The Tea Party's Toxic Take on History. Ignore it at your peril.

[babylonsister]

The Tea Party's Toxic Take on History
Ignore it at your peril.
By Ron Rosenbaum
Posted Thursday, April 22, 2010, at 4:50 PM ET


Sign at a Tea Party rally in Nevada

snip//

You hear them say, for instance, that we live under "tyranny" because one side lost a health care vote in an elected legislative body. And that, in all seriousness, the president is a communist. For many Tea Party members, the word is not just a vile epithet; it's a realistic political description. Check out this clip in which Tea Party "celebrity" spokeswoman Victoria Jackson flatly tells a flummoxed Fox News host, "The president's a communist." When the host (the Fox host!) starts to object, she responds that Glenn Beck has taught her that progressive is a code word for communist. (Time to put that ugly hammer and sickle logo inside the "O" on your I-hate-Obama T.P. protest sign!)

Unless of course Obama is really a "fascist," as some T.P.ers have it, because he's a liberal, and liberals are fascists (as we all know from that magisterial work of history, Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg). So instead of the hammer and sickle, draw a little Hitler mustache on Obama's face on your T.P. hate signs. Or better yet, parade around with a swastika! (The Tea Partiers seem to get a special kick out of this, for some reason.)

Of course Obama is also probably an evil "socialist" which is apparently, in the Tea Party worldview, pretty much the same as a fascist or a communist. (One gets the impression that some T.P.ers have had major, life-changing, "aha!" moments when they first learned that Hitler's party was the National SOCIALIST German Workers Party. Slam dunk!)*

And if Obama's not a socialist fascist communist, he may be—ooh, scary, kids!—a "progressive," which, as Victoria Jackson learned from the erudite Glenn Beck, is really a secret "code word" for communist.

And they believe him! That's the thing. The recent New York Times study of T.P.ers reported that party members are "better educated" than most Americans. But educated in what? Clearly, they—or at least a significant, influential portion of them—are utterly uneducated in history. One can get a college degree without taking a single class in world history and thus still be ripe for the idiot distortions of a Glenn Beck.

Most people with a basic grounding in history find Tea Party ignorance something to laugh about, certainly not something to take seriously. But I would argue that history demonstrates that historical ignorance is dangerous and that it can have tragic consequences, however laughable it may initially seem. And thus the media, liberals, and others are misguided in laughing it off. And educated conservatives are irresponsible in staying silent in the face of these distortions.

more...

http://www.slate.com/id/2251669/

[elocs]

1. I didn't ever believe it was a good idea to treat the T.P.ers lightly or as a joke.

Just like I've always thought it was stupid how some would dance on the GOP's grave like it is already dead. It ain't over till it's over and we had better not stop fighting until the fight is over.

[Hissyspit]

2. kick nt

[bhikkhu]

3. I got six books on the constitution from the library

...on my last visit, as its been a frequent topic lately and I'm a little rusty. Its always better to have a good fresh grasp of the subject matter, even though I only talk to the guys I work with and people here and there.

[Enthusiast]

4. This is perfectly obvious

to most of us here. And the media is complicit. Very disturbing.

[undertakerlives]

5. Ignorance

With any special interest group like the Teabaggers... they all believe their own word of mouth and any outsider with an opinion or fact is wrong. They can be complacent with their lack of historical knowledge because they don't need it - all they need is their own hateful rhetoric and bogus prevarications