PROMETHEAN ANTAGONIST

I had recently seen an editorial cartoon in a Japanese / English newspaper which depicted a crazed Republican screaming, "They're coming! More and more people getting health care!". Alongside him, an equally absurd caricature of an anguished "Tea Party" person saying , "Minorities! Women! Children! It's the end of the world!"

Uhh,...yeah, right...

Hasn't much of mainstream journalism overplayed this card a bit? Unlike many among the general public, the usual allies of bigger and more centralized state authority appear to genuinely believe that conservative or libertarian values are somehow invalid and unworthy of engagement in legitimate debate.

Rising protests against growing state authority seems to have struck a nerve with many on the left, and their only response seems to be some variation on the repeated mantra that; the right is "full of hate." So just what is it that progressives are so “full of" when addressing conservative or libertarian ideals? I don't remember them being exactly full of tolerance, compromise, or “understanding” during the previous administration (group hug for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld anyone?).

The coddling of the Obama administration by many media sources has become laughable. Likewise for a common assertion by some talking heads that anyone who opposes an unread 1000 page piece of "health care" legislation could only be taking issue with it because of they are racists or, in the above noted cartoon, fear women and children receiving health care. Meanwhile, “anti-war” and anti-capitalism protests are still often depicted as mere cross sections of society when they are often organized by genuinely violent extremist groups, several which advocate a complete overthrow of our constitutional system so as to replace it with their much loved Marxist gulag state. When was the last time we heard of a Tea Party protest where rocks or Molotov cocktails were thrown at private businesses and police (or anyone for that matter)?

As for the phony attempts to label opposition to Obama's state-enhancing agenda as a product of "racism,” do some people really believe that if a white male tried to ram through a thousand pages of unread bureau-growth legislation that conservatives and libertarians would somehow then find it palatable? Nonsense.

Belief in limited government and sound economic policy as espoused by most in the Tea Parties has no relation to "hate," racism, conjured threats and dangers, or general "mean-spiritedness." That so many pseudo intellectuals try to concoct such a fantasy is more a reflection of their own inability to tolerate popular viewpoints different from their own than any genuine danger from citizens questioning a president and party's grasp for expanded authority.

It's often said that if you repeat a lie often enough it will be believed . But that's not completely true. If you tell a lie too often people wonder why you feel the need to keep repeating something that you claim is obvious and apparent.

Some Republicans and many Tea Party advocates will be laughing all the way to the polls this fall... and perhaps in 2012 as well.

# posted by Promethean Antagonist @ 12:23 AM