be angry, and will move on to something else, someone else. There will be no ongoing, long-term Tea Party.
If you don't believe me, just ask Ross Perot.
Hey, if a giant planet was about to land on your head, you'd be scared, too. Not everything from outer space is a UFO, just most things!
The teabaggers are clinging to America’s uniqueness and superiority just as doggedly as they’re clinging to their guns and religion.
Ah, a Linus' blanket for none too well informed. And to think, they're not even showing that many John Wayne movies on the tube any more.
". . . we should be in complete control — Domination! — over those faceless Other countries."
Yeah, like the average tea bagger is in complete control over his boss, landlord and banker.
Most tea baggers aren't even aware — yet, anyway — that they're the unwitting tools of the Koch brothers, lobbyist and Republican pol Dick Armey, Karl Rove, etc.
In a best-case scenario, they will get wise to that reality and the reality of America's situation. Those non-Caucasian rich American folks have more in common with the growing class of wealthy industrialists, entrepreneurs, investors and government leaders in China, Japan, Korea, India and elsewhere than they do with crazy ladies with tea bags hanging from their hat, and Joe Sixpacks waving signs with ugliflied pictures of Obama. Maybe then there will be a reckoning.
Once again the rubes have fallen for the plot of the elite. War is peace, wrong is right and give all your money to the rich for that is your salvation. Some where Orwell chuckles from beyond the grave.
The baggers will reap what they have sewn. I just got a heads up on another Christian Louboutin store opening up, possibly up to 5 and they are not opening up here in the USA. China, India, Dubai because of the growing middle class in India and China are getting the luxury goods market. Yeah I know what you are saying, but Jess those are only shoe shops. Maybe, but they are shoe shops that are selling their goods in a growing market and making money hand over fist doing it. I was reading an article last week, about the American dream vs the European dream. Guess which one is the better dream right now? If you said USA, you would be entirely wrong. I think it was Der Speigel, I'll look back and post if I find it.
Germany, China and I forget the other place right at this moment, are gaining on the US as exporters. Brazil, Brazil was the other place. We need to get back in the business of making good products and getting into that Chinese and Asian market before we are passed by.
Once the baggers see what is being done they might get it, hey it could happen. I think it is Wisconsin that has turned down money for a high speed rail construction. Illinois has said give us the money, we'll do it. Ray La Hood(trans sec) has said the money can only be used for rail purposes. Kasich in Ohio another one, wanted to use it to bolster up his states fund for transportation and La Hood said nope, has to be used for rail jobs.
Christie in NJ, rail jobs gone. Good thing about that project, it was being shared by NY/NJ so Cuomo has said he wants the money and the workers from NJ can just commute since it isn't that far.
Now the baggers might see other states getting money, getting jobs and changing their minds. Again, it could happen couldn't it? It's just too bad that these people see the America of the 1800's when it was growing and think we can go back to the era IMO. Not going to happen.
The teabaggers are clinging to America’s uniqueness and superiority just as doggedly as they’re clinging to their guns and religion. Very well put! Of course the guns/religion culture is conducive to that feeling of uniqueness & superiority. It's hard to separate the teabaggers from, say...crazy gun totting religious Muslims. It's a pity they can't see how they are more like the rest of the world then not.
TC: I signed the petition. I don't know who I want instead of Reid, but it has to be somebody with a spine.
Erik: They use lots of cherry-picking to come up with that "Christian" philosophy. The Family -- those people are sick.
JR: The teabaggers' world will be yanked away from them when they become the minority race.
Third Party: The teaslaggers (I like that word) are definitely motivated by racial prejudice. But I had no idea that that "American Exceptionalism" bullshit was so entrenched in their beliefs and values. When the world continues to get smaller and more intertwined, the teabaggers' reality will be shattered.
I think you're right that the teabaggers in Congress will either get marginalized or they'll just get sucked into the mainstream GOP.
Randal: Yup, that explains it.
SW: I don't know if the teabaggers will ever get wise to the fact that they're just tools. They're so brainwashed by now, they automatically yell "Socialism!" whenever somebody tries to level the playing field. Whenever anyone tries to explain what's really happening, the rightwing talking heads will shout "Higher Taxes!" and "Government Takeover!" and the teabaggers fall right back under their spell.
I hope this will change.
Demeur: I don't think even Orwell ever dreamed it could degenerate this far.
Jess: I've read that same thing, that several of those European nanny states actually have a lot more financial mobility than the U.S. We all grew up with the cliches about "in Europe, if your father was a shoemaker, you'll have to be a shoemaker too," and the Horatio Alger archetypes and all that. And now we're finding out it's bullshit, that most Europeans have a better chance of pulling themselves up from the gutter and "making something of themselves" than Americans do.
I can't believe the NJ governor nixing that tunnel project. And I don't know if teabaggers will ever "get it" or not. Too many news stories about legislators and governors slamming the stimulus package and then taking part in ribbon-cutting ceremonies for projects that were made possible by the stimulus.
Rita: You're right, those teabaggers would freak out if they knew how similar they are to rabid Muslim fanatics.
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