ARE. YOU. F#@%*ING. KIDDING. ME?!

The Tea Bag Party.  Every one of them that I've ever seen is white.  They universally hate President Obama.  Not just his policies.  No, they hate everything about him.  They even hate his wife.  HIS WIFE?! What the f?!  George W. Bush was a certifiably awful President, but nobody said anything about his wife.  What did Michelle do??!! But they're not racists.

They are armed, and their 'leaders' delight in pushing the envelope, egging these people on to violence, and  then blame the opposition for passing laws that they don't like.  Therefore, any violence that erupts is the fault of the Democrats, who are surely coming to take their guns and throw them all into concentration camps while they hook their grannies up to life support machines for the sole purpose of pulling the damned plug!  But they're not crazy. 

I've been politically correct for too long.  No more.  The Tea Party Movement is the the party for angry white people.  When they say they want their country back, they mean they want a white guy in charge.  When they say that Obama is taking their freedom, what they really mean is that they want the freedom to live in a country where there is a white guy in charge.  When they say Obama is a Socialist, what they really mean is, they want a white guy in charge.  When they say that they've been Taxed Enough Already, they mean that they want a white guy in charge.  When they are reminded that their personal taxes went down, and they dismiss that fact as utter nonsense, it's nonsense because they want a white guy to lower their taxes.  They believe that everything that's wrong with this country will be fixed as soon as we get a white guy back in charge.  But they are not racist... they just want someone else in charge.  Anyone.  As long as he's white.

Now, I'm not saying that anyone who disagrees with Barack Obama is a racist.  Not at all.  But for most people, disagreement with the President is based on the words he says, and the ideas that he espouses.  Hell, that's even true of the Republicans in Congress who are attempting to thwart him at every turn.  It's purely political.  But for the 'Tea Partiers', the disagreement stems from the fact that the ideas that he espouses and the words that he says, are coming from someone other than a white guy.  His ideas wouldn't be so radical if they maybe came from a different President.  You know, maybe a white one.

So, here and now, I'm sick to death of the lot of 'em.  They're racist, bigoted, small-minded, easily duped, utterly stupid, and so ready to believe that the country is doomed because we elected a black guy.  Never mind the fact that, by all accounts, the brotha' is doing a fantastic job.  So what that the unemployment free-fall has been stemmed, and  job growth is beginning.  The hell with the fact that the financial sector has been brought back from the brink of a collapse that would have crippled the entire world.  Who cares that GM and Chrysler were rescued from oblivion.  The DOW closed at 11,000.  Iraq is winding down.  Educational benefits for college students have been increased.  We signed a nuclear treaty with Russia to reduce the world's nukes by a third. He passed a health care reform bill that eluded every President for two generations!  None of that matters.  We are all doomed!!  It must be true... Glen Beck told them so.

So, Mr. & Mrs. Tea Party Conservative, I have only one question:

ARE.  YOU.  F#@%ING.  KIDDING.  ME?!

Cartoon Villains

The Griffin Perspective is about politics.  Here's some politics for you.  I make about a third of what I made only a year ago.  A good friend of mine makes a little more than half of what he used to.  And we're lucky because we could find work.  I'm a renter, but the house I live in is in foreclosure, so I'm about to move.  In my job, I talk to people every day who've been out of work for over a year.  I think that the current statistic for applicants per job opening is about 6:1.  In some places, it's better, but in many places, it's much worse.   It is no secret that the current economic environment is quite challenging.

Meanwhile, politicians on the right are standing in the way of any real progress.  They fought Health Care Reform, bitterly, and while they were not able to stop it, their influence caused the bill to end up being less effective than it otherwise would have been.  But the left finally showed some spine and passed it.  The right is fighting Financial Reform.  They are fighting efforts to help protect the environment.  They want to protect only the richest, largest, and most powerful among us.  And if that means that everyday folks get trampled, their attitude seems to be, "Yeah... So?"  These people are "cartoon villains."

In most cartoons, there is some really evil bad guy who wants to rule the world.  He wants to rule by fear, intimidation, and absolute power, with him and his few faithful followers resting at the seat of that power.  So what if the rest of the world is a dark, joyless place filled with fear and terror?  What if ordinary people lack even the basic necessities of everyday life?  As long as he and his minions are in charge of that awful place, then, well, that'd be just fine.

Coal is cheaper than clean energy.  ("But it's destroying the planet." "There's no proof of that!" "Here's the proof here!"  "Leave me alone...I'm rich!")

Everyone deserves access to health care. ("That's socialism!" "Every other industrialized country on earth has figured that out."  "They're all socialists!  Leave me alone... I'm rich!")

We have to better regulate Wall Street and the financial sector  ("Let the free market work... it'll take care of itself."  "That's what got us in this mess!"  "There's no proof of that!" "Here's the proof here!"  "Leave me alone...I'm rich!")

"Your Highness, the people don't have bread to eat"  "Then let them eat cake!"

We are in a battle for the soul of this country.  The left is trying to bring the country back to greatness, for everyone.  The right is trying to bring this country back to 1953.  And the minute I begin the think that, as a people, we're too smart to take a bus ride back to the social dark ages, some cartoon villain shouts "Sarah Palin in 2012... MWAHAAHAAHAAHAA!"