Entitlement
This one passage from AG's communication with Josh really stuck out
to me.
So it's not just Wall Street that feels entitled. It's whites from main street
up to Wall Street who had the last say on everything for so long and are now
in decline. And the Election of Obama drives this point home like a nail right
through their gut. They know it and it is just too much for them.
They hate it - they hate Obama and they hate the progressive establishment
that got him elected. The whole thing just sticks in their craw.
C
to me.
However, it was an angry group with a real sense of absoluteBecause they are WHITE. And it's being taken away by a Black.
entitlement. Something not focused on by many. This sense of
entitlement that they deserve to be the dominant deciders and
that it's being taken away.
So it's not just Wall Street that feels entitled. It's whites from main street
up to Wall Street who had the last say on everything for so long and are now
in decline. And the Election of Obama drives this point home like a nail right
through their gut. They know it and it is just too much for them.
They hate it - they hate Obama and they hate the progressive establishment
that got him elected. The whole thing just sticks in their craw.
C
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Interesting thoughts, but the link doesn't work. The more I see of the "grass-roots" movement, the more I tend to believe that race is playing a huge role in all of this anger.
It's such misplaced anger, considering how rapidly and disastrously this country declined during the Bush years. Entitlement may be one factor, but I don't think we can ignore the race issue any longer.
September 13, 2009 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fixed link.
C
September 13, 2009 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree C, and I like the new pic.
September 13, 2009 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not sure how much overt racism plays into their overall message (I'm sure it does with many individuals) but you're absolutely right that this radical fringe resents being sidelined by what they see as the radical left taking away their freedoms. After 8 years of cheering on Bush and co, to do just that, it boggles the mind. And that they see the DC Dems as extremists would be funny, if it weren't so sad.
But I think these are just some of the emotions and prejudices that are being played by corporate interests. They can quote Reagan because they're appealing to the same fears that these mostly ignorant people hold. Reagan proved these people can be manipulted by the least little bogus offense and led like sheep.
Look at who is, in practice, leading the teabagggers. It is Dick Armey and FreedomWorks, a group organized and supported by various lobbies. It's a massive effort. They called my elderly neighbor four times (and she's a Democrat). It's not the same as large grassroots orgs like MoveOn calling for action; a real protest from the bottom up.
The problem is we have no answer. Grassroots groups only feebly calling for action. We've had two rallies in the town closest to me, which the local news only mentioned in passing. The antiwar movement has for the most part, folded their tent, with the exception of Cindy Sheehan. The fact that Obama and the Dems are the ones we elected and they have folded on most issues, leave the liberals and left divided and stagnant.
What do we do? Do we protest against our own leaders where they are compromising the public interest away? Do we march in support of them because they are at least in the right place rhetorically and do want some kind of reform across the board? I'm asking because I don't know.
PS How are the accomodations in your new digs #6? I understand the appointments are very nice indeed.
September 13, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree that we are seeing more latent racism being expressed and that corporations and wingnut leadership is using and manipulating whatever fear, etc that they can stir up to get them serving their ambitions. A wingnut army of sorts.
I am incredibly sick of the attempt by many to dismiss the real racism and other extreme acts of hate with the excuse that because we talk about these things we are painting 'all' republicans as hateful extremists and racists. I, for one, am not doing that, I don't believe that all are republicans are racists and hateful extremists.
But I do believe that this extreme fear and hate combined with racism and other intensely held polarizing beliefs 'have' to be talked about or they will simply become explosive and acted out in more destructive ways.
September 13, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually Sync this kind of goes along with a comment I made to LisB's blog.
That a lot of this nonsense on the the right is an attitude thing - theirs and their reaction to ours.
C
September 13, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, sync. I didn't mean to imply that racism is not there and I'm certainly not excusing or trying to bury it. It is, and it's being exploited. I just think that there are probably too many teabaggers, many who are just frustrated libertarian anti-big government/individualist types who would be put if by the overt racism.
I read that signs were being carried yesterday depicting Obama as a "witch-doctor." I have not been able to locate any pictures but that sounds flat-out racist, and if these signs were passed out by the organizers then I'm wrong. The group that originally organized the teabaggers in the summer ("Our Country..." something) seemed even more extremist than this FreedomWorks group.
Either way, I think these people with whatever prejudices and hatred they have are just being used to defeat health care right now. They'll be used to defeat anything not in the corporate interests in the future.
I totally agree that racism needs to be exposed for its own sake but also because it will completely discredit them. But we still need to fight the ideas being disseminated that any government program or policy is socialism and the Dems are radical leftists with Obama as some kind of tyrannical dictator. It sounds so silly as to not even require a response, but this is the message spread through the RW media and groups like this.
September 13, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of that poster, I didn't see any news photos of it from the rally but here is one at this Arizona "freedom" group's site and there are many variations on the "theme." That is about as disgusting as it gets. It would be in any situation, but this is the President of the U.S. I know Bush was portrayed as Alfred E. Newman or a monkey man, but this is a different thing entirely.
Maybe this stuff has been out there, and I've missed it. These are people who claim to be the real America. Thankfully, they are a lunatic fringe (true-believing freepers and dittoheads). But the teabagger movement is something else. I can't see an organic grassroots movement just sprouting up over a plan to lower health care costs. There is a lot of money stoking this fire.
September 13, 2009 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
C, if you're right (and I suspect your are), we'd all better buckle in for a bumpy ride. Because this country's demographics are going to be changing dramatically over the next 40 to 50 years and the sense of white entitlement is going to be more and more replaced with white disenfranchisement. The current public conversation about race and racism seems to go a little something this this: "Point: It's racist; Counterpoint: You're stupid to think it's racist; Counter-counter-point: Well then you're racist too." Unless we figure a way to get a little more mature and a little more forgiving in our conversations about it, at some point the powder keg will blow.
September 13, 2009 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink