Tea Party Paranoia is apparently setting in for progressives. It’s like the old Bob Dylan song, “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues:”
Well, I wus sittin’ home alone an’ started to sweat
Figured they wus in my T.V. set
Peeked behind the picture frame
Got a shock from my feet, hittin’ right up in the brain
Them Reds caused it!
I know they did . . . them hard-core ones
Case in point? New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica uses graffiti on a stop sign to launch into the prevalent anti-Obama attitude that is currently strong in America. You see, without a single shred of evidence, Lupica presumes Tea Party crazies must have painted ‘Obama’ under ‘Stop’ – 100 yards from a school no less!! Won’t someone think of the children?!?
Why has somebody done it? Because in the current climate, people have been convinced they can. Or, more likely, that they should.
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At least here it is only vandalism about this President and the country’s new health care bill, not phone threats left for some members of Congress.
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As always, you wonder where this patriotism and righteousness and Tea Party activism was during Bush-Cheney. You wonder if all the people who want to take to the streets – and to the television cameras now – decided they weren’t needed for eight years because they thought the country was going so good. Or maybe they have just convinced themselves that the Obama who must now be stopped didn’t just inherit this America, he created it.
This is no longer about political dissent. It is about storm trooper sound bites, and hate.
That’s funny – I don’t see an explanation taped to the bottom of the stop sign. I certainly don’t see a Joker-style Tea Party calling card left anywhere.
So Lupica presumes any dissent to the president and his health care reform must only be coming from those nutty Tea Partiers.
Perhaps Lupica forgot about when many progressive Democrats – Howard Dean and Enforcement Czar Andy Stern come to mind – advocated passing no bill instead of a watered-down version. Or perhaps that just didn’t fit his argument. As Dylan said:
Well, I fin’ly started thinkin’ straight
When I run outa things to investigate
Couldn’t imagine doin’ anything else
So now I’m sittin’ home investigatin’ myself!
Hope I don’t find out anything . . . hmm, great God!
Be careful Mike. Look inward and you may just find yourself wondering where your freedom went. Rest assured, it wasn’t the Tea Party crazies that took it!