Little Tea Party on the Prairie: The Earliest Tea Baggers

Watching the political shows this morning, I got irritated at the "year in review" chatter when it got to the tea baggers. The "tea party" movement is treated like a legitimate, grass roots force--when it isn't really either--with a valid, righteous anger. The truth is, the corporations and the prominent conservative politicians co-opted the movement early, stealing any sense of legitimacy it may have had. Worse, the anger felt by these assembled morons "partiers" is so diffused, so frickin' all-over-the-place, it is difficult to call it legitimate. Doesn't it seem to you that they're angry about something, but not quite putting their finger on it?

They claim it is about taxes--though their taxes have yet to go up. They claim it is about communism, Marxism, socialism, any -ism, though most of them would be hard pressed to give you distinct definitions for each. They claim that the Constitution is threatened by the current administration, though they showed no distress over Bush/Cheney using it as toilet paper. Yes, there is something that brings out all this anger. What, oh what could it be? I think this nearly 40-year-old clip from Mel Brooks' classic Blazing Saddles accurately depicts exactly what has the tea baggers so bound up. Some, like Janeane Garofalo agree with me. Your mileage may vary.