I heard some Tea Party types interviewed on NPR the other day. Very calm, very rational, very scary to me. What would a Tea Party government look like? I don’t think it’s much of a threat, but advance guards currently serving in congress such as John Boehner and “fellow travelers,” offer a bit of insight. So do the demonstrators at various Tea Party related events and some of the more notorious, foxy, media commentators.
What comes to mind is a nation that would be controlled by a small, angry elite espousing extreme nationalism and restoration of a hierarchical racial equilibrium. Constitutional guarantees that were seen to undermine security would be trampled underfoot. Vigilante justice meted out by a well armed public would result in violence beyond any imagination. Federal programs, particularly social programs, would be reduced or eliminated to drastically reduce the tax burden. The result would be an even more dramatic shift of wealth to one end of the population spectrum, an immediate deterioration of the national infrastructure, an end to academic freedom and research, and, perhaps much to their surprise, an enormous increase in poverty, poor health care and lack of education among the very people the Tea Party movement seems to appeal to. In its place would be a privately owned corporate superstructure working each for their own purposes in an environment of cross manipulation with each other and those representing government. It would be a form of corporate socialism far beyond anything we might think exists today. In short order America would join the ranks of other corrupt and struggling nations.
Fortunately, I have enough faith in the American electorate to believe that is an unlikely scenario. What really troubles me is that the advocates of that sort of thinking don’t seem to recognize how much they have in common with people such as Mussolini, Peron, and the petty dictators of the infamous “Banana Republics.”
This would make a wonderful NYT Op/ed article!
Of course, you would want to spell check your title before you sent it to the Times:)
Of course, CP, Don't forget that so many dictators in \”Banana Republics\” lean to the left.Can you say, \”Hugo Chavez\”
Now, now Allan. You are thinking of the NEW dictators of what used to be banana republics. I'm thinking of the old time dictators who were essentially fascist and in cahoots, at least by legend, with USA based banana and other produce companies. However, there comes a point when far left leaning socialists and right leaning fascists pretty much end up in the same place, separated only by a low level picket fence.CP
Thank you SS. I changed the spelling to it's proper form: Gum'int.
Actually, there are those who have argued that fascism is not right leaning at all, but just another version of extreme leftism. I have never read the arguments, but I know they have been made.I freely admit that there are some real wackjobs who are part of the Tea Party movement, but I do think you protest a little too much about the dangers. I think there are plenty of people who are sympathetic with the movement who are much more reasonable in their conceerns.