For the moment, it appears that the tea bags are steeping in boiling water of their own doing. They have a knack of reaching out of the pot and turning up the gas even more. To progressives, it's great that this faction of the Republican Party is finally being exposed for what it is. Anarchists, extremists, and IMO, seditionists. The Democrats seem to be holding the line, finally, basically saying "We've had enough". And there are several diaries
echoing the sentiment that Robert Reich has expressed of "lancing the boil" of this extremism. But any attempt at eliminating this infection of the body politic has to include the sterilization of the site and removal of the root of the infection. Any discrediting of this particular faction, any removal of this radical ideology from the American psyche must initiate with the mythology surrounding the patron saint, Ronald Reagan.
I must admit that I voted for Reagan in the 1980 election. I was looking for someone to bring us out of the economic slump extending through the late 70's and the "feel bad"
sentiment stemming from the Vietnam War and the Nixon/Watergate era. So here comes this folksy, positive sounding Governor from California with some good lines and seeming to be the kind of clean break we were hoping for. Having endured the tumultuous days of the late 60's and 70's, days that at times appeared to be the fracturing of this country, I think we were open to a good old American "can do" message. We were open to the idea of distrusting government. Reagan was that package. He gave us the bite size logic of
the 11 most dangerous words and that government WAS the problem. But by the time the 1984 elections rolled around it was becoming increasingly apparent to me this was not the strengthening of the American Dream but a transformation and bastardization of it. The Democrats continued to do their Chamberlain impression and I think the PATCO strike was an inflection point in the trajectory of this country. 1987 was the year I particularly began sensing a change in my economic vector and that of the middle class. We were put on the glide path to where we find ourselves now. Hoping for some of the crumbs from the 1% table to fall to the floor. Maybe we'd get trickle down'd. Or maybe we'd get lucky buying Lotto tickets and join the 1% leaving the rest behind. That became the American Dream. No more "Father knows Best" or "My Three Sons". Now it was "Dallas" and "Dynasty". America was accepting the idea of its own royalty. That the middle class was a lower class. Ever since then, we have continued to accept it and chased it in contradiction to our own self interest.
The events of these last several weeks have demonstrated just how far our national psyche has strayed from what America was really all about. That we now have
entrenched, in our local, state, and federal government, a faction prepared to destroy the country. A minority, fortified by religion and money, dictating the terms of our surrender.
I am not sure if the boldness they exhibit is out of hubris or despair. Do the extremists think they have reached a critical point of control, or do they believe, that with time and demographics against them, this may be their last best shot? If indeed the nakedness of the extremists has finally proven too much for this country to ignore, discrediting their political idealogy requires us revisiting Ronald Reagan. Even Barack Obama called Reagan "transformative" although I didn't necessarily take that to be for the good. As a dispassionate evaluation of Reagan, I would agree. But if we are to make certain this particular ideology does not confuse or take hold again, the symbol of that ideology must be subjected to much more critical scrutiny. The mythology surrounding Reagan has to be stripped away.