Corey Hutchins calls my attention to his profile of some South Carolina Tea Partiers in the Free Times. An excerpt:
When Allen Olson isn’t molding a movement, he makes his living as a carpenter. He’s a wiry, self-employed 48-year-old who can’t keep still. A pack of smokes juts from the pocket of a faded blue T-shirt the same color of his eyes as he sips a Miller Lite at Hard Knox Grill in Cayce on the rare occasion he might do so. He wears a Carolina baseball cap, but he grew up in Boston. Most recently he lived in Milwaukee before a divorce drove him to South Carolina. He drives a beat-up green pickup truck with a “Nikki Haley for Governor” sticker on the back windshield.
Olson is what you’d call an ultra-conservative.
It’s how he defines himself, too, with a mild roll of the eyes. He admits that because he doesn’t consider U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham a traitor, some of the people he’s been rolling with lately might call him a moderate. He’s OK with that.
Olson has never been politically active before, but these days he’s charged up like an atom in the Hadron Collider. While you won’t see any “Allen Olson has a posse” stickers slapped on local street signs just yet, his Columbia Tea Party group has been growing since he started it last year, he says.
But do not call Allen Olson a leader, for the group he leads is by definition leaderless….
Don’t know why Corey thought I’d be interested. Just because I occasionally go to their rallies…
I thought it was a pretty good piece, insofar as it conveyed what a inchoate mass of ideologies (some overlapping, some in direct conflict with each other) makes up the TP.
Given the data we have on the demographics of this 15-20% of the electorate, I think Andrew Sullivan’s description today summarizes it best…his take has always been that it is cultural more than political:
“essentially cultural revolt against what America is becoming: a multi-racial, multi-faith, gay-inclusive, women-friendly, majority-minority country. The ‘tea-party’ analogy is not about restricting government as much as it is a form of almost pathological nostalgia.”
Brad, am I allowed to say this on your blog in response to Andrew Sullivan’s commentary about Tea Partiers? Horseshit!!!! and there is an abundance of it in his comments.
The only argument so far people like Sullivan have against Tea Party is the “racism” charge. Yes, there are some racists in the movement just as there are some racists on the other side. It is not exclusive of the right, it exists on the left as well.
It is not nostalgia unless you must define the desire for a fiscally responsible government to be returned to the people. So far, with the exception of a few, i.e., the idiot from Greenville, the movement has been about taxes, not race or cultural.
Yes, the majority are older, white, and generally well off, but where is the crime in that? They are exercising their right to protest and make their voices heard, again, where is the crime in that? You may not like it because it reminds you that someday, you too will be older, more vunerable, and no longer considered relevant. What then, do you just go away, disappear into a nursing home, abandoning your rights as a citizen? Someone please tell me in a reasoned, well thought out response. Not a preconceived notion or impression of a few, but the majority. Not the usual crap espoused by the likes of Sullivan. And no, I could care less if the guy is gay. His business, his bedroom, not mine.
If you want to see excess in action, look at the video of a SWAT team called into action to allegedly protect the president from a group of older, blue and gray haired ladies yesterday. I would provide a link but I am not as proficient as some. However, if you go to YouTube and type in “swat, tea party, Quincy, Ill”, it will take you to the video that is 7:06 long. Look at the crowd, ask yourself just how dangerous they are and what did they do to deserve a SWAT team response. Afterwards, ask yourself who is employing the use of jackbooted tactics.
Some “little old ladies” pack heat.
and how does a divorce drive someone to South Carolina? Curious locution, that.
If The People want Their Government “back,” they can vote and see if they are indeed The People. The issue for me is the whole “real American” rhetoric all too often employed by the Tea Party. I am an American citizen and every bit as real as they are, and I heartily disagree with them. I do believe they are entitled to be considered with respect, as are all people, so long as they adhere to reasonable standards of civility.
Bart, if the majority of Tea Partiers are “generally well-off,” how they also “more vulnerable”? You yourself hit the nail on the head there with the inherent contradictions of the movement.
