[lbo-talk] Thoughts on the Tea Party

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Tue Apr 20 18:18:53 PDT 2010


[WS:] You are right. Thomas Frank ("what's the matter with kansas") describes this quite convincingly. But that only begs the question "Why?"

I do not think it is just following demagogy. People "do the dirty work for the haves" not because they are bamboozled, but because they obtain some emotional gratification from it. It is like medieval mobs cheering a public execution of one of their own.

I am tempted to conjecture that this "responsibility toward above, authority toward below" attitude is hard wired in the brains of a great number if not most people. Bashing those "below" gives them a form of katarsis for them.

Wojtek

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 6:43 PM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:


> brad bauerly wrote:
>
> > Doug wrote:
> >
> >> The TP is another chapter in the revolt of the haves.
> >>
> >
> > Kinda depends on your definition of haves. While about 20% based on
> > the latest poll do fall in the top quintile the majority fall in the
> > 3/5 portion.[....]
>
> ^^^^^^^^^
> CB: How about another chapter in the history of a big section of the
> have nots and middling haves following demogogy and doing the dirty
> work of the haves ? Like most Confederate soldiers in the Civil War (
> "Rebels"), KKK'ers, Rightwing populists and Reagan Democrats.
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>



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