esrosedotblog

WHO ARE THEY

I told you that a friend of mine had become a tea party member.

I am not sure what he is a member of exactly. But I know that he is not a member of this gang.

Tea Party Movement Lights Fuse for Rebellion on Right

Well, I think not.

These people are the ones who usually have sat at home on their resentments and peculiar ideas and, normally, would simply try, unilaterally, to go off the grid or just be eccentric.

Now through the internet and such demagogues as Glenn Beck and the Fox crowd they have found a center to rally around. A tea bag.

Don't laugh.

it is the real thing.

Normally people in this category are not joiners. But now they seem to have found a way to get together without actually confronting the differences between them. Most would not want community organizers or a leaderless group, a commune.

These folks have always been with us. When I was younger, we had the John Birch Society. I had a bit of a brush with them. They had all the appearance of being sane and normal people until they opened their mouths and then, I discovered, they believed, as fact, a whole raft of arrant nonsense. Actually, the Birch Society had a fairly coherent set of values. They still do. Their proponents, often, did not.

That is a 1958 placard up there, incidentally. Look familiar?

It is just interesting.

I also credit the rising up of this group as a reaction to the thorough trouncing Obama, a black man, gave to the GOP.

This touched a nerve.

Some of the fears that it aroused are incredible to witness but, nevertheless, are real to many of these people.

I love the patriot hats.

The waving of the flags.

The last refuge of a scoundrel.