From the VOMITORIUM
Back in the day….when I was a protester….and yes I guess I was a radical….I was met with all kinds of insults from the political right and left….well it was the 70’s and I had just returned after 2 and half years in Southeast Asia and thought that my country was traveling down a dangerous path….and I as well as many others tried to change things…we were not that effective….but we did stir up a lot of emotions about the country….we protested for MORE democracy and BETTER democracy…..
I recall slogans like “My America: Right or Wrong” and my all time fav, “America: Love it or leave it!” The political right was a lot more vocal than the left, but we got static there too….We were not patriotic because we wanted to change the way the country did business…..Is any of this sounding familiar to any one?
Okay, the meat of this post……where are the so-called patriots now? I mean I and my friends were called everything from unpatriotic to goddamn commies because we did NOT like the way Washington was being handled. My sexuality was questioned…..my education was questioned…..my associations were in question…..all in all, because I would not stand by speechless about the status quo….I was insulted…repeatedly.
We carried signs or placards with caricatures of Nixon as a pig and an emperor and ….well you know what they were…and we were destroying the country from the inside…we were in essence a communist fifth column…
My point is…there is NOTHING new in the Tea Party…the signs, the rhetoric, just about everything has been done before…including that irritating Gadsden flag ……the difference is that NO one is calling the Teabaggers out as the Left was in the 70’s….they are seen as true patriots and concerned for their country and its direction….I just want to hear one lousy a/hole tell the Teabaggers…..America: Love it or leave it! This is the government that the people voted for….where is the problem you have?
If we were destroying America back in the day…then the Teabaggers are doing as much, if not more, damage than we did to the integrity of America! And YOU allow it! And in my day, if a protester showed up with a weapon they were arrested, but not these days….then what made us more dangerous than the mental midget of today? The old farts screaming in favor of the Tea Party are the same people that were calling protesters the destroyers of democracy back in the day……small world, huh? Go figure!
Yeah… it’s a bit like one man’s terrorist is another guy’s freedom fighter – it all depends on a person’s point of view!
But these idiots think they are so original….but it is NOTHING….bunch of sheep lead around by their slogan throwing entrepreneurs…..that ‘don’t tread on me’ flag is so damn irritating….it was flown in the 70’s by the ‘leftists’ that everyone hated…..
The French have a saying… the more things change, the more they stay the same… about right I’d say, wouldn’t you?
A very accurate saying, indeed. My point about the guns is a pretty good on…..we would have been imprisoned as ‘revolutionaries and anarchists for even considering flashing a weapon….but somehow okay now because these dipshits are some patriotic in doing so…..sickening piece of crap!’
Right wing protesters have been treated differently by the media and political elite for at least the last two decades. And it shouldn’t be surprising, they’re doing the bidding – intentionally or unintentionally – of the rich people who own our media and politicians.
Exactly!
So true…..my days in protests landed me a victim of COINTELPRO….which has taken a long time to erase……I just would like to see someone, other than me, acknowledge it….and I thank you….
You know, I can understand how the right sees the left as a threat, just as I can comprehend how the left sees the right as a threat…
What I CAN’T figure out is how no one seems to see that political reality, insofar as it might actually exist at all, will obviously involve compromise and therefore clearly lies somewhere in the middle!
We can thank the media and the idiocy of the people…….
Sadly, I think you may be right… 🙁
I know and it pains me to even consider that possibility….but the truth hurts, eh?
I’m afraid it usually does.
I use to love politics and now I have to hold my nose…..
The trouble is that each group thinks it is right (whereas the likelyhood that either of them has a f*cking clue about reality is slim to none). So, to the real jerks on either side, whatever THEY want ot do is justified, whilst anyone ELSE doing the same damn thing is an asshole… go figure!
Sure. That’s the nature of the game.
But, what matters is that you actually ARE right.
Hey now.
I’m a Tea Partier.
The different between the Tea Party today and the leftist movements decades is ago is HOW they want to change the country.
It’s about policy and beliefs.
And these two groups couldn’t be any more different.
But what makes you more right than the “leftists” of yester-year?
I’d have to dissect that belief by belief and policy by policy.
You are unique then…..most except stuff on face value…..remember I said most…..