Posted on 09/13/2009 6:00:30 PM PDT by Born Conservative
I spent an hour in an alternate reality on Thursday.
In this grim place of long shadows and short tempers, paranoia is the coin of the realm.
Fear trumps fact.
Anger is virtue.
Grievance is universal. Rage is a commodity. Dissent is throatily endorsed, so long as it conforms to majority opinion.
The Mob rules here, fella.
In this alternate reality, history is malleable. If the record doesn't match the Mob's memory or support its agenda, it must be hammered into shape. Nothing is what it seems, anyway, except of course those things that really are what they seem.
In either case, expect the worst. The End has never been more nigh. Everyone really is out to get you, especially the president, a closet communist who would rather install czars than overthrow them. He is Not Like You. His God is Not Your God. He is an evil genius bent on stamping out freedom, brainwashing your kids, killing off the elderly and unborn and giving your hard-earned money to lazy, godless leeches who are Not Like You.
The Evil Genius is also a pseudo-intellectual who couldn't order a veggie burger without aid of a Teleprompter, a puppet of powerful international interests who will stop at nothing to establish a New World Order that would make Orwell's darkest nightmare seem like a bright, blue dream.
The Mainstream Media can't be trusted, either, except for a single network that tirelessly promotes Right Thinking. The Internet is also reliable, but only those Web sites the Mob has judged ideologically pure. If you really want to know what's really going on, the relentless echo chamber of talk radio is your safest bet.
One lump or two?
Welcome to the Tea Party. Pick up a sign and start shouting.
The Tea Party Express rolled into Scranton for a rally on Courthouse Square on the morning after the president's national address on health care, drawing about 500 Americans who fervently believe the nation is being destroyed from within by an illegitimate president, a corrupt Congress and millions of "sheeple" who either can't see the threat or are in on the conspiracy.
The tour, sponsored by a host of conservative groups including lobbyists for the health care and oil industries, was scheduled to end Saturday with a rally in Washington, D.C. The Scranton rally drew supporters from all over the northeast.
"He wants to be (Hugo) Chavez," Margaret Petrakis told me when I asked why she holds such distrust for President Obama. Like the Venezuelan dictator, the Republican from Tobyhanna said Mr. Obama is moving to abolish the Constitution and take control of the airwaves and the Internet to stamp out all dissent.
Jackie Leonard, 40, and also from Tobyhanna agreed, adding that once Mr. Obama has control of communications, he will nationalize major industries and the banking system and redistribute the wealth of working Americans to those who are "too lazy" to support themselves.
Both women expressed disgust with the two major political parties and said it is time for a clean sweep of the White House and Congress. The ladies said they vehemently oppose government-run health care and are also against programs like welfare, Medicare and Social Security. Self-sufficiency is the cure, they said. Charity should be an individual choice, not a government mandate.
I noticed Ms. Leonard was wearing a crucifix and noted that among the most basic tenets of Christianity is caring for the sick and the poor.
"The Bible also says 'If you don't work, you shouldn't eat,' " she countered. She was apparently referring to a verse from Thessalonians that's been getting a lot of play on right-wing Web sites of late. Citing the Bible is a tricky business. It also says you can stone your children to death for showing you disrespect, but I don't know anyone who thinks it's a good idea.
Like most of my conversations with people at the rally, my chat with the ladies from Tobyhanna was cordial and revealing. We even agreed on a few things, like Congress being "our most toxic asset" and that the middle class is being nickel-and-dimed to death. These were not the raving lunatics who have received so much media attention, but seemingly reasonable people who happen to believe some wholly unreasonable things.
That is no accident, said Bill Walsh, 78, a retired ironworker from Scranton. The registered Democrat and Korean War veteran whose curiosity drew him to the rally dismissed it as nothing more than a vehicle for spreading right-wing propaganda.
"A lot of this is just lies," he said, wondering aloud where the tea party movement was when the Bush administration was fighting a pair of wars off the books and engaging in warrantless wiretapping and torture.
"You don't hear about any of that here," he said. "They started a war on lies, and Obama was against it, and now we have to pay for it. Why don't they talk about any of that? They knock Obama for (the federal stimulus package), but do you have any idea how many people would be unemployed if he didn't put that money into the economy?"
While much of the rally was focused on killing Mr. Obama's plans for health care reform, Mr. Walsh said the true goal of the tea party movement is killing his presidency.
"They know if he doesn't pass it, he'll be in big trouble, and they're doing everything in their power to bring him down," he said. "They'll say anything, and now they've got all these people all scared and screwed up, and a lot of it is lies. It's just not right. If you want to disagree, fine, but don't come out here and lie."
