ezekielsdaughter | Feb. 21st, 2010

In my head, I have been comparing the Teaparty activists to Brownshirts. I looked up Brownshirts this morning and found that that is not quite true. The Brownshirts were the folks who beat up people in the street who protested. After Hitler gained some power, they reined in the Brownshirts in and instituted the SS. The SS were more of the political terrorists types who claimed that anyone against the new regime was trying to destroy the nation—thus equating nation with regime. Therefore, I am sorry for my “thought” crime.

I have become increasingly annoyed with NPR and their fascination with the Teaparty folks. More and more, I turn the radio off. I am reminded of my disenchantment with Newsweek after Regan came in and after I read Susan Faludi’s book “ Backlash”. Newsweek was part of the media that thought Regan was God’s gift to America. I ended up reading the entertainment section of the magazine and tossing it after reading that section. Eventually, I dropped my subscription. Why subscribe just to read what was hot on Broadway or in literature? I don’t want NPR not to talk to Republicans or Teaparty activists. I just want them to talk responsibly with someone else from time to time. And I want to hear a conversation or a reasoned argument. It is lamentable that I hear that more often on The Daily Show. Jon Stewart actually asks people how they would fix things and why they think their suggestions would work. (Granted, I have enjoyed the “Planet Money” podcasts on NPR. I haven’t given up on them yet.)

I went looking for teaparty signs and found some of the new “approved” ones. The ones portraying Obama as a Nazi are still out there, but here are a few approved ones.

Don’t Mortgage the Future

Ok, I agree with you. I don’t like the deficit either. If those large bankers had failed, as they fell, they would have called in your house loan. Are you ready to pay it? I think that I actually could pay my loan off; what about you?

Down With Tyranny! Up With Liberty!

Don’t Stimulate … Liberate

In what way are you being tyrannized? What exactly does Liberate mean in this instance? If you don’t pay your taxes, who pays for that war that you are so fond of? What Liberty are you asking for? Last I heard, you were against liberating women from state laws against abortion. You didn’t want to allow same-sex marriage. (In some strange way, that threatens your own marriage. I am still trying to understand how.)

I Want My Country Back!

Ah, brother. This was my cry during the Bush eras. During the Regan era. During the Nixon era. During some of the Clinton era. You have a real problem with sharing anything, don’t you? Sharing the cost of maintaining the freedom that you deny to others must be really galling.

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I will give you a reasoned argument – trivial—that I wish that I had heard.

Guy flies a plane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas. (I even call a friend there to make certain that she’s mentally alright. She doesn’t work for the IRS, but still--)

NPR says the national government is trying to decide whether to classify this as terrorism since apparently this was one man angry at his taxes and how he was treated.

An official in Texas is incensed. What do they mean? He says. How can this be anything other than terrorism?

I am thinking. Yes—but. What exactly constitutes terrorism? I could say that Bush and company created this slippery slope for us, but maybe not. I wouldn’t call it terrorism unless ongoing terror is actually involved. One guy in a plane. That’s “merely” murder, isn’t it? No one thinks he has a cadre of small planes behind him. As opposed to the anthrax guy—who we are not 100% sure we know. We are told that he was just one angry guy, but struck in a manner that implied a cadre of small dangerous envelopes behind him. What’s the definition of terrorism, anyway? Do we have one?