Shakespeare was right! (New Rule #10)

 

New Rule #10.  We must acknowledge that many Tea Party members have actually stopped thinking and have  now become simply mindless sycophants for persons who actually loathe them.

I am beginning to believe that the Tea Partiers as a group  are one of two things and not much else. Either they are 1: the most regressive bigoted scare and hatred merchants on the planet who will stop at nothing to hurt anyone who feels differently, or 2: simply too naive (I almost said stupid) to understand plain English. Oh, I know;  you're thinking, " Mike what do you offer in support of this assertion?

         Let's forget for a moment all the vile anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-Black President, anti-science, hate oriented campaign rhetoric and  whatever else offensive they have done ever the last year. Let's try and forget the mental vacuums that are Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh  and Rick Perry. Even more challenging, try and forget that nagging feeling that a cadre of political hacks has hijacked a group of  gullible working class people and actually convinced them to campaign against their own best interests. Let's try to forget that they have done all of this while stridently advocating for exactly the kind of candidates who believe that the American Dream means what it meant in 1885; that the rich are better, smarter and should continue to prosper, while working class folks should support a government which disdains their interest.

          Along the way, ignore the fact that America's demographics   have changed markedly, that women have the vote, and worst of all, further the outright lie that The Obama presidency has placed more on welfare (false), and passed laws (yeah,  I know, Congress passes laws, but the Tea partiers want to blame the president) to give away government monies to the undeserving, all demonstrably false. To cap it off, campaign on the premise that the Obama sponsored bailout (significantly smaller that the Bush TARP) did nothing for the economy, and then when The President is reelected, blame it on the improved economy!   

          Instead of all those plausible proofs of Tea Party ignorance (or stupidity, take your choice) I offer the latest affront to common sense. The Tea party's assault on  Bob Costas as ultra-liberal for echoing the anti HAND  gun sentiments of a columnist who writes for FOX Sports. Fox sports is run by the darling of the Tea Party, Fox News. In spite of their position as, along with MSNBC on the left, the most  biased media outlet in America, they actually have one or two fair minded, apolitical sports writers on the payroll. Jason Whitlock's column following the lamentable murder suicide by a 25 year old football player was the basis for a Sunday  statement by Costas, echoing the (African American) FOX Sports writer's stance that hand guns and ammo are too easy to obtain and that far too many lives are lost  by their use in America. Costas in fact referred to the column and quoted from it.

          Well, you say, obviously the Tea Party's paramilitary wing, the National Rifle Association, took exception to this and blasted Whitlock and Fox for disloyalty to the cause. Naah, they ignored them and crucified Bob Costas, the preeminent sports broadcast journalist of his era.  Several acquaintances of mine, some soon to be defriended, have joined this cacophony of stupidity, actually leaping, presumably,  to the premise that Costas can singlehandedly outlaw hunting in America.

          This handgun discussion never was, never has been, and never will be about hunting. Saving hunting is just the refuge the NRA takes when attempting to justify any efforts by sane persons to make it harder for a lunatic to gain access to teflon bullets, AK-47 assault rifles, huge banana clips,  and any other weapons someone might use to say...shoot a congresswoman, kill students at Va. Tech, cause a bloodbath in a theater, kill peaceful Sikhs because you think they're something else, jack up Trayvon Martin, etc.  None of this was the result of an angry hunter turned rogue. I am actually old enough to remember when the NRA was what they claim to be. Those days are long gone. The NRA is now, as is Fox News, simply a radical arm of the far right. If these persons had any answers instead of hateful social fascism, they might be worth a listen, but woefully, their litanies are, as Shakespeare put it in The Scottish Play, "A tale told by an idiot, filled with sound and fury, and signifying nothing"