The President’s State of the Union speech may be in the news cycle, but 2012 is the real date certain and Michele Bachman, for her part was prescient and quite astute to position the Tea Party’s response to the President as separate and apart from that of the Republican Party. The actual response itself only further served to underline the distinction. Ms. Bachman spoke to and for the people who just happened to put the Republicans back in office.
Republican Congressman Ryan by contrast offered profuse and repeated condolences to “Gabby” as if the shooting in Tucson had anything at all to do with the State of the Union, or the Republican Party‘s plans going forward. Conversely, Ms. Bachman spoke directly, critically and unambiguously of the Administration’s failed policies and the pressing need to fix the economy and deal with the deficit. She spoke of we the people and the crisis facing our nation.
Congressman Ryan by contrast offered poached eggs on melba toast. Perhaps tomorrow he seemed to promise, the Republican Party might offer us a pat of margarine.
From the Republican perspective, all of this is understandably vexing. The implications of positioning the Tea Party Movement outside of the Republican Party clearly makes them uncomfortable. Nonetheless, as much as Republicans might like to pretend otherwise, they are neither of, nor did they spring from the Tea Party movement. Nor were they necessarily the people’s choice in the last election and Ms. Bachman is correct to further position the movement by drawing the distinction.
The Republican victory in last November’s elections was simply the result of our institutional, default setting, historical and structural. Again, Republicans would like to pretend otherwise, but as a class of political professionals they do so at their own peril. They are certainly welcome to become part of the Tea Party movement, or they can begin to position themselves with an eye to co-opting and thereby undermining the movement. Those are the choices.
Michele Bachman’s separate response demonstrated that both she and the Tea Party remain poised to serve notice of termination. Republicans simply will not be allowed to serve two masters at the same time. The political calculus and calculations will be shrewd and I wish the pols luck with all that, but outside the mob is milling and they are comprised of voters.
A successfully germinated seed, the Tea Party must now take root and establish itself firmly in the political garden of good and evil. It’s either that, or fall victim, choked and squeezed out by the likes of Trent Lott and Karl Rove. It can be a tricky business stirring up the little people and it would appear that’s exactly what the vested interests encouraged in a frightful and hasty response to the radical and determined agenda of the Obama Administration’s proposed social revolution.
And while it is generally understood that any approaching juggernaut tends to focus the mind, it is also true that this time the establishment response may have been too cute by half. Parts hastily sewn together, the body politic of revolution past was laid upon a table and the table elevated up into a stormy, media night and when the monster moved, it became clear to everyone that indeed, life had been created. Now, to the chagrin of these same political operatives, this political, popular Frankenstein has taken on a life of its own.
He’s off to Congress in a new twist to an old story, what? And it’s no good expecting the villagers to act as a posse, to restore the old order for he is of them and they he. It was out of their historical graveyard after all, that his corpse was disinterred. It is rather amusing you’ll have to admit, watching as the village folk hand the monster a pitch fork, another the torch. That’s the downside, the moral hazard to being part of a ruling class elite.
Inevitably, rulers tend to lose touch with the people. The initial degree of separation will widen. Words such as open, pluralistic and democratic tend to fall away meaningless when decisions are made by an elite under the real time duress of crisis. It is reminiscent of a Las Vegas casino in that the owners expect the house will always win. Otherwise the business model wouldn’t exist. And make no mistake, this collection, coordination and direction of public resources, which is government is a business model all its own, big business and it’s run by and for the elite ruling class, but financed by you, the tax payer.
The question, like some proverbial worm suddenly shorn a quarter of its life savings has turned. At least that is the concern of these same elites. They would prefer the American people roll over and go back to sleep now that the Obama agenda seems checked, their own, parochial purposes temporarily served. But the two party system has played “Monkey in the middle” with the American voter one too many times. Or like Caesar will the political establishment, the arm of the ruling class continue to thwart democratic reform through the covert and nefarious tactic of divide and conquer? They most certainly will, if they can get away with it.
They just might want to be careful what they wish for this time. Tunisia has shown us how quickly a political order can be upset. Egyptians have taken to the streets with great effect. Here at home the weather is about to change again and there can be no doubt, but it’s a hard, cold rain that’s going to fall. That will not enhance stability. The first fifty years of this century were always about managing the decline as well as the weaknesses as we change paradigms and it hasn’t been going especially well. Both political and business incompetence in conjunction with an over riding, base corruption has brought us to this present juncture of systemic financial crisis on the verge of collapse.
The supposedly, leaderless Tea Party Movement seems to be developing a leadership all on its own and very nicely too, thank you. And depending on where you sit, that will mean Congresswoman Bachman and Senator Paul will either become a very big problem, or our very salvation. The time is 2012 just as the time was once 1776 and as any student of American colonial history can tell you, our “Founding fathers” were forced to run hard just to catch up with the American people so they could lead. “Time and tide…“ as they say, "...wait for no man." Much less a political party and so be it today.
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