The tea party is having an increasingly difficult time coping with reality and we already crossed the hyperbole threshold the day Ted Cruz opened his Cuban anarchist mouth. Obamacare is like rape? Really? Do they have any idea how offensive this is coming from a party of rape enthusiasts? No, probably not. They don’t think over-the-top racism is offensive either.
Hell. They don’t even think there is any racism. Rosa Parks destroyed it like a black Beowulf rising from the mists of Montgomery, Alabama.
Oh, that’s right. These signs must be imaginary. There is no racism, is there? What was I thinking, letting reality intrude on fantasy?
Obamacare is working, including nearly a million hits on Monday, as Justin Baragona reported here this morning, and they are more unpopular than ever, less relevant than ever, under attack by so-called establishment Republicans including the Chamber of Commerce (not just locally but nationally), the tea party is lashing out with ever more nonsensical attacks at everyone and everything around them.
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It’s a good time. Buy popcorn. Relax and enjoy.
Causing a government shutdown alarmed their corporate sponsors you see. “Groups calling for default are clearly less interested in the Main Street concerns of business large and small,” said the Chamber of Commerce’s Bruce Josten, the group’s executive vice president for government affairs.
Reap what you sow, Paul said in Galatians 6:7-9.
Oh, and speaking of Jesus and causation…
For repeating Jesus’ message, one Tea Partier is saying Pope Francis is making Jesus cry. “Jesus Christ is weeping in Heaven,” says Virginia tea partier Jonathan Moseley. Probably for joy but whatever. Moseley clearly has the same issues with understanding the Bible as does David Barton. Probably uses the David Barton Translation.
And you thought the King James Version was bad.
Yeah, about that.
Moseley argued on World Net Daily that,
Francis argues for dependence upon government to redistribute wealth. And con artists in the U.S. are seizing on the opportunity to spread the misery of socialism. Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin this week called Pope Francis on his mangling of economics. Then author Reza Aslan struck back in the Washington Post, claiming that Jesus was a socialist.
(I don’t know: I don’t think this is so bad. After all, because Pope Francis is just echoing Jesus’ own words, Rush Limbaugh called Jesus a Marxist.)
“But we have to define our terms,” cautions the tea partier, who then proceeds to define socialism as “theft” (get off our Interstate system and stay out of our libraries then, Mr. Moseley). He says he rejects “crony capitalism” while welcoming it with both arms. After all, without crony capitalism and the threat liberalism poses to it, there would be no need for a tea party at all.
He says,
Francis blames poverty and unequal wealth on “ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation.” But there was also poverty in Jesus’ day, when government tightly regulated the economy.
Actually – and here we see influences of David Barton once more – the ancient economy of Jesus’ day was neither tightly controlled nor regulated. Cities in the Roman empire were all but independent entities and capitalism ran rampant. The Romans no more controlled Jerusalem’s economy than they did that of any other city. They barely had a presence there at all out of respect for Jewish religious sensibilities and the Roman governor had his headquarters in the Gentile city of Caesarea, on the coast.
Another tea partier, North Carolina’s Brooke McGowan, wants us to believe that Wiccans are going to cause invasion and destruction. Well, not just Wiccans, of course, but their nefarious allies, atheists and Muslims.
Wiccans and atheists and Muslims oh my!
In this nation we have turned away from the God of the Bible, and we’ve told Him He’s simply not welcome here. We have welcomed pluralism, atheism, secular humanism, Wicca, and even Islam, but we’ve told the Holy God to stay away. Legally, we removed God from the public schools over 50 years ago, and then 40 years ago through a court of nine justices, though not unanimous, we determined that His very image, precious life in the womb, could now be legally torn apart, killed, and discarded. Legalized murder began our rapid moral downfall….Now, how can we expect as a nation to stay blessed or even prosper when we willingly stay under this curse?
But what can you expect out of a Larry Klayman rally? Really, your expectations are too high.
Oh, and speaking of low expectations, Rick Santorum isn’t happy that Republicans are signing up for Obamacare. Apparently, they’re old and sick…and you know, icky. But Mr. Santorum has not thought this through (I know, a shock): The older people he is upset about, after all, represent the GOP’s base.
How dare they want to live on his dime!
Things are falling apart all around them; their fantasies are disintegrating for all to see and the result is that as they become more desperate for their fantasies to be true they become more strident, as eager to convince themselves as us.
It’s a truly sad spectacle but a not unentertaining one. As we go forward to 2014, and then 2016, and as Obamacare takes hold and becomes almost commonplace, the spectacle is sure to become even more outrageous as heads begin to explode like overripe tomatoes.
The tea party is the intersection of cognitive dissonance and reality. It’s certain to become a reality show. Oh wait – it already is. But never mind, tea party, we awful liberals have some issues for your tissues. Hang in there while we dry our eyes from tears of laughter.
Image from The Bullshit Observer
Updated [11:18 3 December 2013]: To reflect Justin Baragona’s post
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
