If you want to know what tea bagging is all about, watch John Waters' film "Pecker."
“It would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country,”
Sarah Palin, splitting infinitives but not the GOP.
This movement of Republican zealots ought to stir progressives to form a counter movement. Make no mistake-- the tea baggers are Republican to the core and any attempt by Democrats, blue dog or otherwise, to join them will just mean more defeat for the Dems. Libertarians who do have the tea bag point of view will be duped once more into supporting big business and corporate puppet representatives in Congress. The tea for them is going to prove bitter indeed.
What progressives share with the file and rank tea baggers is pure frustration at the inability of Congress, especially the outmoded, tradition-steeped Senate to do anything at all. Month after month we have heard pundits on TV predict whether the "super majority" will please this senator or that senator and pass some overly compromised bill. Harry Reid may mean well, but he has made muck of his majority. Imagine what Republicans would pass if they had 60- or even 59- senate seats. The term "blue dogs" ought to mean the progressive Democrats who won't put up with the delay and the coddling of the Republicans. The Democrats need some bite.
The news programs are already controlled and run with brilliant subtlety with a corporate slant. They are, after all, owned by big corporations that have a vested interest in keeping Republicans in power and preventing the reform progressives want. The recent 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court means even more direct corporate control of Congress. Progressives will have to "shake the windows and rattle the walls," to paraphrase Dylan, if they want to be heard. I say it's time to Shake, Rattle and Roll with reform before it is too late.
Jack Miller
Photo:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/02/07/us/politics/0207-TEAPARTY_index.html
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