Sometimes You Have to Walk Carefree Across the Street with a Big Ass Hammer

Yesterday I biked down to the US Capitol to see for myself the Teabagger crowd on the day the historic healthcare reform bill passed.

Whenever I had posted pictures or videos from Tea Party protests or Sarah Palin rallies in the past, I would get the same comments from my right wing friends: that the photographer or video producer had only published the images and interviews of the most extreme elements that the protests had to offer and the most extreme posters, and that somehow the intellectual or reasonable people were not being shown. There are crazies in every crowd -- so the argument went -- and all video is biased.

Well, take my opinion for what it's worth, but the negative stereotype of the Teabagger we've seen in the media is highly accurate. This is a movement whose origins are not in mere response to Obama's policies; they are the same exact angry, sometimes racist, often religious and conservative protests we saw during the 2008 election, which are the clear roots of the Tea Party movement.

I walked around with an Obama t-shirt on and spoke to many people -- perhaps two dozen. Some folks were polite, some folks not, but many of the signs were offensive, comparing the Obama administration to some of the worst governments known to modern man. Here are some photos I took:







The comparisons are, of course, completely ridiculous and not worthy of much comment. However, having visited the physical evidence of Nazism when I visited Auschwitz and been highly emotionally affected by the experience, I would like to extend my sincerest fuck you from the bottom of my heart to the types of people who wrote the above signs. Granted, those types of signs were not the majority, but coupled with the intense anger exhibited around me that day, there is something different about these extremist reactions. I've been to many many protests in Washington DC from over 10 years, but I haven't seen this level of anger, threats of violence, and demonization of the presidency, ever. Plus, the widely-reported shouting of the words faggot and nigger at members of Congress carrying out their democratic duties. I mean, even the enormous anti-war protests under Bush didn't yield more than two signs comparing the presidency to regimes like Stalin or Kim Jong Il. You can even see my photos from those protests back in 2005 here.

What's most disturbing and should be understood by any thinking person, is that this isn't just the fringe elements of right-wingism in 2010. This is no longer the big tent party of Ronald Reagan. My favorite economist, Paul Krugman, put it very well in a recent op-ed:

And let’s be clear: the campaign of fear hasn’t been carried out by a radical fringe, unconnected to the Republican establishment. On the contrary, that establishment has been involved and approving all the way. Politicians like Sarah Palin — who was, let us remember, the G.O.P.’s vice-presidential candidate — eagerly spread the death panel lie, and supposedly reasonable, moderate politicians like Senator Chuck Grassley refused to say that it was untrue. On the eve of the big vote, Republican members of Congress warned that “freedom dies a little bit today” and accused Democrats of “totalitarian tactics,” which I believe means the process known as “voting.”

This is what pisses me off so much. What's going on here isn't that old saw that "both parties are guilty of the same behavior." Bullshit. One party is dedicated to whipping up fear by spreading lies and misinformation, regardless of its sometimes violent effects, and the other is trying to move the country into 2010. Until Republicans change, that is my assessment of a wide swath of their party (yes, I know not 100% of Republicans are like this; that's not my point).

One great part of the day that made me feel proud of my democracy was the fact that the congresspeople walked from their offices across the street to the Capitol building, boldly walking past screaming Teabaggers. And this picture of Pelosi and her entourage with the fucking big ass hammer is just awesome:



I was standing with the mob of angry screaming teabaggers a few feet from where Pelosi walked in to vote. She walked right past them in bright sunshine, without security, and without fear, despite the violent rhetoric and insults. It was a great democracy-will-prevail moment that few people get to see in person. And now the US will have universal healthcare. It's hard to believe, but it gives me chills still.