A couple of days ago, I wrote a diary here about a conversation I had with someone who is leaning towards the Tea Party "movement" (he's 60ish, white, always lived in suburbia, no college but has done a lot of reading, which has made him a "know-it-all"). I entitled that diary entry, "Is the Tea Party a "12 Step Program?" On Saturday night, I talked to him again. He was acting like another 9/11 occurred. "We've been invaded," he bellowed. He went on to explain that Mexican criminals had seized two ranches in Laredo, Texas and the local authorities were powerless to do anything about it.
My first thought was, "this better not be another Shirley Sherrod type of thing," but of course it was just as bad, if not worse (though thankfully it has not found its way to the "MSM," not even FoxNews, to my knowledge). I asked him if he searched google news, but instead he mumbled something about not remembering where he saw it. So I went online to track down this "story," and I discovered that an anti-immigrant, Tea Party person had started it, and then it was cited on another site, which seems to be where he saw it. In any event, what has impressed me is his reactive attitude, which seems to be new (I don't remember him acting like this during the Bush/Cheney years), at least when it comes to politics.
At this point, I've given up trying to explain to him that he is being manipulated, badly. Whether it is unconscious racist feelings or something else, it clearly began after he started reading Tea Party blogs. Whatever is going on in the nation now, it is something that is a "news story" by itself. A few minutes ago, for example, I did another google news search, and in the top group of entries there was a link to a site with this claim: "The United States is under attack by narco terrorists invading from the failed state of Mexico and Obama and the federal government are doing nothing about it." See http://www.prisonplanet.com/... On another link, the Texas GOP Vote, there is acknowledgment that the story is false, but the title of it is "Laredo Ranches Safe... For Now."
And this brings me to another point, which concerns an incredibly warped view of reality, bordering delusional, at least in my opinion. Let's put it this way; suppose two ranches in Laredo, Texas had been taken by such Mexican criminals. The mayor of that town has been on FoxNews recently, talking about his concerns about the violence just across the border. Why would he not tell the media about it? Doing so would help his cause, and not doing so would make him look like a total idiot. Moreover, what do the Tea Party people want, in this context? I thought they wanted "small government." You can't have that if you are going to "secure" every border town in this nation from such "attacks." Instead, it seems like they are looking for any excuse to use terms like "invaded," as if that is meaningful.
Of course, it's possible for a foreign, criminal enterprise to attack us successfully, just as they did on 9/11, but in light of two major "wars" that are still ongoing (which were ostensibly due to 9/11), do such people really believe that Obama will hold a press conference and say something like, "I want to apologize to our friends to the south for what some bloggers are saying. What we have is theirs, and they can just come across the border and take it, using violence if they wish. They don't even need to ask, and the U.S. government will stand by idly while they do it?" Sadly, this seems to be what some of these people actually think, if there is anything worth being called a "thought process" at all. Perhaps the lesson they learned from the Shirley Sherrod affair is that they can keep their base excited by distortions or outright lies, just as long as they keep them coming, thus preventing any critical thinking on the part of their followers.