What's so wrong with young people coming together to laugh at the Tea Partiers?

[babylonsister]

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=rallying_the_elites

Rallying the Elites

What's so wrong with young people coming together to laugh at the Tea Partiers?

Gabriel Arana | October 28, 2010 | web only


Critics are billing it the anti-Tea Party. On Saturday, a crowd of more than 150,000 liberal, college-educated 20- and 30-somethings will descend on the capital for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. These are the élites who, as Stewart said, "have jobs and lives" -- most likely in New York, Boston, or Washington -- and they're taking a break from climbing the professional ladder to engage in a day-long parody of Glenn Beck's recent "Rally to Restore Honor." Though some of them are no doubt politically motivated, essentially they'll spend the time having a good laugh at the expense of frumpy Tea Partiers in Disneyland sweatshirts.

snip//

Underlying a lot of the criticism of the rally is the same anti-élitist fervor that's become the Tea Party mantra. Despite serving as the economic engine of the country and accounting for a sizable slice of its population, working professionals in cities -- especially on the East Coast -- are, in the words of the Post's Charles Murray, "isolated from mainstream America and ignorant about the lives of ordinary Americans." But the thing about a democracy is that everyone, including young professionals, has a stake in and a right to enter the political conversation. For all the talk about who represents the "ordinary" or "ideal" America, come Election Day, the much-vaunted distinctions disappear: You're as real as your vote, and in 2008 "authentic" Americans banded together with those of us who don't hail from the "pro-America parts of the country" to elect Barack Obama.

The other criticism that's been levied against the Comedy Central rallies is that, given the economic recession and the very real problems facing the country, satire is inappropriate. But whether you think Glenn Beck's I-just-love-my-country waterworks on Fox News are funny or touching largely depends on how seriously you take him. For all intents and purposes, our political discourse -- with acts like Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, and Bill O'Reilly -- could be considered one big clown show. Even if you take these figures seriously, it's worth noting that satire has long been used to comment on politics. Reading an editorial cartoon, an article from The Onion, or Maureen Dowd's column may make you smirk, but it still conveys a message.

And who cares if the Stewart/Colbert rallies make the Tea Partiers mad? They've been mad since early 2009, when they first started filling up our TV screens and the streets of D.C., frothing at the mouth as if they had the rage virus. That's really the point of this weekend's rallies: for young people to express the frustration we feel when this band of "ordinary Americans" expresses their political views by spitting on black civil-rights leader and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and calling Rep. Barney Frank a "faggot." It's a catharsis. Critics are right that Stewart and Colbert aren't proposing concrete policies (though it's worth asking if Republicans have really done much of that lately, either). But even if they were, would it make a difference? With Republican obstructionism in the Senate and the impending takeover of the House by the party of "no," it's safe to say that, come Nov. 2, the government won't be getting much of anything done.

You can choose to cry about it, but I'd rather laugh.

[annabanana]

1. I am lookingforward to it. . n/t

[bigdarryl]

2. HERE WE GO!! the media already has a count on the rally before it happens

[FrenchieCat]

13. If they will even cover any of it.....

since they have "Terrarist" things to attend to.

[Dawgs]

3. Hey!! Some of us will be 40+ somethings.

:woohoo:

[babylonsister]

4. Ahh, but you and the rest of your age group are young at

heart and brighter than the average bear, or bagger! :P

[AspenRose]

16. For some reason the media is ignoring the over 35 demographic

If you go to the Facebook page for the Rally, there are more than plenty of people who are in their 50s and 60s going. Some of them are saying they're trying to compensate for missing Woodstock :rofl:

[marlakay]

5. They have to put it down because you hardly ever

see any kids in their base its all old people. I told my husband the other day, hopefully things will be better in 40 years when all the old republicans die off. It's hard to find hope out there now...this world looks so crazy...

[AndrewP]

8. Seriously, I've thought the same thing often.....

Hopefully things will improve once these old vicious angry Republicans start dropping.

