Saul's Teabaggers

Q: What do Saul Alinsky and the Tea Party movement have in common?

A: Everything.

This is what I don’t understand (it also points to a fatal flaw in the way some Americans think), unlike Janeane Garofalo’s comment about the Tea Partiers being a bunch of “tea bagging rednecks”, we find out that they are mostly fairly well-educated middle class and upper class folks. Isn’t it kind of funny that what tends to get lost in the argument is the fact that we are mostly a middle class country?  In fact, our success as a country was built on having such a large, burgeoning middle class. Take a look at other industrialized nations and see whether or not they have a large middle class at the core of their respective societies, they do.  So what’s the big deal?

The big deal is the fact that the Tea Partiers have been painted as a small disgruntled group that is trying to hold onto its money and deny others who are less fortunate an opportunity to share in their wealth/largesse. This is about as far from the truth as one can get, given Americans’ propensity to give more to charitable causes than any government of any other industrialized nation. That’s right, we give more to charity as private citizens than any government ever has. That being the case, why should government dictate to whom, where, and how we should be giving up our hard earned our coin? 

About 40 years ago Saul Alinsky penned a how to manual for community organizers titled Rules for Radicals. There has been much debate on whether or not it helped the left in this country achieve its political and social ends, but it was definitely an eye opener at the time of its publishing. Love or loathe him, Alinsky was a uniquely American story. More to the point was what he stated in the final two chapters of the book. He outlined three groups, the haves, have-nots and an in between group, the have-somes (or something like that). It’s the last group, Alinsky focused on in those two chapters that matters most since this group bears a striking resemblance to the middle class.

Alinsky predicted that as events progressed over time, and this group began to feel the same forces squeezing them that had been ravaging the have-nots for some time, they would inevitably begin to push back in a way that the have-nots were unable to. Well ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached that point in time, and Mr. Alinsky has been proven prescient. The Tea Parties are that logical next step towards pushing back. The nice folks in Congress on both sides of the aisle will either try to marginalize, discredit, or co-opt them because they do realize just how powerful a force these people really are and that worries them.

Power sometimes corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s a tried and true axiom. Growing government has never solved this nation’s problems and those who point to FDR’s New Deal as an example of the good that government can do, tend to omit the fact that none of those programs got us out of the Great Depression. It was the mobilization to go take the fight to the Axis Powers during the Second World War that did the trick.

Think of any government social program that was supposed to be a magic pill and I can show you where it went awry and why some in power will: 1) not admit that there is something wrong and 2) resist any changes proposed which would either overhaul or eliminate these programs because so many of their constituents have been helped by these programs and touching them would be a sin. What they’re really saying is that too many people have become dependent on them (i.e. it’s become their lifeline) and any attempt to wean them off of the government teat will be vigorously opposed since this is some politico’s ticket to reelection.

For the most part, the Tea Partiers, regardless of political affiliation, want the same things. They want smaller, less intrusive government. They want lower taxes and an end to wasteful spending. They want elected and appointed officials who are for the rule of law and have a strict Constructionist interpretation of the Constitution. There will be disagreements on minor points, but then again, they’re not a political party but a loosely based network or group of networks who share one common interest, getting government out of their hair.

Although the spotlight is currently on the upcoming presidential election season, no one should forget that a third of the Senate as well as the entire House are up for re-election next November. This will not be lost on those who have had their fill of an overreaching government incapable or unwilling to get out of the way and letting Americans reclaim the liberty and prosperity they feel that they have been denied these past few years.