I watch these “tea partiers” in a bit of amazement, trying to get my mind around their “message,” but it makes so little sense that I keep coming back to the same place.  I’ve seen their signs – OVER AND OVER – and, the way they depict our sitting president can leave no other conclusion except they can’t stand a Black president.  When they say “we want our country back” – what the H are they talking about?  Back from who?  Didn’t president Obama win the last election with 53% of the vote?  I’m not all that “on board” with Obama’s first year in office myself, but my discontent has to do with disagreeing over some of his decsions.  Are these “tea partiers” so stupid that they don’t understand what impression they’re leaving when they carry signs depicting our president as a monkey?  Or as someone with a bone through his nose?  Come on, most of these people are reputed to be educated, older Americans.  I’ve even had a bit of a commentary going with one of the lessor known of the right wing “water carriers” for the corporatocracy the republican party is trying to cram down our collective throats, Lars Larson, and he made a comment that my “playing the race card” indicated my argument was weak.  This is EXACTLY how they operate – they put a racist sign in your face and when you call them on it, they claim you’re “playing the race card.”  This is classic psychological projection.

According to the theories of Sigmund Freud, psychological projection is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one “projects” one’s own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings, and so on onto someone else.  That’s the only explanation I can come up with for these “tea partiers” – who have been incited by Fox “news,” Dick Armey and “Freedom Works,” and political windbags like Michelle Bauchman and Sarah Palin (OK, a little psychological projection on my part :o).  How else can you explain people who supported George W Bush and Dick Cheney calling Barack Obama a “fascist,” a “communist,” or a “socialist.”  (personally, one of my disappointments in Obama is that he’s not more of a socialist).  And, most of the other objections coming from these people are a bit curious – to say the least – as well.

Let’s talk about the budget deficit – which was heavy on the minds of many of the “tea partiers” based on reports I heard.  Now, there’s an area where I could easily agree with them.  However, where were these people from 2001 until 2009 when George W Bush turned a $250 BILLION dollar surplus (with prospects for paying off the debt in 10 years) into a $1.2 TRILLION dollar deficit – PER YEAR?  Of course, to make matters worse, Bush also drove the economy into the “ground,” leaving it teetering on the brink of another “Great Depression” when President Obama took the oath of office.  Obama had NO CHOICE but to stimulate the economy in an effort to re-energize the jobs market which was shedding jobs at the rate of close to a MILLION jobs per month when he took office.  In the eight years Bush was in office he had the worst job creation record in American history – well, since records started being kept in 1939 (this is according to that left wing “rag” the Wall Street Journal).  If Obama can cut the deficit in half in his first term it will be a miracle – but that will still put it at something over half a TRILLION dollars per year.   And, these “tea partiers” who either have NO MEMORY or are DISENGENUOUS will still be blaming the deficit on Obama.  I’ll say it again, where were these people when Bush/Cheney handed the surplus given to them by Bill Clinton over to the top fraction of one percent of earners in this country.  This was “Deja vu all over again” – like the Reagan tax cuts on steroids.

And, of course, one of the ways we reduce the deficit is to pay taxes.  Coming from a position years ago where I had no income I’m always grateful when I pay my taxes that I now have income.  This is a great country to live in and one of the reasons we have such a high standard of living is the taxes we pay for the services we receive.  It almost seems as if some of these “tea partiers” want to receive the services without paying for them.  The truth is that President Obama included a middle class tax cut in his “stimulus package” that reduced the taxes of something like 95% of wage earners in America.  I know that my taxes were less this year than they were the previous year under George W Bush.  It’s HIGHLY LIKELY that almost every one of the “tea partiers” (with the exception of the instigators – like Palin, Armey, Beck, Limbaugh) paid less tax last year than they did under Bush.  But, where were they when Bush was cutting taxes for the hedge fund BILLIONAIRES, the heirs to the Walmart fortune, the Wall Street bankers the “tea partiers” (OK, the taxpayers) bailed out (under Bush/Cheney/Paulsen) while leaving their taxes the same, and running up this huge debt?  None of this makes any sense – until you start looking at their signs.

