All across the country thousands of people are attending "tea parties" today to protest...something. There are all sorts of reasons but the primary motivating factor appears to be nothing more than frustration at the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street, between Washington and the rest of the country, between what we were and what we've become.
I understand. Trust me, there is probably no one more frustrated than I am at all that has led us here.
But, I am afraid that the entire "tea party" movement is much ado about nothing. Republicans (one half of the very reason we've arrived at this point) are doing all they can to hi-jacked the "movement" in a bid to take back power from the Democrats (the other half of how we got here). It's the same game, all over again. The fact of the matter is that Americans protest the same way they give to charity - without getting their hands dirty. Myself included. Standing in a park for an afternoon, listening to speeches, and waving American flags might make us feel better, but that's about it.
The fact of the matter is that most Americans live hand-to-mouth and can't take time away from work to engage in any serious protesting and we certainly aren't about to break any laws to do it. The "tea parties" will be held where they are told to hold them and will begin and end when their permits allow - certainly not the spirit in which the original tea party occurred. In fact, the more involved the various established political parties and local governments become the more it begins to look like some Orwellian "Two Minutes Hate."
I can't help but feel that the people that are supposed to be getting the message are laughing.
Maybe I am wrong and this is the start of a real shift in the American political landscape. I certainly hope it is. If so, my apologies for being late (fashionably?) to the party. But, all indications are that it is just another verse in the same tired song we've been hearing for decades and, until I see evidence to indicate otherwise, I've got better things to do.
2 weeks ago
3 comments:
Saw a bumper sticker today that, I think, sums up your point: Republicans/Democrats...Same s**t, Different piles.
We don't want to break any laws in protest because we are all afraid of our government and what they will do to us. They decide they can abuse our rights and do with them what they will, and what are we going to do about it? Nothing because we're terrified.
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - TJ
Given what I've been reading in the "torture memos" we apparently have very good reason to be afraid.
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