Time for a new kind of Tea Party

Sometimes the most bitter pill is best. Perhaps our current financial crisis will inspire Americans to simple living, to thanksgiving instead of greed, conserving rather than accumulating. After the bitterness has mellowed to mere annoyance, as it will, then just maybe we’ll rediscover the common sense of the Golden Rule, the pleasures of civil discourse, the joy of giving, the value of good humor and of laughter.

Oh, would that it be so. None of these old ideas will again become a part of the fabric of American life if we continue to revere those electronic media purveyors of hate, the prevaricators for personal gain, those who believe he who yells loudest should, by all that is holy, win.

Why do we cower from these insipid talking-head loudmouths? We are told it is only entertainment and that no one takes them seriously. I wish it were so, but the evidence of the past two decades is overpowering. Our fearfulness has given the screamers, the obsceners – the power to shape public opinion, and ultimately public policy.

No. Civility, cooperation and compromise are now the enemies of the “American Way of Life,” the pathetic thing that it has become.

I blaspheme. Thankfully I can still do that in America, for now. I have traveled where the government looked over every shoulder in Internet cafés where I wrote truth about the weakness of their system. That fleeting fear of its very loss gave me a ravenous craving for freedom of speech.

Sometimes our fears are reasonable. While campaigning for John Kerry I was called a traitor for opposing the Bush Doctrine. The idea that a gun toting, brain scrambled, pseudo-patriot could threaten me over expressing reasonable political opinions illustrates just how low our civilization has fallen under the influence of these greed driven, drivel pissing eunuchs.

What do these cockroaches have to do with our economic system, and our potential for climbing out current troubles? Plenty. Without their flagellation of Iraq war fever, we would not have gone into this recession with an already obscene debt load. Without their years of preaching “greed is good” and “the means justify the ends” – if the end is wealth accumulation – we would not have a financial system spinning wildly out of control.

This every-man-for-himself mentality is not an acceptable way forward. The top levels of wealth prosper while the rest of us work more hours, shoulder more debt and live in fear. The toll on the nation’s physical and mental health is untold, those suffering finding expression in divorce courts or wrapped in blankets under bridges, bringing violence to our streets.

How much longer will we give our purchasing dollars to the advertisers who support this antisocial propaganda? Feel free to go ahead and watch the screamers bastardize the language to their nefarious means. But, BUT, while you watch, write down the names and websites of their advertisers. Then visit those businesses or websites and inform them, civilly of course, that you will not purchase their product as long as they support such programming.

It’s time for a new kind of tea party- and this one is perfectly legal.