As children we were often told that "sticks and stones can break your bones but names can never hurt you". Today's kids are told to "use your words". But in fact names can be hurtful and words can incite the less stable, more paranoid members of society to engage in destructive verbal games and even resort to sticks and stones.
When a caller to a morning show warns that "the brown-shirts are on the march" it is clear the radical right's fear-mongering has reached the weak links among us. Others accuse the Obama presidency of being a socialist enterprise. Obviously these people don't understand the terms they use or realize they are being played by political opportunists who stake out provocative positions to advance their personal agendas.
In tandem with wacky media pundits their alter egos are represented by elected officials like Minnesota's manic Michele Bachmann who is organizing "tea-party" protestors across the nation. Apparently Bachmann and her confederates fail to grasp what the Boston Tea Party was all about. In the 1700s protests reflected colonial anger at being required to pay taxes to the British government; the cry then was "no taxation without representation". Throwing that tea into Boston Harbor was a forerunner of what would become our Revolution a few years later. The thing Bachmann, et al seem not to have fully absorbed is that these days we elect our very own government, elections being the means by which the American people ordinarily seek redress for their concerns.
When Bachmann says her supporters are "armed and dangerous" she comes close to encouraging insurrection. With the country in a fragile state, and anger growing in the countryside, her ‘call to arms' is a reminder that the right to free speech doesn't extend to ‘crying fire in a crowded theater'. Guiding an imperiled audience to an orderly exit is the primary goal, not inducing a stampede that could lead to injury or death.
There must be something in the air out there in Minnesota. Norm Coleman continues to dispute the November election of Al Franken. Republicans seek to deny him his Senate seat with one legal challenge after another, something Texas Senator Cornyn says and, undoubtedly hopes, could take years, and the Party is apparently prepared to finance that process. As court decisions in Minnesota repeatedly fail to support his positions, it is rumored that Coleman may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. One can only hope that, after their shoddy and much-criticized performance in 2000, the Supremes would have the good sense not to hear the case if it is brought to their door.
It may have been too much to expect that the November election would usher in a period of civility in Washington, in light of the serious issues the country faces. But instead of being willing to examine problems from a fresh perspective, the minority assails the notion of "change" as something almost un-American. Their budget alternative seems to assume an economy, already recovered, in which Republican ideals of tax cuts and smaller government could once again be taken seriously.
Freezing discretionary government programs and scrapping the stimulus package are antithetical to the spending most experts feel is necessary to revive the economy. Their plan would, however, extend unemployment benefits, funding that South Carolina Governor Sanford, Louisiana Governor Jindal and Texas Governor Perry have all said they would refuse. Perhaps the "strings" to which these men object have been removed from the Republican budget proposal.
But it isn't only the lack of substance and factual departures that stain the reputation of the minority and its advocates and create an unhealthy vituperative atmosphere in Washington and around the country. There's a level of antagonism, antipathy, envy, whatever it is, that animates the opposition, as exemplified by Bernie Goldberg's virulent and irrelevant book entitled A Slobbering Love Affair - -The True (and Pathetic) Story of The Torrid romance Between Barack Obama and The Mainstream Media.
At the beginning of the campaign McCain was considered the media pet, but even dedicated journalists can be excused for failing to be inspired by his shopworn rhetoric and sleep-inducing events. Clearly the press follows ‘the story' and Obama was and continues to be the story; besides, ‘gosh darn it, people like him'. The Democrats fielded a bright, charismatic, hard-working candidate - - no apologies for that. As for slobbering during the campaign, most of it was by love-starved men ogling Sarah Palin.
