Tea Party America
Since its birth in the days during the 2008 presidential election, the Tea Party and its ideological allies have advanced their causes in many spheres of public life. As they have done so, they’ve moved from the coded racism and dog whistles of the past to an open flirtation with and a near public embrace of white nationalism and racial superiority, surprising many moderates and those on the left.
But is this move towards white supremacy really surprising?
Not really, since every facet of the tea party ideology is based on the premise of supremacy, domination, and the subjugation of others.
In their foreign policy vision, diplomacy and negotiation aren’t valued; they’re an admission of weakness and a mark of shame. If our adversaries don’t do exactly what we want, whenever we make the demand, we must strike militarily to impose our will on them. “Bomb them back to the Stone Age!” is the cry when other nations reject requests that, as a nation, we would never acquiesce to ourselves. To them, America is exceptional and her will must reign supreme. Or else.
Their views toward domestic policy making are no different. Compromise and cooperation are to be scorned and ridiculed as soft and weak; only the absolute and total victory of their views is sufficient to appease them. To them, anyone who falters in advancing toward this total domination is an appeaser, a RINO, a traitor, and must be purged from the ranks of power.
The goals of their domestic policy are likewise driven by a need for supremacy and domination.
Retaining the status quo of white privilege and cultural domination is of paramount importance to them. Any threat to this supremacy is intolerable and must be dealt with. Simple calls for justice, for equality, and fair treatment from the law and its enforcers are a threat so protestors and activists are branded rioters, thugs, and criminals and attacked in every forum. Demographic shifts pose a threat, so they call for mass deportations and advocate changes to long held Constitutional principles regarding citizenship. They attack voting rights zealously, doing whatever they can to make voting more difficult for those who do not share their beliefs.
Their economic views are no less driven by the need for domination. The business owner, the ‘job creator’, these are people who should set the public policy to meet their own needs. Any infringement on their right to treat employees, the public, or the environment however they wish is to be opposed. Any effort to even the playing field between this small percentage of people and the rest of America is chided as communism, socialism, and any other epithet that they can sling.
As much as they worship the financial elite, Tea Partiers in equal measure despise the poor, the disabled, anyone less fortunate. These are beneath them, moral reprobates, targets for humiliation and scapegoating. They oppose any systemic effort to provide assistance or help to the economically vulnerable. Instead, they believe these people should rely on the charity and goodwill of their betters, goodwill and charity that has been far from evident. This is allows them to show that they’re not only superior because they have money but also because they voluntarily give it to undeserving wretches who are too lazy to work for it on their own; economic supremacy becomes moral supremacy becomes justification for further domination.
To the Tea Party, even religion becomes a vehicle of domination and subjugation. Their religious views, twisted far from original intent and inspiration, become not just an article of personal faith but a cudgel to beat those who hold other views into submission. They believe homosexuality is wrong so gay people must be denied the right to marry, the right to equal protection. That gay people should have the right to be treated as equals is unacceptable to them; anything less than the total domination of their religious views is a violation of their freedom and must be fought tirelessly.
So should the Tea Party’s embrace of racism and white supremacism come as a surprise to anyone? No, because it’s just more of the same. It’s just another avenue to pursue their domination and attempt to force the world to live as they wish while maintaining their position at the top of the hierarchy.
Everything the Tea Party is and stands for is about domination and supremacy; they are absolutely terrified of the idea of having to co-exist with people of different values or beliefs or lifestyles.Treating anyone who is not in lockstep with them and ideologically pure as an equal is intolerable and an unforgivable offense. They are sad, weak people who are attack anything that they perceive as a threat to their superiority and their grip on the reins of power.
Despite their best efforts though, that grip on power is slipping; time and progress are dooming them to failure, minority, and eventual irrelevance. The only question is how much damage they do on the way out.