After breaking a barrier that stood for 234 years by electing the first African American as President of the United Sates, something that many Americans never thought they would see in their lifetimes, America earned a newfound admiration throughout the world. At long last, it seemed, we over came. At long last, the promise
of America that all men are created equally and can achieve anything their abilities allowed had been fulfilled.
It was a long 234 years, filled with pain and striving and it could not have happened without a series of important incremental gains. The most important of which was the 1964 Civil Rights Act which for the first time codified Thomas Jefferson's promise into law thereby extending it to all Americans.
Indeed, things have changed dramatically since the days when men in hoods, supported by the wink of the law, could terrorize and murder those that they deemed unworthy. Invariably, such change brings out the most extreme among us, those who would seek to take the country back to its darkest days.
This brings us to the phenomena that is The Tea Party. After the greed and incompetence of the last administration led to the disintegration of 8 million jobs, people became angry and afraid. Can you blame them? But the question must be asked why is that anger directed at Barack Obama? It can not be because he is not doing a good job because clearly, he is doing quite well considering the rubble he was handed upon taking office. No, it has to be something else.
People who are angry and afraid and who are searching for answers are easily led and it seems that the worst among us, aided, abetted and whipped by Fox News have seized control of the tea partiers. What else would explain such misplaced anger?
Early on, Republicans, careening from their losses in the most recent national elections cynically latched onto the nascent Tea Party as a way to gain some traction in the national debate. I don't think that they bargained for what it has come to stand for.
On Thursday, The Tea Party's Rand Paul who not two days earlier won the Republican nomination in Kentucky to run for the U.S. Senate, suggested in a series of television and radio interviews, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was too broad and should not apply to private businesses, such as but not limited to
lunchonettes. A postition so deeply held that he can not bring himself to utter the words that might cause us to think otherwise even though he tried.
The Republican establishment, led by the Senior Senator from the State of Kentucky, who also happens to be the Republican leader in the Senate perhaps recognizing the extreme direction of the Tea Party, even for them, had backed a more moderate, that is to say a mainstream conservative candidate. He lost and now Republicans are left to wonder if they will be able to put the genie back into the bottle or whether Rand Paul will be able to put Kentucky and the nation back in the hood?
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1 comment:
I love Rachel Maddow! She doesn't stop until she gets answers, unlike other reporters. What is wrong with these people that would vote for him? They are crazy!!!
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