It seems impossible to consider that people who embrace creationism, authoritarianism, racism, sexism and countless other negative "isms" could be our allies. But are our interests more closely aligned to the Tea Party than they are to the 1%?
Arguably, the Tea Party is an instrument of the 1%, using bigotry and faux patriotism to fan the flames of "we'll embrace anything if it pisses off Liberals."
But it seems like so much of the politics of outrage is distraction. We get outraged by their racism/sexism/homophobia/religious parochialism, they get outraged by socialism/taxes/religious "oppression." Net result? We spent all our time laughing/angry at each other and nothing moves forward.
And this is the point. As important as restriction of reproductive rights is (and as a woman this is a cause near to my heart), I'm quite confident that the issues of reproductive freedom, LGBT rights, and the scandal du jour merely serve to keep the two parties opposed and unwilling to compromise.
The result? Wealth consolidates, barriers to wealth buying political control diminish and eventually evaporate, and information is collected and consolidated - privacy disappears. Democracy as we know it disappears with it.
As long as the two relevant parties remain polar opposites on issues that maintain and increase the distances between the poles, we cannot ever hope to see progress on issues that keep our votes and voices relevant.
Our greater opponent is not the clown who believes in creationism, or the bigmouth racist.
Our greater opponent doesn't go on television to promote his views, he merely spreads the money around until his will is done.
I don't know how we step away from the divisive squabbling, because the issues we squabble over are important. They are valid points, and laws restricting reproductive freedom, for example, have real negative consequences on a huge segment of the population. And I don't know how to build bridges with people whose values offend me, and vice-versa.
I don't know any of the answers. All I know is that we're not focusing on where real change needs to happen. People look at me funny when I say this stuff, like I've watched too many episodes of X Files. It does seem to wander into conspiracy theory territory.
Charlie Koch's recent defensive editorial says to me that the man behind the curtain doesn't want us to pay attention to him. I believe need to shine the light there.