The right wing libertarian group the "Tea Party" have kicked up a bit of a pen and ink with a rally held yesterday at the Washington National Mall, ostensibly aimed at "Restoring Honour", fronted by the preposterous Fox pundit Glenn Beck. The rally was about err... restoring some - err... stuff, with a bit of right wing spiel about God having a bigger role in America (Beck is a born again.) and paying more respect to the armed forces. (I thought these guys didn't like taxes and government spending? Who pays for all those tanks and guns and planes anyway?) The content of his speech isn't really all that interesting. It just gives a silly blow hard a chance to look all dangerous and subversive by explaining how hard up and persecuted people like the multimillionaire broadcaster who has ample access to the nations airwaves - really are. As usual for a Tea Party speech there was references to the horrors of Barack Obamas tyranny, what with him doing some stuff or something like that.
No, what makes the rally interesting is not the content of the speech itself (it was pretty dire stuff.), but the greater context around it. The speech happens to fall on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther Kings "I have a dream" speech, you may have heard of. And was made in the same location as Becks speech. This has caused some ripples (though not calls to censor the rally.) with people like Reverend Al Sharpton, a well known black, left wing preacher and civil rights activist - who question the tactfulness of a potential PR stunt on behalf of Beck, claiming somehow he is a latter day Luther King (to an almost all white audience.). Beck himself claims he didn't make the connection before his speech, putting it down to "divine providence" (Oh give me a fucking break!). Whether he knew or not, he apparently stuck a few "Kingisms" in the speech for good measure. But it was a comment by - who else; but the Tea Party's poster girl Sarah Palin, that sparked my interest in the affair.
Palin, greeted by chants of 'USA, USA, USA' from many in the crowd, told the gathering, 'It is so humbling to get to be here with you today, patriots. You who are motivated and engaged ... and knowing never to retreat.'
Palin likened the rally participants to the civil rights activists who came to the National Mall to hear King's historic speech, which came at a crucial moment in the civil rights struggle.
She said the same spirit that helped civil rights activists overcome oppression, discrimination and violence would help this group as well.
'We are worried about what we face. Sometimes, our challenges seem insurmountable,' Palin said. 'Look around you. You're not alone.'
Apparently Sarah had such an uphill struggle in life, she had slum it and to get herself nominated as a vice presidential candidate. Bummer!
The interesting comment (all of Palins speeches are interesting for unintentional reasons.) is her comparison of the Teabaggers (or whatever the collective term is.) with Dr. Kings civil rights marchers. I hope that many right minded people would see the comparison she makes as insultingly facile as it deserves to be seen. It is also what pisses me off about this group of people (the teabaggers, not the civil rights advocates.) The civil rights marchers genuinely did face oppression, discrimination and violence, and a lot of it was extremely severe too. Let us not forget, the Dr. King was killed for what he believed in. The civil rights movement went through seven shades of shit, and a hell of a lot of hardship and sacrifice to try to rectify a genuine social evil, like state enforced racism, and horrendous prejudice. The Teabaggers cause on the other hand, is merely a self indulgent one. The maximum extent of the "persecution" they face, is being called a bunch of fuckwits by vocal lefties. The "oppression" they claim they face is also rather nebulous. It is a dead give away that they find it hard to articulate precisely what shape this "oppression" takes. The teabaggers are really only annoyed that their right wing; libertarian; uber free market manifesto was rejected by their countrymen at the elections. Tough, that's democracy. There's a hell of a lot of loser sour grapes on their behalf. A bit of advice, get some more votes on your side. Life, as ultra free market enthusiasts like themselves love to remind us -isn't very fair.
One final thing, when the civil rights movement was at its peak in the 60's, there was a lot of sentiment around about "uppity niggers.", "the civil righters are un American / Communists.", "Martin Luther King is unpatriotic." etc. One wonders that if Beck and Palin had been around in the 60's, would their sentiments be with the civil rights marchers, or their detractors? I think I can can guess which.
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