You don’t often think of the City of Beverly Hills and the Tea Party in one sentence. But, nevertheless, there they were in some odd form of cosmic convergence, demonstrating to the more ardent supporters and the merely curious that populist outrage can emanate from one of the more expensive zip codes in the United States. Here, just a mere block or so north of the famed Rodeo Drive where upper end manufacturers, excluding maybe Ralph Lauren, import and showcase their designer wares from Italy, France, and just about every other place but here, the Beverly Hills Tea Party is banding together to take its country back. Will that be cash or charge?
I am not one to cast the usual knee jerk aspersions on the Tea Party. Must of those have been repeated ad nauseam and the disparaging remarks have done little to either understand it or suppress this often erratic and ragged movement that, despite all, is moving forward as an influence to be reckoned with. I may agree with very little of what it stands for and may find Tea Party theories and practices both erroneous and convoluted, but the anger most feel to a large extent is to some extent justifiable outrage. The fact that this country has been sold down the drain by certain corporate interests and the toadies that pimp and whore for them is truly the American crime of the century.
People who once had respectable jobs have been put out of work and their once gainful employment has been outsourced at a cheaper rate to countries where the cheaper labor can best save the corporate bottom line. Stock prices increase, but people continually not only lose their jobs but find fewer in the downsized marketplace. Where there were once decent manufacturing jobs, there are meager and humiliating service center jobs. Certain industries, like Elvis, have left the building. Unless there is a serious reevaluation of the true and long term cost of their loss, they aren’t coming back in the foreseeable future.
Consequently, people have not only lost their jobs, but have depleted their life savings. Many no longer have retirement portfolios and the once relied upon pensions have either been seriously diminished or vaporized in the series of bankruptcies and the assorted mergers and acquisitions. All that crap about the late life second career rings hollow and obnoxious when your money is gone and you can’t find a job. Many Americans have lost their houses, their cars, their dignity, and are facing the prospect that they have just raised the first generation of children who will probably not fare as well economically as their parents had. In a country where the ongoing belief was that economically speaking the kids would always do better than their parents, the grim reality is that this may not be the case.
The Tea Party and its incumbent protest aspect is in its essence really nothing new to America. Its name of course is derived from the first visible protest against British taxation of its colonies with the much vaunted Boston Tea Party that every third grader learns about in lore and legend. “No taxation without representation, ” and then none of your damn tea. There are elements of the Tea Party in the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania, in the 1790’s and the Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts in the late 1780’s. Roots of the Tea Party can be attributed to President Andrew Jackson and his much heralded “Jacksonian Democracy” that brought a more populist element to government. Even Thomas Jefferson, it could be argued, was an early perpetrator of this vague ideal, as he opted for the agrarian and state’s rights sensibility over Hamilton’s Federalist theory.
In the twentieth century there are threads of the Tea Party in various campaigns. There are roots of it with Ayn Rand and her “Objectivism” philosophy. You can find the Tea Party or populist philosophy, using the term loosely here, in the 1960’s with Alabama Governor George Wallace’s Presidential candidacy. Wallace’s Presidential campaign was feared by Democrats and especially Republicans. Come election time, he ended up with 13.5 percent of the popular vote. Not bad. But Ross Perot, another you could attribute to the early Tea Party movement, topped Wallace by garnering almost 19% of the popular vote. Had Perot in the end not seemed so off the wall by insisting there were doctored photos of him and threats against his daughter, and had he not selected retired Admiral Jim Stockdale as his running mate, a man who in his later years was not what one would call the world’s most coherent man, Perot would have garnered an even higher vote count.
As for my encounter with the Tea Party, it was purely happenstance. We were driving down Santa Monica Boulevard a few Sundays back when we noticed this gathering in the park. At first, we had no idea what it was and though it was yet one more arts and craft show where in cloth wrapped booths vendors displayed typically bland art in between the makeshift yogurt and frozen banana stands. But we didn’t see the booths, really, and the park contained too few people for the typical art show. We saw printed and hand painted signs proclaiming that this was indeed the gathering of the Beverly Hills Tea Party. There in the park, before the big wrought iron and brass sign that proudly proclaimed this park was in Beverly Hills there stood a bevy of America flags and sound speakers blaring out in limited fidelity with a whole lot of static patriotic songs that were were familiar with and some with which are best considered arcane.
It was over 100 degrees outside. But what the hell, it’s not everyday you get to see the Tea Party in the relative convenience of your own back yard. So there they were, holding signs up against big government, Obamacare, wanton spending, and all the other stuff they are known for. A few “take our country back” signs that some believe are filled with racist innuendo. Among the predominantly white faces there were one or two Hispanic people, one or two African Americans, and more than a couple of Persians. Beverly Hills for those who don’t know may have the largest Iranian/Persian population outside of Iran. Of course the trio marching around with fife and drum in woolen frock coats and three cornered hats, in the hundred degree heat, fit demographically into either the category of total commitment or theatrical lunacy. Take your pick.