There’s more.  These “tea partiers” and their “incitors” like to wave the constitution around as if they’re worried they’re losing their rights.  OK, I’ve got to ask the same question again – where were they during the Bush/Cheney administration?  I mean, I would have been right there with them while Bush/Cheney were suspending Habeous Corpus, wiretapping American citizens without warrants, torturing “enemy combatants” so that they would have to be held in detention without charge indefinitely because any evidence was corrupted and non-admissable in any civilized court of law, politicizing the justice department, outing a covert CIA agent (as punishment for someone telling the TRUTH about their lies), sending American troops into “harms way” based on lies, lying before Congress (and then refusing to even testify before Congress), and gutting the regulatory system leading to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the Wall Street meltdown, and just recently the West Virginia mining disaster.  Where were the “tea partiers” when all of this was going on?

Can you just imagine the blowback during the Bush/Cheney administration had someone carried signs of George W Bush with a bone through his nose or some of these other signs (Yes, I understand those signs wouldn’t mean the same thing with a white president – so picture the signs suggesting an image of Hitler superimposed over the presidents face)?  I mean, I remember a woman being arrested in Denver Colorado at a venue where Bush was giving a speech because of something written on her shirt.  Yes, it was “anti-Bush” – but, it was simply words and SHE WAS ARRESTED!  The overt, blatant, RACISM coming from these “tea partiers” is getting over the top.  And, people like Larson who continue to encourage them – and then claim that people like me are using the “race card” is nothing more than the above mentioned psychological projection.  Now, I have no idea what kind of things Lars Larson, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh (that’s a compliment for you Lars – mentioning you with the “big boys”) say in private – but their support and encouragement of these people carrying these signs on the public airwaves and throwing around their “code words” is race baiting – pure and simple.  And, Lars – while you’re telling me my argument is “weak” explain to me who they’re planning to “take THEIR country back” from.  Honestly, that is about the stupidest claim I’ve heard in my adult life.  Isn’t it MY country too???

You certainly didn’t hear me saying that about George W Bush – despite the FACT I went from disagreeing with him to loathing him by the time he left office (actually, the loathing was probably more aimed at Dick Cheney – but that’s a post for another day).  (come to think of it, when Bush was supposedly going after bin Laden – I was totally supportive)  It was very difficult watching someone who was proving himself incompetent on one situation after another.  But, the truth is that I never wished for him to fail.  I wanted Bush to succeed because we’re ALL AMERICANS.  His failures have had a huge impact on almost all of us (well, except for those people at the “top” who were the financial beneficiaries of his policies) – “tea partiers” included.  I honestly don’t blame them for being angry at our government.  However, allowing themselves to be sucked in to believing the problem is Barack Obama is BEYOND ABSURD!  When I listen to leaders like McConnell, Boehner, Palin, McCain (sadly, at one time I believe John McCain would have been the person – who we desparately need at this time – to speak some sense into this republican “nightmare”), Romney, and others incite these people with the racist signs – evidently thinking there’s enough of them to “take back the government” – I believe the republican party is in for a rude awakening come November.  Yes, people are angry – and, for good reason – our government is filled with corruption, but – despite my disagreements with Obama – our sitting president seems to be the only one in Washington acting like an adult these days.  His even-keeled demeanor, his steady push toward centrist solutions to our problems, and his brilliant political mind – I believe – is going to leave these “tea partiers” and, therefore the republicans who are inciting them, wanting as 2010 rolls on toward November.

I won’t relive my disagreements with Obama at this point, but I have to say that I’ve seen a much more confident – and combative – president since the health care “reform” was passed.  The republicans have managed to draw a lot of attention to themselves during all this debate – and it’s been lost on NO ONE that there have been less than a dozen republican votes for anything Obama’s proposed since he took office.  Therefore, as things start to turn for the better, even the “tea partiers” will be able to figure out why.  I believe President Obama has the republicans backed into a corner at this point.  They are going to vote against ANYTHING and EVERYTHING Obama proposes.  Next up will be the re-regulation of Wall Street.  As stated in my last post, Mitch McConnell is already setting up the battle lines in the senate.  If his republican “sheep” stay in line, we will soon have the republicans defending the Wall Street banks they bailed out during the last months of Bush/Cheney with another in their endless threats of filibuster.  I HOPE that the democrats come to their senses on this one and FINALLY allow them to REALLY filibuster – that is – roll out the cots (and the TV cameras) and have the “endless debate” which is what a filibuster is supposed to be.  As republicans filibuster reform of Wall Street, Americans will be reminded of who created the MESS we’re all dealing with in the first place!