[Jennicut]

6. Oh no, us twenty and thirty somethings that live on the east coast are scary.

Boo! Seriously, I am 34, live in Connecticut and like Stewart and Colbert. I am an elitist because of that? I tell you what, they can go f*ck themselves. Look at any map with population density. Most of the people in the United States live on the coasts. And Jon Stewart is way more intelligent then any tea-parier.

[Imajika]

7. It would be better if these young poeple..

..who are largely Democratic voters helped with GOTV efforts.

Seriously, it's the weekend before perhaps one of the biggest elections in our lifetime - and a hundred thousand or so of our voters are going to be at an event that the organizers insist is not even political?

What is the point of this rally anyway? I'd rather all our voters be working phone banks, knocking on doors, etc, etc.

[AspenRose]

17. I thought I saw somewhere that the DNC will be set up somewhere near the rally

[Arugula Latte]

9. Why is it that only ignorant, racist, rightwing dumbasses are supposed to speak for the USA?

[starroute]

10. So he's saying Stewart's fans are out-of-touch latter-day Yuppies?

And the person saying this, Gabriel Arana, is the 27 year old assistant web editor of the American Prospect? Who graduated from Yale in 2006 and got a masters from Cornell in 2008? And did an internship at the White House in 2002, when he "helped create and edit brochures for first lady Laura Bush’s office"? (http://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielarana)

And this guy has the chutzpah to describe Stewart and Colbert's fans as "the élites who, as Stewart said, 'have jobs and lives' -- most likely in New York, Boston, or Washington -- and they're taking a break from climbing the professional ladder." And he goes on to quote Charles Murray's description of these "young professionals" as "isolated from mainstream America and ignorant about the lives of ordinary Americans."

Funny thing about Charles Murray. I googled on that quote and found this at Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-m-shane/the-magical-misdirection_b_773830.html

Charles Murray has had such a long career dressing up right-wing polemic as social science that his latest volley, a pander to Tea Party populism, should come as no surprise. In a Washington Post essay, he argues: "What sets the tea party apart from other observers of the New Elite is its hostility, rooted in the charge that elites are isolated from mainstream America and ignorant about the lives of ordinary Americans." He "propose{s}" to find "merit" in this charge.

Over two-thirds of the essay purports to describe the mechanisms by which the New Elite is constituted. In essence, it is composed of the sons and daughters of the "upper middle class" - defined nowhere in the article, but treated as a monolith of some sort - who test into the nation's most elite colleges, get channeled into elite graduate schools and elite professions, and are likely to live in relatively homogenous zip codes.

The segregation of the young elite, according to Murray, "might not be so bad, except that so many of them have been ensconced in affluent suburbs from birth and have never been outside the bubble of privilege. Few of them grew up in the small cities, towns or rural areas where more than a third of all Americans still live." As a result, they never escape a "bubble" that encases them from college through their eventual settlement "in a comparatively small number of cities and in selected neighborhoods in those cities."

Since Arana apparently lives in Arizona, perhaps he's managed to forget about his own elite college, elite graduate school and elite profession -- while harboring a deep resentment of his contemporaries who have been getting to enjoy the more exciting major metropolises of the East Coast while he's stuck out in the boonies. Or maybe he just has his head up his ass. Your call.

[babylonsister]

11. No, Arana wasn't saying that. That's what other talking heads

and bloggers are saying, claiming they think the rally is a bad idea. Arana is defending it.

[starroute]

18. From anything you quote, it sounds like a pretty weak defense

He starts off, "On Saturday, a crowd of more than 150,000 liberal, college-educated 20- and 30-somethings will descend on the capital for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. These are the élites who, as Stewart said, 'have jobs and lives' -- most likely in New York, Boston, or Washington -- and they're taking a break from climbing the professional ladder to engage in a day-long parody of Glenn Beck's recent 'Rally to Restore Honor.'"

He then goes on to say it's okay for young people to go out and have fun -- but he doesn't seem to be arguing with that initial statement as a characterization of the attendees. And as we've seen in other threads here, that's very far from accurate -- and tends to make them sound frivolous and out of touch.

My best guess is that the rallies are likely to be a mixture of DU types with the more college age types who comprise the bulk of Stewart and Colbert's studio audience. Not a lot of "climbing the professional ladder" in either of those groups.