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Not all were as determined and single minded as the media would allow. While the organizers did their best to gather the flock, and while the few vendors behind the makeshift tables peddled Beverly Hills Tea Party emblazoned tee shirts and baseball caps, there were those who appeared a little uncertain about their being there. Under my obvious scrutiny there were a few people who were shy and a bit sheepish about protesting the socialist government takeover of Beverly Hills. Others clustered in groups under the shade of the old growth Oak Trees and fanned themselves with the paperboard brochures. In all, it was a peaceful gathering that carried the kind of tentative vibe when you find yourself sitting a little too close to someone else’s picnic table.
The main theme of the speeches was fiscal responsibility. We didn’t really stay for the speakers as it was hot and we were bored, and late lunch was beckoning down by the ocean. But anyone who follows anything knows the Tea Party maintains a relentless desire for fiscal responsibility. In fact, it was partly the wanton spending and subsequent economic fiasco has inspired the advent of the Tea Party. It is a political group whose inception has been fueled by the reflexive reaction to the collective bamboozle. Since forming, the Tea Party has gained group and now poses a threat to not only the Democrats but the Republican Party who erroneously assumed these people were securely in their pocket. In walking around the grounds I heard one well intentioned soul offering ill advised and unwarranted suggestions about how best to approach the forthcoming elections. The man he was talking to, tall and not without his share of testosterone promptly admonished, ” we have an agenda of our own. We intend to take over the Republic Party.”
This statement may seem like heady stuff. But historically speaking, it serves as the same political metaphor that inspired myriad radical political elements to move in on the moderates and then once installed in legitimate government, move out the moderates and really let those banners fly. Hence in history the revolution and then the counter or second phase of the revolution. The rhetoric of accommodations followed by the subsequent introduction of the firing squad and the guillotine. In fact one of the few places where the moderates took power through revolution and then retained power without the radical element taking it to its bloody extremes was in that faraway land called the United State of America. But now, if nothing else, the Tea Party can be the first truly viable third party. That may even lead to the formation of political coalition. Doubtful, but possible.
I am not saying this is the big Tea Party plan. But that’s a long way from here. In its incipient political stage, the other key thematic through line is the general mistrust of government. The Tea Party hates the government and sees it as a wasteful abomination that inflicts upon its people intrusive and unworkable policies that only add to the already overwhelming burden of trying to survive. Different Tea Party candidates wish to nullify the 17th Amendment that provides for a progressive income tax, and the 18th Amendment that enables the popular election of the United States Senate. Others want to rid the federal government of everything from the Department of Education and Department of Energy, to the Departments of Internal Revenue, Commerce, and Homeland Security. I am sure there are other departments that would be given the ax, but these are enough to focus on at the moment.
Of course this all seems absurd, but like other absurdities, such disparate individuals as Nazi Propaganda Minster, Joseph Goebbels, Soviet Leader, Vladimir Lenin and pioneer psychologist, William James have stated in common, “if you say something enough, people will eventually believe it.” It’s a paraphrase or composite of the three statements, but that’s the general point. Goebbels, by the way, detailed nineteen points of propaganda that remain remarkably relevant this very day. And the fact is there are millions of people are believing what most of us see as absurd on its best days and totally bat shit in terms of governmental management and oversight. Enough people are believing this to put some of the Tea Party in office. It has been speculated that eight Tea Party candidates have a chance of being elected to office.
In some ways, as bitter a pill as it is to swallow, this stands to reason the Tea Party, in fact, would end up a presence on the American political landscape. Because the fact remains that government in recent years has performed neither effectively or responsibly. It has committed to economic folly and imposed itself where it was often uninvited. Conversely, and with bitter irony, it has eliminated regulations that have allowed bandits with a briefcase to run off with the store.
But then here is the Tea Party. They rant rave and make some outrageous statements. Some but not all are racist, or homophobic, or Bible thumping bigots who see subversion in every environmental issue. Of course there is a lot of tough talk about kicking out the immigrants and eliminating Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs whether they make sense or not. The Tea Party sense of fiscal responsibility is kind of like your parents finding out you used your allowance money for candy and not the wretched school lunch, so now they are going to deny any money and starve you to death, just to prove their point. There is also the fearful prospect and collateral damage sustained by their anointing their lunatic candidates so they can govern the asylum. With some the consequences of forty years of failed policy has just made them crazy. Yes, they may appears fools and awkward, subject to derision, but who is the greater fool? The Democrats who didn’t take them seriously? Or the establishment Republicans who believed they could manipulate them and use them for their shock troops, and then file them neatly inside their pocket. And the end of the day who are the fools? The Tea Party or those that let them gain power?
The Lessons of History, as once admonished by the exceptional couple, Will and Ariel Durant, are tough for us to learn.
