My teabagger parents are gloating today about the Brown victory. To them, this whole politics game is like football: they simply cheer for the red team to beat the blue team. Period. They don’t know or care how Brown or any of their other preferred candidates are going to solve the real crises my generation will face.And for all their slogans and smugness and phony outrage, the teabaggers are on the wrong side of the future in every way I can imagine: Entitlements will have to be cut. The eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security will be raised, benefits will be means-tested, and Medicare will eventually be rationed. Everyone in my generation knows this. We accept it. But we want those programs to stick around in at least a minimal, bare-bones form. The teabaggers just mindlessly shout “Don’t cut my Medicare!” But they don’t mind bankrupting it for my generation.
Taxes will be raised. This is a fact. But teabaggers keep demanding tax cuts, insisting that cuts increase revenues, a claim that can’t even be called discredited because it was never credible in the first place. Policy-smart conservatives know it’s hooey, but teabaggers love it because it’s a convenient, feel-good talking point, truth be damned.
The rest of our lives will be filled with economic stagnation and profound personal insecurity.
The health care system as we know it will fall apart, spiraling costs will destroy growth, and the government will be forced to take an ever-bigger role in health care, sooner or later. What it means to be middle-class will be drastically different in fifty years, maybe even twenty. The disruptions of globalization will require government to alleviate the economic risk on individuals through programs like expanded unemployment benefits, targeted job training (and re-training), and education reforms. Teabaggers’ answer? Scream “Socialism!” and argue for ending all regulations and social welfare programs.
The theme of the future will be the need to accomplish more with fewer government resources. This will require a generation of leaders committed to the old-fashioned conservative notion of good government. For teabaggers, though, it’s an article of faith that there is no such thing as good government, so they don’t care what kind of hacks they put in office.
American empire will have to be rolled back. We can’t afford it. The defense budget must be cut. But teabaggers just want more and more war, imperial occupations that never end, in every corner of the globe. You have to wonder if war simply makes them feel good. Climate change and peak oil are facts. They will alter our lives in ways that seem like science fiction to us now. But teabaggers grasp at any flimsy excuse they can find not to face these facts, from “Al Gore is a hypocrite!” to “Drill, baby, drill!” to “The emails prove it’s all a hoax!”
The ridiculous, exhausting culture war has to end. My generation is sick of re-fighting Vietnam and Selma and Stonewall. We don’t want to be defined by whether we eat arugula or wear Carhartt. But the teabaggers need the culture war to continue forever because it ratifies their prejudices. It justifies their hate. It prevents the change they fear.
Now who is better prepared to start solving these problems now, a pragmatist like Obama or the teabaggers? Who is the real small-C conservative? If teabaggers continue to stand in the way—or God forbid, if they take power—how much longer will it take for leaders to emerge who are willing to do the hard work? I asked my father what his solution would be. “Blow up the whole government,” he said. “I’m not responsible for your security.”
If that’s not nihilism, what is?
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Amen and amen. We’ve turned politics into ESPN, and not in a good way.
(I know I run the risk of summoning greater imps and demons, but remember Trey the commenter? Is he still banned? He must be, otherwise he’d be here to spread his racist gloating.)
WF
I’m in such despair over this. I don’t know how to talk to these folks — and they really seem to be everywhere.
We have neighbors. Lovely people. Highly educated. They’ve been very emotionally supportive of me over the past few months as I’ve gone through a real rough patch in my personal life. They bring us food when we’re sick. Friendly and kind. Just the kind of neighbors you want. They’ve been good to me and my family.
And then you overhear their 8-year-old kid telling YOUR 8-year-old kid about how Obama is going to “destroy the Constitution.”
Or they send you an email about the Democrats’ health care proposal with links to web sites equating it to to eugenics. And equating Obama to Hitler.
And they tell you they oppose health care reform because it would take away our “freedom.”
And you wonder just how you’re supposed to talk to them about any of this.
I can understand and respect different opinions. But they have to be based on something other than fear and misinformation.
You don’t want any kind of national health care because you don’t think we can afford it? Well, I disagree, but at least I understand your argument. But if you oppose it because you think Obama wants to kill all the old people and handicapped kids . . . I don’t even know how to deal with you, then.
If your answer to everything is “shrink the government and cut taxes,” we can’t have a serious discussion. Be sure to toss out a few slogans, too. “Freedom works: let’s try it!” “Government derives its power from the consent of the governed!” OK. That’s not a plan or a policy . . . but I guess that’s sufficient, eh?
You want minimal government? Move to Somalia. Minimum taxes, maximum freedom. Tell me how that works out for you.
Unlimited personal freedom is another word for anarchy, I believe.
And I see that I’ve wasted too much of Dave’s bandspace here with this. I wish I had an answer. And Dave, you’re right — Obama’s inauguration seems like it was 50 years ago . . . .
Great (but depressing) stuff.
I was just talking to another friend about precisely this mindset, and he relayed a conversation we had with a mutual, college-educated friend who attends tea party rallies with her kids and believes everything she hears on Fox News. “But you’re too smart to believe that stuff,” my friend said he told her. “Oh N—, you know I’m not that smart!” she replied.
Seriously: How can we draw folks like that into any sort of meaningful conversation?
Yep, that’s pretty much right. Whenever I have these types of discussions with family, they just parrot back Fox News ignorance. It drives me nuts!
I couldn’t agree more. My in-laws, who have been terrific to my family over the years have totally drunk the Tea Party kool-aid. They got on bus to go to DC for the Tea Party march in late 2009. Every time I see them they start moaning about “Obama’s deficits” and how their grandchildren will have to pay for them. But for eight years they never uttered a peep about Bush’s deficits.
And it’s impossible to have a rational discussion with someone who thinks the Cincinnati Enquirer is part of the liberal media, a newspaper which for at least the last 30 years, and probably longer, has never endorsed a Democrat for president.
Thanks for the comments everyone. It’s helpful to hear that others share the same frustrations with friends, neighbors, etc. (misery loves company). I have a couple of things I’d like to respond to, but I’m busy today. Hopefully over the weekend…
Take a look at Bob Herbert’s Sat article in the NYT for a clear summation of just how desperate things are for the middle class today…..
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