[craigmatic]

12. I'm just glad they're getting our side amped up.

[enough already 2]

14. It's fine to laugh at the idiots...

The problem is they are too stupid to realize they are being mocked. How do you shame a brain dead moron who thinks an Archie comic book is great literature?

[Diclotican]

15. babylonsister

babylonsister

I do not know if I want to laugh about the tea party, I would rather cry about them... Mostly becouse they look more and more like the SA stormtroopers of the 1930s... They might not go in brownshirts yet, but they wil if they get into power.. As the nazis of the 1930s, was part of the community, many was "sleepers", pepole who was part of the local comunity, often many years before they got into action, after Hitler got into power

I might be wrong about most of this, but i know my history, and I see a lot of shaddows in the future, The Tea Party is just one of the ilnesses who are in US this days, the extremes is on the rise in US, and have been that, for a long time. Ever since GWB was "elected" into office in 2000, the raw extremes of the right have shown its ugly face, and specailly after mr Obama was elected as the US president, it really got into madness.... And if the extreme rights are not confronted by everyone, the extreme would be bolder, and bolder, and bolder, to they wil do an actions so bold, and so horrible, that no one can sit still and just "accept" it as something "normal" or at least as something that wil burn itself out... It took a war, and 12 year to "burn out" tha nazis. And even tho I doubt germans wil never fall for that again, the illness that is nazis is not over yet, they are still presented, as a sub-culture, who is shunned by the most of germans... The same is the case of most of Europe.. We experienced the hell what was Hitlers 1000 year reich, and many swear that it wil never happend again, in the ruins of europe in 1945..

Diclotican

[babylonsister]

20. Diclotican, hello! Long time, no see, and thanks for your

perspective, as usual. We are concerned over here about the tea party, too. A few might creep in, but I don't think this 'movement' has momentum at all. There are a few angry white people getting ahead in this season because of outside money and influence; once real Americans realize how far outside reality they are, I suspect they will go away/get unelected.

They are getting a lot of press now prior to the midterm elections. But I doubt mainstream America will follow these people once their platforms are known. Pass that on to your friends, too, and tell them (and you) not to give up hope for us; this is a glitch in our political process, but it's going in slow motion for all of us.

:hug:

[Diclotican]

21. babylonsister

babylonsister

Hello Babylonsister.. Have been just lurking around here for a while, trying to figure out your elections, it is so confusing to not be "part" of the system, and try to understand it all. Maybe it is somewhat the same if you was to try to understand the norwigian election system.. Even tho I doubt Norway have some interest in the world at a whole. US is more interesting that way than little Norway I guess... I have also had little energy to write here, as I have had some problems with my healt lately, a lot of pain, but it looks like it is on track now,Hopefully I can wisit home later today, to wisit my old folks;). And have some real homemade food, food never taste as it does home I guess... Even after many year on my own, the best food, is what I get "home" with the old folks... I know, wierd but its is like that for me..

