JEFF PEARLMAN

JEFF PEARLMAN

Tea Parties

Tea+Obama+Hey+I'm+a+Rightwing+Extremist

There is something about the Tea Party movement that I genuinely like.

The whole f$%^-the-government, we’re-gonna-do-this-ourselves philosophy rings true for me. The anger is legitimate and understandable, and I can appreciate the need to find a voice; to find your own voice.

And yet …

I can’t help but feel that most of these people are morons. They clamor for anti-establishment philosophies, then they pay Sarah Palin—former VP candidate; entrenched Republican—$100,000 to speak at their event. They bemoan the rich getting richer, yet they lean hard, hard, hard right, to a place where Republicans have been supplying the wealthiest among us with monstrous tax breaks for eons. They continue to question whether Barack Obama is a citizen; they gather up their guns and canned goods, just to stave off the inevitable political apocalypse. They think the White House is using the internet to infiltrate their minds.

I know … I know—I’m an elitist snob. But the Tea Party people just strike me as, well, really, really, really dumb. I mean, really dumb. Like, the-earth-is-flat and the-Bible-needs-to-be-taught-in-school and we-live-in-a-Christian-nation and global-warming-doesn’t-exist-and-never-ever-ever-will dumb.

So the fact that these people have an increasingly legitimate voice … it scares me.

Uhg.

PS: And, once again, where was all this anti-government anger when George W. was president?

PPS: An important point: I am by no means saying all conservatives or Republicans are idiots. I’m really not. I can respect a conservative philosophy of smaller government, lower taxes, etc. I don’t agree, but I can understand it. The Tea Party Movement, however, is neither nuanced nor intelligent.