Millions of folks have in some fashion or another, associated themselves with the Tea Party movement. They're usually more elderly, more schooled and more white than the average voter; but mainly they're more angry. Psychology tells us anger is a secondary emotion. So the question becomes -- what's really igniting the anger?
At the historical heart of it has been Americans' traditional fear of unseen government power (AKA, King George III). It was only a matter of time before fearful/angry colonists from Patrick Henry to Sam Adams to George Washington took up some of the same complaints we hear from the marchers today. Only today's rage has no King to hate. So it's found alternatives like banks and immigrants and most of all a plotting president from Kenya who intends to take us from Monarchy directly into Fascism.
During the American Revolution only about a third of the colonists were looking for a fight. Today it's more like a fifth. No matter the percentage, the protest is just as intense. Fueled especially by fearful fictions that have replaced inconvenient facts. For example, the fiction that government is raising our taxes (the facts from the Congressional Budget Office are the average American pays 20,7 % of their income in federal taxes, a figure that has not risen in 30 years). Or the fiction that government is meddling with our Social Security & Medicare (the facts are the government is not meddling but managing them for us). Or the fiction that the new health bill creates death panels (the facts are nowhere in the entire 1200 pages does such an idea ever appear).
But look -- 21st C Americans are really no different than 1st C Romans, 7th C Arabs, and 20th C Germans. Fear is a powerful emotion, and there are always so many things to fear in this life. Fear understandably translates into anger with something, anything out there that's scaring us. In such plights it is perfectly clear why we hunger for a savior. The Romans got Caesar...the Arabs got Mohamed...the Germans got Hitler.
Who's left...? Sarah? Glenn? Rush? Well, they've certainly made themselves available!
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Me thinks the tea party rage is made up of younger people,not older. Reminds me of the riots in Chicago at the Democratic Convention long ago. Those people were angry also. In the ad biz it is commonly known if there is response to a query or something questionable, the response interest ratio is something like 1 to 100. The rage tells me there are a lot more people with the same anger but it is inconvenient for them to act or participate. I am one of those but at this point in life? This country's problems are the problems created by all politicians and accompanying financial institutions. They are forever trying to solve them. It is known as job security for those lowly people.
ReplyDeleteJerry, these problems are truly "the problems created by ALL politicians and financial institutions." More than just one or the other party.Now if we were 30 years younger....
ReplyDeleteJust an observation, but anger is a Primary Emotion (see Parrot (2001)). Don't know if that effects your argument or not, but thought you might like to know.
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