Dumb, gullible, and selfish

(photo* from reddit)

This poll of Tea Party supporters tends to confirm my poor opinion of them. They're angry, yes, but they don't seem to know why they're angry (and when they think they know, their facts are wrong). They claim to want spending cuts, but they don't want anything cut that benefits them. They want tax cuts, but they also want to lower deficits. Basically, they don't want to sacrifice anything, themselves. They just want a magic wand.

Well, these are basically the same people who got us into this mess in the first place. They're the same people who bought into "voodoo economics" - that never-ending tax cuts (mostly for the rich) would just magically balance the budget, that wealthy CEOs would just naturally do the right thing, that even two wars would "pay for themselves,"... somehow. The evidence of the past decade hasn't fazed them a bit, because they don't care about evidence. They just "know."

And there's plenty of racism there, too. It's not always overt, but having a black president has certainly raised the hysteria level among them. There's this suspicion of minorities, that they'll get something for nothing, and especially that a black president will favor "his people" over "real" Americans. It's ugly, it really is.

Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.

The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.

They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people. 

Get that? They're even more racist than Republicans in general! And it seems odd to me that people would want the government to benefit the rich, but not the poor. Why would the rich need our help? Indeed, for eight years we've suffered under an Administration that did favor the rich. And they've made out like bandits. So why are we so concerned with the rich?

The middle class, sure, because most of these people are middle class. It easy to think that you yourself deserve every benefit, isn't it? But under Obama's leadership, the Democrats have focused far more on the middle class than the Republicans ever did. So what gives? I've got to think that this is mostly just bigotry. In Nebraska, "poor" is a code-word among conservatives for "minority" (black and Hispanic, generally).

Most poor people in Nebraska are white, of course, but this is a matter of belief, not evidence. And Republicans from Fox News on down have been very good at pushing these racist myths. When Ronald Reagan talked about welfare queens picking up their checks in Cadillacs, he knew his audience would understand that these were black people, not the widow down the street. And so, too, they push the idea that Obama - that scary black man with a foreign-sounding name - is a socialist, which is laughable on the face of it.

“I just feel he’s getting away from what America is,” said Kathy Mayhugh, 67, a retired medical transcriber in Jacksonville. “He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction, I don’t care what he says. He’s been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. That doesn’t say much for him.” 

Barack Obama is black, so he isn't "one of us." It's easy to get these bigots - especially these elderly bigots - to believe the worst of him, even really laughable claims like this. (And Republicans who know better are, as usual, unethical enough to take advantage of this bigotry.)

But while most Americans blame the Bush administration or Wall Street for the current state of the American economy, the greatest number of Tea Party supporters blame Congress.

They do not want a third party and say they usually or almost always vote Republican. The percentage holding a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush, at 57 percent, almost exactly matches the percentage in the general public that holds an unfavorable view of him. 

Amazing, isn't it? How could anyone hold a favorable view of George W. Bush these days, after the complete and unmitigated disaster of his two terms in office? Of course, blaming Congress is easy, but they blame Barack Obama (when he didn't take office until our economy had collapsed), so why not Bush? For that matter, the Republicans controlled Congress for 12 years - and through at least half of that time, the GOP controlled all three branches of the federal government. Are our memories really that short?

But note that they "usually or almost always" vote Republican. You see? They are the people who got us into this mess - all of these messes - but they just don't want to blame themselves. Well, that's human nature, isn't it? But if you can't learn from your mistakes, you'll continue to make them. And these Tea Party people are continuing to make the same mistakes that have brought our country to the brink of disaster.

When talking about the Tea Party movement, the largest number of respondents said that the movement’s goal should be reducing the size of government, more than cutting the budget deficit or lowering taxes.

And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.

But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.” 

Heh, heh. OK, this is funny, but it would be funnier if it weren't so dumb. Every politician since George Washington has focused on cutting waste, because "waste" doesn't have any constituents. Who could be against cutting waste? It's an easy promise to make, because no one will get upset over it. Of course, it's a useless promise, too.

Oh, sure, there's waste in government. There's waste in every large organization - and small ones, too. There's a certain amount of waste in your own household, no matter how hard you work to minimize it. Waste is a fact of life. You can't eliminate all waste, and even if you could, you wouldn't make a dent in the U.S. budget deficit.

No, they want to cut "spending," but then ask about the details. These Tea Party supporters - who tend to be elderly, anyway - don't want to cut Social Security or Medicare, because that benefits them. And you can bet they don't want to cut military spending, either (and really, that's hard to do when they got us into two wars, without an exit strategy and without any means of paying for them).

They want to "cut spending" but only on things that benefit other people. No, even that's probably too rational for them. For the most part, they want to cut imaginary spending. The vast majority of actual spending is sacrosanct. No, just cut "waste." Heh, heh. Oh, and cut taxes and balance the budget, too, while you're at it.

I recently saw a TV interview of this elderly Tea Party activist who was convinced that the Democrats were going to take away her precious Social Security and Medicare. And yes, they were going to ration health care to the elderly, a la those notorious "death panels." She knew this, because... "it's all over talk radio." (Talk radio wouldn't lie to her, would it?) She was adamant that Social Security and Medicare be protected (military spending, too, I'll bet, but they didn't ask her about that).

But she was also determined that government spending (other, unspecified government spending), taxes, and the deficit all be cut. Funny, huh? Well, no, I guess it's just sad. How can people be this dumb? How can they be this gullible (especially when it's the Democrats who brought her Social Security and Medicare and have defended it from Republicans ever since)? And how can they be this selfish, that they push for solutions, but they're not willing to make any sacrifices themselves?

At least this woman was honest:

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

* Note that the title of this post doesn't necessarily refer the woman in the photo, since I don't know who she is. I just thought it was an appropriate illustration.

(Edit: I see now that 59% of Tea Partiers have a favorable impression of Glenn Beck! 'Nuff said.)