I hope, really hope that most of the tea party candidates would never be elected into office anynear power, they are a real danger to the world... And to US. Last time around, in 2008, you allmoust shot yourself in the foot, but you managed to wote a man into office who was more sane than the republican option. Even tho the "amazing stuff" have fallen of him by now, he is still, the best hope we all have for the moment. No right wing Republican Party near the while house for a while Im afraid. As Obama so suble put it once, the car is a wreck, and he is trying his best to nugde it off the cliff, and repair the damage.. YOu wil need a lot of progresive democratic presidents before the nuclear chatastrofe what was Bush JR can be undoed, and I am little afraid that many americans dosen't se it that way.. My humble guess, is that it wil take at least 2 decades with hard work, from democratic presidents to rebuild US up to something it was before GWB got into office.. Everyone who have trying to rebuild a house, know, that to crash a house, you need a day, but to rebuild it, it can take weeks, maybe months to get everything togheter again.. The same is the case with US.. It took GWB just 8 year to more or less ruin US, but it wil take Obama, and other democratic presidents a decade or two just to get US on the right track to recovery.. And firstmost US have to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, to save the money you for the moment is spending there.. Now even Russia want to get into the fry - again, I guess the generals dosen't learned last time that it is no way to fight the afghans, if you are not willing to use all nessesary metodes to crush the enemy, but this time, at least, CIA are not out there, given the "freedomfighters" the lastest stinger missiles to shoot aircrafts down anymore.. I I had 24 hour to be top advisor to the US president, my best advice would be to leave Afghanistan, and Iraq, and to just tear down the bases who had been build there, and let them fight themselfs out. It is cruel I know, but I am afraid the "democracy" idea mr Bush was telling about is dead, and burried for a long time now. The realites on the ground is that in Afghanistan, the talibans, and also other groups, many official parts of the government of mr Karzai would be really happy to kill as many NATO/US forces as posible, and the best strategy would be to leave the area once and for all.. In Iraq, the case is little more troublesome, but the general idea would be to leave Iraq, maybe give them equipment so they can defend their own borders and so one, but to get the soldiers out of there. I doubt Iraq is able to have a stable democracy anytime more, if US was to leave, the regime of today wil be topled, and a national government, ruled by a dictator would size power, More than posible a Shia muslim, even maybe a cleric for what I know.. In 1953, when Iraq had a king, and democracy, US and British interest killed the king (a mear boy) and put in a dictator.. After that it have going downhill... TO expect Iraq to come a democracy after 60 year of tyranny and different sorts of dictatorship is just stupid.. Even germany and Japan had at least experience with real democracy between the world wars, when US occupied them both (in germanys case, with the help of the britsh and the france) and both of them is today democratic comunities.. That is not the case in Iraq, who even in 1953, was just in the starting block to a posible democracy.. And the way US have worked the occupaying in Iraq since 2003, I doubt Iraq would be a democracy anytime soon.. The experience have not been to pleasing I guess... But this was a disgress from what I was writing about I guess.. .

And as you put it, most of them got money from the outside, to make up for real politic.. I can't understand why it is even alowed to give forreign contebrutions to political parties in US, to innflucense, and dominate the political landscape in US. In most other country, if that is been the case, all type of hell would be loose, and the lucy one would posible just loose the election, in some country they might be hang... Or at least face prosecution for their crimes.. Many times I would have given a few bucks to a worthy cause in US, but I am not sure about if it is allowed to do that, so I have not been doing it, not that I can give to mutch anyway, but you understand I guess;)

I hope not mainstream americans wil follow this pepole and let their voice be more than what they alleready is.. But as I might have told many times lately, after GWB I am not sure about what american do, and not are doing, it looks like most of the country got into a mental meltdown specially after sept 11 2001. And I know from experience that it takes time to recover from a mental meltdown, but the loonies on the right, is just showing up, and showing up, and showing up in a number I have never been aware of in US lately... And what I know from DU, is just the top of the iceberg, thousands, maybe houndred of thousands others, who never get to public, are out there, lurking in the shadow, just waiting for the next time around... Thats is really scary...

I wil try my best to share your wiew, that we have not to give up hope for you yet. But I would say it wil take years before the madness of King George Bush Jr is fixed, maybe a decade or two, just to get the ship to listen to the comands... Your economy is more or less in ruins, the poor have been many, and the top 1 percent of the american population have most of the power.. But you have to rembember one thing. You outnumber them many times, and US started with an revolution, you might have to give them a leasson that you still have the power to make a revolution.. Please wote the right way, vote progresives, and make us all hope for the best after thuesday. And hopefully they also count all votes..

This eletronic voting stuff, should be stoped as a real stupid idea, paper ballots have allways worked, why change something that work, with a system that is full of flaws.. At least the programs have to be far more safeproof than today... Even my 13 year nephew can breake into this type of programs and making a lot of mess with it all.... And he is just an ordinary boy, with medium interst in computers.. Mostly to play games and chat with friends...

Diclotican

[BlueIdaho]

19. This election will not "mainstream" these idiots

They are dumb as a sack of hammers. There is no reason under the sun why we should not keep driving a wedge between these fools and the rest of America.