P1:"Tea?" P2:"Don't Tread On Me!" P1:"Huh?" P2:"Party!"

Preface: This is another DC-related post. And I'm writing it before midnight (and sober). As such, it is probably much less interesting (but waay more verbose) than last night's. But you be the judge, dear reader!


Kate and I decided to walk down the Mall today to go see an film at the National Museum of American History for the DC Environmental Film Festival. The film is called "A Road Not Taken." And while it's not the subject of this post, or at least only tangentially so, I'll do an DFW-esque footnote for the interested parties. (1)

From the house in NE on H street, we took the pretty walk down Maryland Ave. Down past blooming spring flowers, budding trees, and friendly neighbors stepping out into the glorious 75 degree sunlight. It's hard to beat DC in springtime.

We got to the east side of the Capitol, the side facing the Supreme Court, and began to see, amongst the usual tourist-looking tourists, tourists carrying flags with a coiled cobra on its face with the words, "Don't tread on me" printed ominously along the bottom. At first, I thought that it might be a walker's version of those Tazmanian Devil mudflaps that read, "Back Off!!" as a supposed warning to anyone with the temerity to tailgate a massive gas GUZZLER with Toby Keith (or even scarier, Glenn Beck) blaring out its windows. But the flag carriers seemed merrily unperturbed by the presence of large, sweaty Midwesterners "tailgating" them while huffing up Capitol Hill. With that option dashed, I was at a loss for explanation.

-- Wait, did I just say "option?" Like "public option?" No, couldn't be, that was gone months ago. But this line of thinking got me on the right track -- of course it was everybody's favorite group of uneducated dumbasses (sorry cast of Jersey Shore) -- the Tea Partiers!

As we began to walk down the Hill, we could see them massing around the front of the Capitol -- maybe 5k-10k strong. Fervent speakers started chants of, "Kill the Bill! Kill the Bill!" Kids had signs of their president made up (quite nicely?) with a Hitler mustache thrust into their clammy hands. Older citizens in wheelchairs (probably already recipients of public healthcare, but who's counting) were pushed by well-to-do angry, crazy people to hear Michelle "The Census Makes No Sens-us" Bachmann do her thang.

I am a supporter of the First Amendment and believe people are entitled to voice their opinions in public. It's what separates us from those "evildoers" that we're supposedly on the fast-track of becoming. But I'm also a supporter of critical thinking and curiosity in the minds of the masses. Take, for instance, climate change (wow, I'm going to get a lot of uncles mad with this post, aren't I?). I could just blindly believe that climate change is occurring after hearing commentators on the news (cable, of course -- and not those pansies at Fox; I'm talkin' MSNBC) scare me into thinking that polar bears are going to die. And, as the thinking goes, if I believe this blindly, I will eventually have to petition the FEDERAL Department of Carbon Security to turn on the lights at night. Somehow, blindly believing this "hoax" will lead me astray. But I read peer-reviewed reports on the science (socialist, I know -- public access to information and all). I worked with scientists who studied climate change. I formulated my own opinions based on the facts, not conjecture or a mouthy talking head. And I came to the conclusion that climate change is real. Humans are causing it. And the only way to stop it is to re-imagine our energy future (see footnote 1 and 2). But Tea Partiers just don't do this kind of critical analysis.

If they did, assuming they had that capacity, they would truly mount a populist revolution -- in direct opposition to what Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh tell them to believe. It's truly sad to hear (supposedly) nice Midwestern soccer moms say that this is the first time they've ever gotten involved in our government. It's sad because somehow the system has failed them. It's sad because unelected sensationalists on television get to tell them what to think under the guise of some organic populism really grounded in naked capitalism (hey, ratings = cash = wider audience = greater license on the truth and more scare-mongering).

The rush of anger these people are feeling is as inauthentic as the sweet soft drinks they guzzled (messily) as they watched Congresspeople (who are of a system they apparently hate only selectively) on the losing end of the eventual healthcare stick try to plant the seeds of anger for the next election. Their anger should be pointed at the obstructionists in Congress who, instead of playing the "Party of NO" should have been working with Democrats to construct an ideal package that would ensure that the long-term health of their constituents was taken care of in a way they approved. Instead now, the long-term health of their constituents will be ensured, but the Democrats who worked hardest to do this will be vilified and possibly unseated. Their anger is inauthentic because it's not really aimed at something tangible. People are scared of the government, but more so, they are scared of things they can't control.

This feeling of helplessness (brought on by a nasty case of the socialism espoused by our current Dictator President) is supposedly remedied by a strong dose of vague "freedom" or amorphous "liberty." But freedom from what?

It's a question that I'm not sure they could answer. And one I'm not going to try to answer. I love this country too much to become an apologist for this fake populist movement. I hope this is just a dream. I hope that people really do possess even nominal critical thinking skills so they don't have to rely on people who get paid to talk tell them what to think. It's a vicious cycle. The people who are actually paid to represent us risk being unseated by vaguely angry constituents who are so vaguely angry because it's what Glenn Beck tells them to be. This isn't a tea party. It's a dangerous experiment being conducted by untrained scientists on unknowing subjects. And it's bad for America.

(1) "A Road Not Taken" is an independent film celebrating its U.S. premiere at the DC Environmental Film Festival. Two Swiss artists followed the (tragic) history of the solar panels installed by President Jimmy Carter on the roof of the White House during the energy crisis in the late-70's. The panels were removed in the mid-80's by HIM (Reagan) in a defiant show of American hubris. I mean, who needs sissy solar panels when manly coal does just fine, thank you very much! The film's title was actually part of a speech Carter gave when he described the decision Americans would have to make regarding the future of energy. “In the year 2000 [ed: he said in 1979], the solar water heater behind me which is being dedicated today, will still be here, supplying cheap, efficient energy. [ed: it is not] A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity [ed: yep!], a museum piece [ed: uhuh!], an example of a road not taken [ed: sadly], or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people - harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.” This sadly prophetic sentence, spoken by an unfairly maligned president, rings true today. It is a museum piece and a curiosity, not an example of truly American courage and sacrifice. Imagine where we would be had we took heed with the bitter truth, rather than electing a president running on a fuzzy version of some unrealistic American arrogance (Morning in America?). Thirty years of progress has been/is being impeded due to the short-sightedness of our politicians and the electorate. Imagine, for a minute, the computer in 1980. Does a large warehouse of "supercomputers" come to mind? With the computing capacity less than our cellphones? Now think of the computer in 2010...the laptop I'm writing this blog on has more power in sleep mode than those computers did going at full bore. Now, if you dare, think of the progress we could've made in our energy technologies with 30 years of innovation under our scientific belts. And not just cursory innovation, driven by "smart," incremental changes championed by the fossil industry now (ahem, clean coal?); but revolutionary innovation, driven by a greater need to do good by for our children and theirs. But we chose the easy road and now, unfortunately, President Carter's 30-year old language will haunt us and for those who ask, "Why?" What could we possibly answer?
(2) Luckily for us (Kate and I), if this were a Venn Diagram, the type of people going to an environmental film festival (us) would be a circle entirely separate from the type of people attending the Tea Party rally (them). Not even on the same page.