There’s a lot I don’t really understand about right-wingers in this country, but I think I’m starting to figure it out.
It’s all about loss of control.
The deep pissiness of so much of the political discussion in this country can only come out of something more than just anger. It’s fear.
People are scared silly, so scared that they’re irrational. That’s why so much of the political discussion in this country doesn’t lend itself to rationality. You can patiently explain your position until you’re blue in the opinion and it doesn’t do any good. It doesn’t make a dent, because the person you’re trying to talk to has the gargoyle of fear perched on his shoulder and he’s doing all he can to stand up under the weight of the little bugger. And it’s heavy.
Anger can sometimes be a good thing. Some of us in the progressive camp were glad to see some of the anger in the Occupy Wall Street movement, because anger can be a great motivator. We need to get a little honked off before anything’s going to change in this country.
And the anger on the left has a different character than the anger on the right. The anger on the left says, “Okay, I’m mad. Let’s do something about what’s making me mad.” The anger on the right says, “I’m really mad. Go away and leave me alone and I’ll calm down.”
The subtext on the right is: “And I won’t be afraid anymore.”
That’s the only explanation for some of the irrationality, not to say stupidity, one sees in movements like the Tea Party. I keep thinking of that famous Tea Party sign: “Get your government hands off my Medicare.” Whoever made that sign was at least literate enough to form the letters on the poster board, but the sentiment speaks to such a deep cluelessness that I don’t think it can be explained by stupidity alone.
I was once ordered to go through anger management counseling after I went off on an editor and it made me realize an important thing. Many important things, actually, but one that has a real material effect: Anger makes you stupid. Not just irrational, but stupid. It makes you do things that, in calmer moments, you would realize are simply counterproductive and senseless.
Hence, anger can make you want the government to leave alone a program that’s entirely a creation of the government. I may be giving the guy holding that sign a bit too much of the benefit of the doubt – I’m guessing he wasn’t on a break from rocket science school – but that kind of anger is doubly dangerous because it overrules what intelligence a person has.
But we’re talking about fear here. In the end, that’s what we have to address. And while the right to be stupid isn’t something we want to fight for, the right to be angry is, because if it’s channeled in the right direction anger can do some real good.
Channeling it in the right direction is the trick. It’s awfully easy to be angry at the government, especially since Ronald Reagan said so many years ago that government is the real problem. Not only is the government theoretically subservient to us, making it easier to crab about, but for the last 30 years or so nobody has argued that it actually does some good things. The deck has been thoroughly stacked.
But for some reason, people on the right don’t want to get angry with the people who have really hurt this country – businessmen. Private businesses in this country have been allowed to get away with things that would cause a revolution if government tried to do them.
It’s become pretty obvious that whatever rights and privileges we have been given by the best Constitution ever written disappear as soon as you walk through your employer’s door. Like to smoke a joint in your off-hours in the privacy of your home? Okay, pee in this cup so we can find out and fire you, even if your work is fine. Don’t like being condescended to and insulted? Tough rocks, buddy, I’m the boss and I can say anything I want. Don’t like the uncertainty caused because you can be fired at any time for any reason, or no reason? Too bad, it’s a right-to-work state.
You’re a serf. You may be a human being, but you have no more intrinsic value that the wiring in that drill press you work on. In fact, it’s easier to replace you.
I think at bottom, even the Tea Partiers realize this. And it scares the hell out of them. So they channel that fear into anger against things like Obamacare or those who want to tax the rich, even though they’d benefit directly from such things. It’s stupid and irrational, but when you know, somewhere down deep, that you don’t have much control over your life, what are you gonna do? You take your comfort where you find it.
Progressives are finally learning that we have to fight like hell to get what we want, that we have to fight with the same kind of anger that motivates the Tea Partiers. But we better make sure we’re punching at the right targets. Trying to explain to a right-winger why it makes sense that if you make more money you should pay more in taxes just isn’t going to work, because any reasons you give will be buried deep under a tsunami of fear.
Fear is what we’re fighting. Fear is what’s hurting us. It’s going to take more than milk and cookies and a gentle bedtime story to convince the Tea Party that they should worry more about the thieves at the door than the monsters in the closet. Fear might make you take steps against those thieves, but fear of those monsters will only make you pull the covers over your head.