July 24, 2010 09:57 PM UTC

Mythology and Tea Parties

• 5 Comments
• by: JO

It’s easy to dismiss so-called “tea partiers” as unsophisticated, under-educated mad hatters who are attacking the existing political structure without a structure of their own to replace it. Easy, right insofar as it goes, but inadequate and counter-productive.

The original “Tea Party” is part of the national mythology; so, too, is the contemporary tea party about mythology, one seldom discussed or analyzed in public discourse, so far as I’ve seen. Time out to consider the game, rather than just the score.

Every society requires a shared set of myths for coherence. Sometimes these myths revolve around religion; sometimes around self-perceived national traits; sometimes around race. In the case of the United States, at least since the middle of the 20th century, the national mythology involved some combination of “we’re winners” (WW2), “we’re the good guys” (vs. Nazis and Commies), and — most important — “we’re the exception.” Exception to what? To the tired old class distinctions of Europe. The United States is a City on a Hill (Ronnie “GE Theater” R.), the place our poor ancestors came to experience “freedom” — freedom from inherited class distinctions, freedom to own land, to advance themselves, a least their children, to live in newly built comfortable suburban subdivisions that qualified them for “the Middle Class.” Although the partiers seldom (if ever) say what “freedoms” they’re talking about, I suggest that there is one big Freedom they relate to: freedom from class, specifically freedom from serfdom in all its modern styles of denim.

Indeed, freedom to join The Middle Class. Not aristocrats; not plutocrats; but not poor, under-trodden “working class” either. Except for one thing: people in the “Middle Class” did have to work for a living. No job, no pay, no Middle Class. That’s not the case for plutocrats–checks from their capital pay the bills whether they’re vacationing in St. Ritz or dancin’ at the Ritz. Strike up the band (but pay ’em minimum wage)!

Still, the fact that one didn’t really get dirty at work; the fact that one got paid to sit at a desk in front of a computer instead stand on a “factory” floor in front of an industrial machine or sit on a tractor, seemed to make a difference. Eventually, thanks to unions, even industrial machine operators and big-rig drivers could see themselves as “Middle Class” — mostly because there were enough people earning less (most of them black or brown) — to make “class” seem like an issue of Annual Income instead of ownership of property (real estate and machinery).

Simultaneously, as in the post-civil war South, the question of  “class” was transformed into a question of “race,” conveniently leaving the question of Property off the table. (See the story of Shirley Sherrod as recently as this very week. Her real crime: say out loud that poor white farmers and poor black farmers had One Big Thing in common: they were poor farmers!)

Comes the Crash of ’07, the biggest in almost eighty years. Hardly a man alive who remembers that previous famous day and year! Suddenly, middle class “wealth” — the apparent net plus of likely selling price minus balance on the mortgage — disappears virtually overnight, even goes negative. Suddenly “owning one’s home” felt less like “owning it” and more like “borrowing it,” which was always the case. The value of 401K plans shrinks rapidly to the size that might fit into a piggybank. AND, the income that qualified earners as “middle class” seems(ed) a whole lot less secure, not necessarily because one has lost one’s job, but because so many others have lost theirs. It’s a feeling parallel to lower housing prices; the loss of “net worth” is theoretical until one goes to sell the homested, but it’s felt nevertheless every time one drives past a “foreclosure” sign. Same with being employed: seems a temporary state to be enjoyed at the whim of someone else. Like houses in its way: you may not be unemployed, but seeing people just like yourself who are makes you feel seriously insecure, makes you feel that you don’t have a job, exactly; you just rent yourself out and say the job is “yours.”

Free to Go Broke Given that members of the middle class can’t identify something they did to cause this plunge in net worth and security, who is to blame? Gotta be someone! That’s the Issue of 2010, a campaign that’s shaping up to sound a lot like a lynching party. Candidates:

–First it was those poor people who took out mortgages when they couldn’t really afford them. How dare they dream of joining the middle class! Serves ’em right! Civil rights is all well and good, but it has its limits — say, the boundary of our subdivision.

–“Wall Street Bankers.” Mysterious lot; visited Wall Street once, but didn’t know whether those guys in NYSE jackets were the culprits, or maybe the people riding in the black Lincoln Towncars. Secuitized mortgages? How do I get one of them?

–Minorities. Yeah, now that you think about it, a whole lot more dark faces in the shopping center than there used to be. That must be it! Illegal aliens — not the ones from Outer Space, but the ones invading from Mexico — taking our jobs away. Criminals just by crossing the river. Talkin’ strange lingo. On TV everywhere. If only it weren’t for these aliens! Then we’d have our jobs back, pickin’ blueberries, mowin’ lawns, or slaughterin’ cattle!  Gotta stop ’em now before they start takin’ over like the Negroes did. Shouldda stopped them too, but probably too late now–hell, there’s one in the WHITE house, the one in Washington and the one next door! Probably an illegal alien too! (See Tom “il Demagogo” Tancredo.)

–Socialists. We know this works! Like the Commies Under the Bedcovers in the ’50s. Secretly plotting to take away our Freedom. You know, freedom to get fired; freedom to lose everything; freedom to be forced out onto the street; freedom to act like a lunatic in public. Yeah, those freedoms! Those G-D socialists outta be made to shut up!

I have no idea how to reach into the murky minds of “tea partiers” or what I’d find if I did. I’d damn sure want to have on a double layer of surgical gloves!

But I do think it’s worthwhile for Democrats — note I say Democrats, not Republicans wearing mislabeled Democratic clothing– to start forming some sort of coherent message, to try to introduce a scintilla of reason into the punch at these tea parties. Because we’ve seen how these parties can turn out: Germany in the 30s most notably. Posting the embarrassing IQ scores of the leading Tea Party hostesses probably isn’t the most effective means of doing so.

What is, I don’t know.