What Mr. Walsh decried as lies have become articles of faith for devoted tea partiers. Some told me they watched the president's speech to Congress on Wednesday, but didn't buy a word of it. Mr. Obama's visage, smeared with the white facepaint of the Joker from "The Dark Knight," has become the face of evil.
Just about everyone I talked to at the rally insisted that the only way to save our imperiled democracy is through strict adherence to the Constitution. Not today's Constitution, with the 27 amendments that establish such subversive items like extending voting rights to women and minorities, but the original document ratified by the founding fathers.
And which of those great patriots actually penned the Constitution?
Not one of the people I asked knew. The most common answer was "Thomas Jefferson." Nope. He wrote the Declaration of Independence. James Madison, who later served as our fourth president, was the primary author of the Constitution.
I don't point this out to ridicule the tea partiers. Most Americans have never read the Constitution, which should shame us all. If you're trying to launch a second American Revolution, however, you might want to know a thing or two about the roots of the first.
It is easy to understand why the imagery of the Revolution is so alluring to the tea partiers. Many of these people truly love their country - or their vision of it - and believe it is being taken from them. They see themselves as the majority, but the results of the past few elections say otherwise. How to explain that, except that there must be an invisible hand pulling the strings of history against them?
Such paranoia in politics is nothing new, and certainly not limited to the Far Right. Many on the Far Left take it as gospel that 9/11 was an inside job, that President Bush knew Saddam didn't have WMD and that Vice President Cheney was really running the country. That last one is likely true, but you get my point, which is that the alternate reality I visited Thursday isn't the only one out there.
I walked away from the rally thinking about the answer many gave when I asked why they so distrust Mr. Obama. They pointed to the presidential campaign, when he reportedly told audiences they should judge him by the people he surrounds himself with.
Funny. When I was chatting with the tea partiers, I was thinking the same thing.
Liberal atheist nut cases trying to tell Christians what is in the Bible (WITHOUT ever reading it).
What I have read and understood from the Bible is that God and Jesus wants us to help each other by using our own time, treasure and talent and to give from our hearts ("Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." - 2 Corinthians 9:7). Nowhere have I found anything along the lines of "Go out and institute huge bureaucracies that will take money from some people at the point of a sword and give that money to other people as a politician sees fit."
In this grim place of long shadows and short tempers, paranoia is the coin of the realm.
Fear trumps fact. ETC.
Is this guy a drama queen or what?
uh oh!! we’re all nuts! They are desperately worried!
Why is it that libs ALL SOUND THE SAME?? All you have to do is read the first few lines to realize where this thing is going? They ALL SOUND THE SAME!! It’s like a freakin’ cookie cutter. And they all think they’re being clever. And original. AAAAAA!!!!!
Many libs are misinterpreting what they are seeing. But that’s ok, because it gives time for this movement to reach critical mass.
The Sleeping Giant is awake, and boy is he pi$$ed. And that Sleeping Giant isn’t just “right wingers”; it’s Democrats, working class citizens, the elderly...
When have we ever seen the elderly protest to this extent?
Dear Chris Kelly,
We like you. We will kill you last.
(signed)
The Taliban
Yeah, but that comes after Thou shalt not steal
PS I think you’re exactly right. Liberals like to pass their individual Christian responsibilities off on government.
It's amazing how the moonbats sometimes really do hit the nail squarely on the head by talking about us but describing exactly who they are!
Ya see most of the Christians I know do not think it is the governments responsibility to care for the sick and the poor.
It is each and every persons responsibility. We are not to turn your back and let the government do it.
Sounds as if he was at a dem rally.
Chris,
“You lie!”
eggs-actly!
“I spent an hour in an alternate reality on Thursday.”
I spent 5 minutes in an alternate reality just now by reading this jerks opinion piece.
Scranton is a very blue-collar area, and reading the Constitution is probably not high on many peoples’ To Do list. Also factor in that teaching The Constitution is left to NEA members. ‘nuff said.
It seems however, that he is the one experiencing systems of paranoid schizophrenia. He talks to absolutely no one during his hour long excursion in a "grim place of long shadows and short tempers" as he puts it, experiencing nobody's temper but his own, or the one belonging to a voice in his head. Only he knows for sure.
He should seek some professional help however. This hour long excursion of his, and all the paranoid delusions he describes while out of the safety of his mothers basement, was simply a walk outside the safety of his 4 walls to pick up the morning paper.
Oh the horror of being Chris Kelly. Living in fear of American citizens every day of his life.
where’s the barf alert?
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