god, guts and glory: tea party america

the typical libertarian rube describes the tea party as non-partisan, and concerned exclusively with excessive government spending, and not at all about social issues. not that it's any great surprise, but seeing this mischaracterization debunked by researchers reveals true believers in the hype out for the fools they are:

Tea Partiers Care More About Godlier Government Than Smaller Government -- Daily Intel: "Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government."

when i went to the virginia tea party convention last fall, the first thing that struck me was that it looked like every republican convention i'd ever been to -- which was mostly back in the late 1970s, but in spite of the time warp the scenery was the same.

it's not paranoia or any kind of irrational fear that makes us wary of the tea party. it's the documented fact that they are by and large a bunch of christian dominionists, and true believers in a theocracy ruled by protestant, fundamentalist christians.

guys and gals on the right that pander to these people -- and that includes just about any of the serious contenders for the GOP presidential nomination -- are actually courting the most anti-american segment of the voting population. don't fear the muslims, because the real danger to our values comes from the mainstream GOP.

dunno about you, but i think that between the government we have and the government these people want us to have, we're pretty much fucked from every angle.

it's simply a matter of which way you want to be sexually assaulted by the red-white-and-blue telephone pole...