The Summer of 2011

Now and then there is a summer of unprecedented heat and drought; this is one of those years. The old standard by which we judge all summers are those of the 1930s, the years of the Great Depression and, in my part of the world, the Dust Bowl. Day after day we have experienced triple digit heat and the moisture of heaven has remained in heaven. This will not last. It will eventually cool down and it will eventually rain.

Of greater concern is the socio-political climate sweeping the nation, the polarization separating us all. The Tea Party (the members of which called themselves “Tea Baggers” until someone explained to them the realities of life) arrived on the scene in 2009, bullying their way into the limelight as they yelled their hatred for government in every venue possible. There was never a clear and concise explanation of what they believed in, but, rather, a continual diatribe of invective speech, laced with insults and, often, because of this particular administration, racial epithets. They tapped into a general discontent over the economy, never offering a positive solution, but offering a hurtful and spiteful view of government and anyone who didn’t agree with them. They turned the momentum they had gained in yelling their obscenities at legitimate congressional town hall meetings into a political force to be reckoned with. They took over the Republican Party and the Democratic Party completely failed to meet their challenge. The election of 2010 saw many of their numbers added to Congress. They brought their prejudices, their jingoism and their limited view and knowledge of American history and government with them. They shockingly promoted many of the discredited ideas on which the Civil War was fought, among which were nullification and secession.

In this summer of 2011, these members of Congress, who now control the Republican Party, are wreaking havoc on the political system in the governance of the nation, by actually refusing to enter into the responsible governance process. These are not ignorant people, nor are they evil people. They simply have a simplistic view of government, viewing it with distrust and suspicion. The logic seems to be that less government is good, thus, no government at all is perfect and everyone knows what the opposite of perfection is. They hate taxes and the social safety net which has been there to help “the least of these” in this country for years. Many of them have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and they feel everyone else can also. Of course, many of those who claim to have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps were standing in their daddy’s boots.

Of greater concern to me personally is that these people are not fiscal conservatives at all. They never met a war they didn’t love and never demand that our involvement in such foreign affairs be paid for as it is prosecuted. They want tax loopholes and even subsidies for themselves and for the oil companies which are currently the recipients of our national largesse. But, it is not simply that they are so-called “conservatives” (which they are not). It is also that they are the same old so-called social conservatives we have said no to for years. They are anti-union, pro-business and anti-abortion advocates. They are opposed to gays and anyone else who does not fit into their expected social behavior. They still campaign on their slogans of God, guns and gays and will continue to do so as long as it is rewarded by their likeminded constituents. They use government to promote their own ends and condemn others who might want to use government to promote traditional values as we have used it in the past. They claim an exclusive relationship with God and condemn all others to a life without a valid deity. They claim Jesus is one of them, a claim which should be repugnant to all Christians everywhere.

The summer of 2011 has revealed the logical end to the direction in which the so-called conservative movement has been going since Ronald Reagan put together his southern strategy for winning elections. Perhaps this movement pre-dated Reagan and should be attributed to Goldwater, Nixon and others. But, those men never said such things as, “The Government is not the solution to the problem, the government is the problem.” They recognized that some problems are so big that only the government is large enough to meet them.

I have voted for many Republicans during the last 45 years. But, several years ago I decided not to vote for another until the sane and decent people of that party regain control from the extremists. It should again be a sane and reasonable party which champions fiscal responsibility and smaller government with self-imposed restraints on excessiveness. This will not last. It will eventually cool down and it will eventually rain. The economy will improve and the pendulum will swing away from the Tea Party to sanity.