Unhappy Season for Tea Party

"Bah, humbug"

In this Christmas season, we are hearing a vitriolic mean-spirited, hate-filled diatribe by a variety of Tea Party Republicans. One is tempted to ask, "Where do they find these clowns?" but everyone knows that they are lurking around in our very midst. On top of that, thanks to the GOP gerrymandered districts, they even get elected to public office. Then, once elected, the Koch Brothers' group, ALEC, writes legislation for them and the Tea Baggers try to get it passed.

And that is the dangerous part. If they just ran around saying stupid things, the majority could put up with that (a bit of comic relief), but shutting down the government and preventing the appointment of judges and other nominees is unacceptable.

It's unacceptable because their perspective is contrary to American values. This is their creed:

1. Poverty is a crime; poor people are criminals.
2. Wealth is a sign of God's blessing; the wealthy are the "Chosen Ones."
3. Pope Francis is Marxist and a threat to our hallowed "Greed-is-good" way of life.
4. Guns are necessary for the wealthy to protect themselves from the unwashed masses.
5. A fetus has more rights than a poor young rape victim.
6. Government cannot provide contraception, but government can, against her will, probe a woman's body with an ultra-sound device. Orwellian logic.
7. The homeless should be removed from city streets ("They are bad for business.")  and relocated under railroad viaducts where they belong.
8. Non-documented immigrants should be sent back to where they came from. After all, they work harder, study harder, open new businesses, and pay all their taxes. They are making our affluent children look bad.
9. Foreign policy is simple. Forget diplomacy. Tell other countries what to do and if they don't do it, bomb them and invade. Sure, many Americans will die in war, but they are the children of the "47% who are freeloaders."
10. And then there is education. The government has to stop educating the poor, unwashed masses. We have to divert those public funds to unregulated and quasi religious Charter Schools. We can't have the children of the 47% showing up our affluent, privileged children.
11. The environment. We have to eliminate the "tree huggers." Environmentalists are a threat to unfettered capitalism.
12. Unfortunately all votes count the same, including those of the freeloading 47%. Therefore we need to institute a whole arsenal of ways to suppress the vote. What a sad state of affairs it would be if everyone in a democracy was given an opportunity to vote!

I feel sorry for my Tea Party friends at this time of the year. Burdened by all that hate and bigotry, they are not able to participate in the spirit of the season. However, all is not lost; they can, like Sarah Palin and Fox News, rant and rave about the perceived "War on Christmas" -- yet another way of stirring up community discord and religious division.