Monday, February 21, 2011
No Giant Puppets
Unlike the more homogeneous right wing gatherings & protests (white, middle-aged & older, conservative Christian), liberal/progressive rallies & marches tend to be heterogeneous, with a wide variety of people young & old, multi-colored. Fringe groups & crackpots come out of the shadows & attach themselves to these events. They have their own complaints & agendas, sometimes only peripherally related to the major issues. In one of his tweets, Wisconsin UCC Pastor Dan Schultz (watching on TV) noted with relief the absence of giant caricature puppets in Madison; these eye-catching & oft-offensive (but amusing) things - the creations of art school leftists - are common in European street actions & strikes.
Liberal rallies also draw identity groups that offend conservatives merely because they openly exist at all, like lesbian public school teachers. Of course, lesbians have long been a considerable percentage of teachers, since teaching was one of the few professional occupations available to unmarried, educated women, those "spinsters" who lived alone or shared a home with another Miss Somebody.
Some people are simply rude & vulgar. & the young folks are inclined to behave as young folks.
The difference is that the right wing spectrum, though diverse in its own limited way, is so much narrower overall. One gets the impression that the loonies & bigots are in the middle of it. Moderation is anathema, ideologues are championed. A majority of those identifying themselves as Republicans are "birthers." Delegates to the Republican National Convention see nothing racist or offensive about wearing "funny" hats with Barack Obama clenched in the jaws of an alligator. They're the base, the mainstream of their party. For them, scientific inquiry & methods are in eternal struggle with religious doctrine. They move smoothly from Republican organizations - which one would hope are the larger tents - to doctrinaire religious & right wing organizations.
Most of the Democrats I know in Jersey are first of all Regular Party People, with a few general but firm beliefs about the role of government, & are rather old-fashioned (meaning "urban machine") about how the party functions. The latter irritates reformers, particularly those from suburbia. A few Democratic demographics do have a difficult time of it. But many liberal/left people consider themselves outside the Democratic Party mainstream, or outside the Party altogether. There's much resentment toward the Democratic establishment for not purging so-called "Blue Dogs" the way Repugs have purged or rendered powerless their "RINO" members, & because President Obama & the Clintonistas are considered too cozy with Wall Street & K Street.
Anyway, I'm not apologizing for any offensive signs & expressions found among the crowds in Madison WI. The over-whelming majority of the folks in the crowds vote Democratic when they vote (although some of them voted for Gov. Walker & now regret it). Union members at the core of the protests may be pains-in-the-asses to deal with, but radicals they are not anymore. They're teachers, accountants, clerks, computer programmers, truck drivers, janitors, nurses, paralegals, police officers, firefighters, EMTs - our neighbors & the glue of government. Again, those kinds of mass gatherings are traditionally grabbed as opportunities for fringe people to show their stuff. At the peace marches of the Sixties, the "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh" shouters made the biggest noise - you hear them in old news films - but they actually were a very small portion of the crowd, which detested their presence. That group wanted to stir up trouble. But what could one do? Just try to shout louder.
I assume there are nutty, insensitive people in the crowds at Madison protesting Gov. Walker. Just wade into the crowd with a video camera & single them out. Maybe Heritage Foundation or a Koch Brothers shadow organization will pay you to do it (you'd be foolish to do it for free). But they're not running for higher elective office, & if they try they won't win. It's the Repugs who elect Rep, Michelle Bachman & allow her prime time center stage to spout nonsense. That they may do so reluctantly is of no matter. She represents their base now.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Liberal rallies also draw identity groups that offend conservatives merely because they openly exist at all, like lesbian public school teachers. Of course, lesbians have long been a considerable percentage of teachers, since teaching was one of the few professional occupations available to unmarried, educated women, those "spinsters" who lived alone or shared a home with another Miss Somebody.
Some people are simply rude & vulgar. & the young folks are inclined to behave as young folks.
The difference is that the right wing spectrum, though diverse in its own limited way, is so much narrower overall. One gets the impression that the loonies & bigots are in the middle of it. Moderation is anathema, ideologues are championed. A majority of those identifying themselves as Republicans are "birthers." Delegates to the Republican National Convention see nothing racist or offensive about wearing "funny" hats with Barack Obama clenched in the jaws of an alligator. They're the base, the mainstream of their party. For them, scientific inquiry & methods are in eternal struggle with religious doctrine. They move smoothly from Republican organizations - which one would hope are the larger tents - to doctrinaire religious & right wing organizations.
Most of the Democrats I know in Jersey are first of all Regular Party People, with a few general but firm beliefs about the role of government, & are rather old-fashioned (meaning "urban machine") about how the party functions. The latter irritates reformers, particularly those from suburbia. A few Democratic demographics do have a difficult time of it. But many liberal/left people consider themselves outside the Democratic Party mainstream, or outside the Party altogether. There's much resentment toward the Democratic establishment for not purging so-called "Blue Dogs" the way Repugs have purged or rendered powerless their "RINO" members, & because President Obama & the Clintonistas are considered too cozy with Wall Street & K Street.
Anyway, I'm not apologizing for any offensive signs & expressions found among the crowds in Madison WI. The over-whelming majority of the folks in the crowds vote Democratic when they vote (although some of them voted for Gov. Walker & now regret it). Union members at the core of the protests may be pains-in-the-asses to deal with, but radicals they are not anymore. They're teachers, accountants, clerks, computer programmers, truck drivers, janitors, nurses, paralegals, police officers, firefighters, EMTs - our neighbors & the glue of government. Again, those kinds of mass gatherings are traditionally grabbed as opportunities for fringe people to show their stuff. At the peace marches of the Sixties, the "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh" shouters made the biggest noise - you hear them in old news films - but they actually were a very small portion of the crowd, which detested their presence. That group wanted to stir up trouble. But what could one do? Just try to shout louder.
I assume there are nutty, insensitive people in the crowds at Madison protesting Gov. Walker. Just wade into the crowd with a video camera & single them out. Maybe Heritage Foundation or a Koch Brothers shadow organization will pay you to do it (you'd be foolish to do it for free). But they're not running for higher elective office, & if they try they won't win. It's the Repugs who elect Rep, Michelle Bachman & allow her prime time center stage to spout nonsense. That they may do so reluctantly is of no matter. She represents their base now.
Labels: bully pulpit, count the yoyos, in the news
