By now you have surely seen the numerous examples of Teabag "patriots" holding signs with swastikas. Given what we know of President Obama and his family, and given the tremendous challenges the incoming administration faced on January 20, 2009, two things seem beyond question:
- Barack Obama is not a Nazi
- He and his administration appear to have prevented a second Great Depression.
We need not discuss the first item, and as to the second, while there may have been alternate approaches, the President found ways to achieve some remarkable successes in spite of nearly unanimous republican opposition. So why do these Teabaggers and Birthers and Townhall Healthcare saboteurs think President Obama is a fascist dictator?
The answer lies in symbolism. I'll make the case over the fold.
In my experience, right-wing conservative republican racists do not like to be called racists. They believe that Sammy Davis Jr. had lots of talent and they like Tiger Woods. And they would not like to be associated with the people above holding that flag.
They don't use the n-word, they maintain frosty and tense relations carefully and politely with black people they know, so they will strenuously object to being called racists and if you've ever encountered this phenomenon, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about:
McCain was supposed to win in a cakewalk. They didn't try very hard to elect him. After the shock of their loss wore off, the next "Stage of Grief" they are experiencing is anger:
Typical Teabaggery. Notice the confused messaging: "Environmentalism is Communism," some stuff about taxes, let businesses fail, and fear of abstract economic indicators. None of these things bother them. Under 8 years of Bush these people were docile and silent. In their ranks you find no minorities. They just don't like having a black president.
So the Teabaggers...
Unable to use racial symbols, seize on universally accepted symbols that they can hate. The swastika:
Because it's cool to hate Nazis. Another thing happy, red-cheeked white American suburban middle-class people were raised to hate with a passion is Communism. Since that's still a bit over-the-top, we'll go with its milder cousin, socialism:
In all these cases, what you're seeing is the substitution of a socially permissible symbol of hate for the taboo thing they are actually protesting, which is not having a white president. So the screamers yell about "libery," "debt," "fascism," "socialism," anything they think is OK to protest, regardless of the fact that these have nothing to do with the mainstream corporatist Democrat who was elected Present on a very centrist moderate platform.
Here's a Teabagger website offering signage slogans:
Free markets, not free loaders
We the People...are now owned by the Chinese.
Atlas will shrug
Stimulate business, not government
You can’t borrow prosperity
I’ll pay for my house, you pay for yours
Party like it’s 1773
Proud American capitalist
Repeal the pork or your bacon is cooked
No taxation without deliberation
Give me liberty or give me debt!
Wake up America, stop the insanity!
More at the link. Notice the randomness of these slogans and how they really don't have anything to do with anything. These little crybabies just want to throw a tantrum. Period. Any excuse will do. Obama's the antiChrist, a redistributor, an illegal alien, anything it's safe to hate except the real thing they are furious about.
Isn't it funny that they think we don't see through all this? As if.
Edit: Poll option added by request.