TEA PARTY IS THE MOST JEALOUS LOVER

“If I can’t have you nobody can!  I’ll kill you before I’ll see you with his filthy hands on you!!!”  So goes the insane cry of the man who sees his spouse or lover as a possession, rather than another human being.  It is the cry that usually precedes the killing of the spouse or girlfriend, usually, but not always, just before the perpetrator turns the gun on himself.  As long as this mentality plays out between two individuals it is universally regarded as pathetic weakness, irrationality and plain nuttiness.

But what happens when this sentiment is expressed, not by a spurned lover, but by a portion of a population that feels entitled to total ownership of the society in which they live?  Nonsense, you say. No political faction would destroy its own society just because another faction is in power, you say?  Then let me introduce you to the Tea party.

The conventional wisdom says that the Republican/Tea party is against the Affordable Healthcare Act, or Obamacare, precisely because they know the public will love it and thereby doom their prospects for power in the future.  As reprehensible and selfish as this position is, it appears to have merit.  We know that the Republicans are willing to do just about anything to regain/maintain power.  Yet there is another level of analysis that even further elucidates the madness that is coming from the right wing of this country. They want their country back.

They have said it a million times: they want their country back.  Obama has no business being president, simply because this is not his country.  Just ask Donald Trump.   It belongs to white people, and they want it back.  They don’t just disagree with him-Democrats and Republicans, by definition disagree- they hate him.  Never before have so many politicians of the opposition party been so deathly afraid of having their picture taken with the president.  Despite Ronald Reagan’s racism-from his opposition to a M L King holiday to his support for apartheid in South Africa-  black athletes went to the White house when their teams won championships during the Reagan era out of respect for the office.  A trip to the White house by a sports team has never been a political event or endorsement.  Now. white athletes like Dan Hampton of the Chicago Bears and two members of the 1972 Dolphins routinely refuse to meet with Obama because they don’t agree with his politics???!!!  Puhleeze!!

They want their country back, and if they can’t have it, no one can.  Hence, the government shutdown.  They have already marred the credit rating of the United States with their debt ceiling shenanigans.  So, yes, until this government is back in white hands where it belongs, they are willing to destroy it and a lot of its citizens who depend upon it.  So, now that we know the jealous lover/ husband /would rather kill  this damsel/nation rather than let Obama keep his filthy black, defiling hands on it, the only question that remains is where this jealous lover turns the gun on himself after the murder.      No analogy is perfect.  And this one gets tricky because there are two parts to the perpetrator: the ultra right wing voters who voted in the Tea Part candidates and the politicians themselves.  I don’t think Tea Part Congressmen are any smarter than their constituents, but I do believe they have better survival instincts. 

The voters are the serious murder suicide perpetrators in the jealous lover scenario.  They have proven themselves willing to vote against their own best interests, and those of their children to get this black man away from their  government.  The uninsured voting for candidates who will make sure they never have any health insurance are the true believers, willing to drink the Kool Aide in a New York minute.  There was the federal employee who was laid off because of the  government shutdown who voted for the candidate who promised to shut the government down.  Now he’s dismayed that he’s out of work.  He voted Tea Party because he believed that the federal government THAT EMPLOYS HIM is too big!!! 

The actual Congressmen who shut the government down aren’t quite so self destructive.  They have told lies that would have made Adolph Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebels  (Goebel’s mantra was the bigger the lie the better) blush.  They know their constituents will back them no matter how destructive their actions.  They  also  know that they will have cover from both the right wing media a la Fox News and the mainstream media.  No matter how egregious their actions, no matter how bold the lies they tell, the mainstream media, in the name of objectivity will come down somewhere in the middle, and blame both sides. And by the way, the Congressmen who shut down the government to keep people from getting health insurance all have excellent health insurance.  They thrive while their constituents suffer self inflicted wounds. 
They deserve each other.  It’s the rest of us I feel sorry for.  I don’t know if we can keep them from destroying this country.