Most people when asked to describe an anarchist would offer something like, "It's a person who wants to abolish government at all costs, and where any cost justifies the means." Some definitions may differ slightly but that's the general idea. The "any cost" that most anarchists use is wanton violence and destruction. Burning buildings, attacking people, and in general creating as much mayhem as possible.
That was then....this is now!
To be sure, the old style anarchist, described above, still exist, as the recent senseless riots in Great Britain suggest, where anarchists, mixed with common criminals, who are only there to steal, destroy parts of London, and other towns. However, a more deadly form of anarchist has now reared it's ugly head, mainly in the United States. They don't burn buildings, they don't physically attack people and they present themselves as upright citizens trying to help their country. Never-the-less, they pose a deadly threat to our nation.
Who are these people? They are the ones who either ignore or don't realize what a debt ceiling really is (it allows our country to pay the interest on current debts, and is not a check for new spending). They were willing to see the country default on it's financial obligations (for the first time) and go down the tubes to prove a point that government is too big and must be cut down....way down.
Make no mistake. This group has clout, far more than an anarchist with a home-made bomb. They have sent people to the highest governing body of our country, the Senate and the Congress. This group is known as the Tea Party.
At first we dismissed these people as ignorant rubes who had little idea as to what went on in the real world. That was our mistake. Even though they represent only a small percentage of the American population, they grew in power and numbers and sent lawmakers to Washington who had one single agenda. These people were not sent there to make laws, but to destroy many of the old laws which protect our citizens; to weaken and destroy our current form of Government, and to throw many of our less fortunate citizens under the bus. They want to destroy the social safety nets which have taken many decades to build. Social Security? Wreck it. Medicare? Cripple It. Fair union wages? Get rid of them. Pure and simple, folks, this is anarchy wearing a different cheap suit, and trying to look respectable. They firmly fit the description of anarchists because they are bent on destroying our current form of government. This political form of anarchy is far more destructive than the violence of traditional anarchists.
By and large tea bagger members are the vastly uninformed following leaders who are financed by some well heeled special interest groups. They don't think, they react. They don't lead, they follow. They swallow half truths (or no truth at all) and believe what they want to believe, and not the facts, or the truth. Since the majority of Tea Party member are not wealthy, they seem much like a man in a tree with a saw working to bring down the very limb on which he sits. They ignore the fact that the tax load for most wealthy Americans is too small, while complaining that their tax load is too large. They raise their fist at meeting against adequate health care for all, when many of them are the beneficiaries of that same health care. They are quick to quote that government should be by the people, while short changing the important fact that it is also for the people. I won't even get into the "God is on our side" drivel many of them spread, as that is best discussed at another time.
They want to see government chopped down at the knees, and to hell with the fallout of human suffering this would bring about. They are the direct cause of the credit rating of the United States being lowered, as Republican and Democratic leaders, and the president had agreed in fact on a much larger debt reduction, coupled with a modest raise in revenue, before the flapping of mouths from House tea party members scuttled it all.
If I sound like I have no respect for the Tea Party, it's because I don't. Ignorance at any level should never be rewarded with kind words or even with indifference. Ignorance should always be fought with truth and reason.
The Tea Party won't listen to the truth or to reason, but just maybe they will have to listen to our votes next year.
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