What I think is behind the tea bagging and Astroturfing of town hall meetings phenomena.

[Cleita]

I can't help but notice that the disruptors, displaying trollish behavior and being bused around to town hall meetings, are white senior citizens of my generation and older baby boomers. Let me give you a history of how we were raised. First those of us old enough to remember WWII were taught to hate the Japanese and to fear the Nazis. When the war was over, the Japanese whom we bombed with the A-bomb were suddenly okay and the Nazis were gone in Europe. Unfortunately, many of them came to the New World, both North America and South America becoming citizens and populating the conservative parties of those nations. In our country they became Republicans. Now we entered the cold war. We had someone new to hate and fear, Russians and commies, whom we were okay with during the war. They were even our allies, but now commies and Russians were to be hated and feared. Soon we would also learn to hate the Chinese, also our allies during the war, because they had been taken over by the communists who were being funded by the Russians. We were also taught to fear the bomb, with duck and cover exercises among the many tools used.

Also, a majority of white Americans had some home grown hostilities and people to fear and hate, African Americans and Mexican and Puerto Rican Americans. That hatred was home grown and sure white people wanted them to live good lives, but not in their jobs, nor in their neighborhoods, nor marrying their children. They needed to know their place. Civil rights movements taught them that this was wrong so they welcomed the African Americans into the workplace and the Hispanics, who had been renamed by then, as well. Soon they moved into all white neighborhoods, went to school with their children and married some of them. White Americans either worked to rid themselves of their bigotry or kept it to themselves while teaching their children to hate these people in secrecy. All along we were taught to hate anything that was communist even socialists were painted with the same broad brush. Even my in laws accused me of being a socialist when I talked to them about a national health plan and were appalled when I told them I was a social democrat in ideology. I finally, after many conversations to educate them, got them to admit it's a pretty good way to be being that it works so successfully in other countries.

Any way at the end of the cold war, I went to work as an office temp in a company that built oil platforms and much of their business was over seas. On my first day of work I was shocked to find myself working in an office with a group of Russians, who had been hired for their language skills since the company did a lot of business with Russia. I didn't realize until that moment the distrust and fear I had of these people until it came to the surface. Of course, working along side them for several weeks, I realized they were pretty much like us. They had been victims of a vicious military dictatorship, not people to be feared and hated. So now we had a vacuum, no one to hate and we turned to the ME. First there was the hostage crisis with the Iranians, soon the First Gulf War and BuchCo of course found a hatred and fear to ratchet up, especially after 9-11. So, it's come full circle.

The chickens are coming home to roost. The only thing I can think of that is happening, is all the hate, fear and prejudice has now settled on our President and that is why this evil group of Corporations can tap into that fear and hate and get these people to do and say irrational things to disrupt everything we need to do to put this country back on track. I don't know how we convince those senior citizens that they are being used, but we really have to try. Without them those corporations have no power. I am very suspicious that they are getting their indoctrination not only from Rush/Sean/Billo but also in Church. It will be up to us to discredit them and to make the scales fall from the eyes of their senior lemming horde. We also need to stop teaching our children to hate and fear the enemy of the moment. We have the opportunity to create a new nation that is based on the ideals outlined by our founding fathers of equality and prosperity for all.

[sandnsea]

1. I think this is very true

They really believe they created a utopia on this continent and did it because they're white and Christian.

The idea that they stripped this land clean in 100 years flat doesn't even enter their mind.

[AwakeAtLast]

2. Lots of good reasoning.

If no one is fearful anymore, they have no reason to exist.

:kick: & R!