Some thoughts on the teabaggers I know....

[Pholus]

Ah, the joys of Facebook! Just connected with many old friends from high school. I suppose I should be unsurprised, but one old friend is now a proud Patriot, Beckdroid and Tea Partier. Out of my entire group of friends, this was the guy who got sentenced to mandatory community service, who knew who to talk to to buy whatever illegal "good stuff" you wanted out in the middle of the prairie in the 80's, who was habitually light-fingered (I learned what "shrinkage" was from watching him at his place of employment), who never took school seriously, and who was pretty much anti-authority on general principle. Now he's spamming cut-and-paste right wing blasts against the moral bankruptcy of our country on his Facebook page... I'm totally blown away!

Why IS it that when you see people in the public square loudly decrying the morality of others you'll usually find them guilty of the same sins when you scratch the surface. Is it just sociopathic tendencies or is it some form of penance or a denial mechanism?

Got me thinking about all the current Teabaggers I'm related to or that I've known through the years. I'm a good listener so I've heard it all from them. All their stories line up neatly in two categories:

1) Their own problems are due to bad luck, poor economy, high taxes, jerk bosses, *ssholes they have to deal with -- THEIR MISFORTUNE IS NEVER THEIR OWN FAULT.

2) Their neighbors' problems come from amoral lifestyles, laziness, character failings, stupidity -- NON-TEABAGGERS BROUGHT IT ON THEMSELVES AND THEY DESERVE WHAT THEY GOT.

I usually try to preserve my friends' dignity even when I want to laugh -- like another conservative friend who was bitching about the lazy people who take unemployment. It somehow escaped his memory, but I lived through his own stint "on the dole." His company was bought off by a competitor and all the specialists in his department were given severance packages. He took several months of "vacation" while his colleagues hit the ground running and lined up new jobs. The market was saturated with new hires by the time he started looking and he almost used the full allowed time on unemployment before he got the next job. Yet now he denies the entire incident ever happened. I guess I should have been harder and called BS even to the point of calling him a liar to his face, but it was hard to see what that would accomplish other than alienate an otherwise good friend who just has poor political taste.

Anyway, what EXPLAINS this odd Teabagger behaviour and what do you do about it that is constructive?

[Catshrink]

1. The contradictions must split their brains.. or would if they could think.

Family story: my sister lost her health insurance years ago when her insurance company went bankrupt. She couldn't get insurance anywhere because of a preexisting condition and went without for years. She was in and out of the hospital a lot for a while, had trouble paying the hospital bill, and rejoiced and thanked God when the hospital "forgave" a good chunk of what she owed. (Who did she think paid it?)

Guess who opposed health care reform? Guess who couldn't wait to sign up for Medicare when she turned 65? And, wait for it..... who is the biggest 'bagger in her town? Who hates government interference in her life? Who thinks government spends too much?

Yeah, she loves Beck, Palin, O'Really, Hannity, Rush, and the other idiots, especially Palin because she's "just like me." She sure is, in many, many ways.

[Pholus]

2. And hence, my problem.

These are people we know, not the nebulous "others" that they fear so much. How do you show them (without driving them away) that this is BS?

At some level I keep thinking about the eliminationist talk righties squawk out. Is there another split that dissociates ordinary, "decent" people they know from the "socialists/islamofascists" bogeymen that are going to kill them?

Or am I going to coffee with a guy who deep down inside is making a mental note that when the revolution comes I had better be one of the ones that goes up against the wall.... ;)