I have no doubt there are many sincere TP followers who advocate a consistent less-government-less-taxation approach, as you do.
But as a whole, the TP is all over the map ideologically, you have to admit. Many LIKE big intrusive government for certain things, when it comes to things like wiretapping, asking people for ID papers on the street, big spending on the so-called “War on Terror.” This is hard to square with the supposed “anti-government” tilt of the movement. That, combined with the very prevalent, vague refrain you hear at these rallies (“I don’t know, I think our country’s just changing in a way that worries me”) and the relative narrowness of the demographic, leads naturally to the speculation that the movement is more cultural than political.
If the Tea Party were consistently libertarian across the board, I’d say you were right and Sullivan is wrong. But the evidence says otherwise.
“Some “little old ladies” pack heat. Not that I doubt you, because a neighbor introduced herself to us by driving into our driveway, jumped out of her car, gun drawn, and proceeded to look for a dog that killed one of her cats. After I stepped in front of her and told her to explain or get the hell out of my yard did she apologize. What can you say about a cat lover?
Anyway, my take on older ladies being dangerous would be their knitting needles. Those things can be dangerous and can be weilded like an avenging sword. Maybe that was the concern of the SWAT team. Just imagine the conversation between the negotiator and sniper when confronting a “knitting needle” armed blue haired lady.
“Negotiator to Sniper, draw a bead on her forehead and if she makes a sudden knit one, purl two move, let her have it. My Grandma had a pair of those things and it scared the hell out of me when she shook one in my face. Just can’t be too careful, y’know. And, the smell of Ben-Gay is overwhelming. I can’t breathe. Damn it, take the shot!”
“Sniper to Negotiator, I think she can be talked down if you can get over your fear of knitting needles. The Ben-Gay is another story altogether.”
Remember the Salahis and how much grief POTUS’s protectors got for that–like a blonde stick-insect in a red sari was a real threat….
I still remember the rabid rabbit and his unprovoked attack on Jimmy Carter while in a boat. Good thing he had the paddle at hand. Just think of the uproar if that were to happen today.
Rabbits would be placed on the domestic terrorist watch and the fur would literally fly if one come close to an elected official. 🙂
Phillip, I was referring to the vulnerability of the older members because of their age. If you were to check back over the years and consider the scare tactics that have been used against seniors, you would have understood my point. Ed Asner made push calls to retirees in Florida telling them Republicans were going to take away their Social Security. All too many believed it.
If I wasn’t perfectly clear, I apologize.
The fact that the Tea Party is all over the place ideologically should be an alarm for the current administration and congress. That simple fact implies an unrest across the spectrum and the Tea Party has become a haven since there is no other place to go. It is not Republican, Democrat, or any other political party.
Will the nutjobs try to come along for the ride? Absolutely. Will racists try to ply their poison along with the legitimate unrest and concern of the majority of Americans? Again, absolutely.
I think most people do not understand the concept of a movement that embraces the demand for smaller, less intrusive government but at the same time, agrees with many of the programs libertarians and some Republicans think are socialist. We have paid into Social Security and Medicare all of our working lives. The government made a contract with each and every one of us when they took taxes from our paychecks to pay for the programs. We had no choice in the matter unless we had railroad retirement or some other exempt program.
Most, and I mean the majority of Tea Party members AGREE with doing something about the health care system but not the way it was handled by the Obama administration and congress. They agree everyone should have access to health insurance coverage without the fear of denial of coverage or dropping coverage after an illness. Pre-existing conditions especially.
If congress had addressed it one issue at a time and progressed incrementally, the Tea Party just might not be in existence today.
There are a litany of lies out there about the racist attitudes of the members because the only conclusion liberals and Democrats are able to reach is to find a correlation between older, white Americans and their desire for “Guy Lombardo” days to return when “white” ruled. Absolute nonsense.
Any other comment will have to wait until tomorrow or another time. My wife was admitted to the hospital today and things are a little hectic.