Fox News proudly sponsored a nation-wide series of events that had the unfortunate name of tea-bagging, which drew slightly over 260,000 people on a workday. Groups of white Americans took to the streets to protest a bewildering array of things from the TARP program begun under Bush, to corporate bailouts started under Bush and to the AIG bailout started under Bush, to socialism, the stimulus package and the alleged or projected laws against guns to be enacted in some distant future by President Obama. It was clear from the signage that the events were almost exclusively aimed at President Obama, who passed the largest middle-class tax cut in history. Depending on the region, the racist tone of the rallies varied but was underneath in all of them.
Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, who have been the mentors to the current Republican House Leadership, put their organization at the tea parties disposal with the view, in Newt's words, of running a trial balloon for the future. Impressed by President Obama's use of facebook, youtube and the internet, Republicans have been fantasizing about how to create such a counter-movement. In select areas, where the corporate money financed tea parties, I believe some of the events were in fact trial runs for future electoral contests.
For the most part, these events had a heavy dose of third party participants such as the libertarians, who claimed to have invented the idea, the Constitution Party and the American Independence Party. Some of the more vocal organizers claimed they were trying to create an organization like MoveOn.org or a Code Pink of the right. At the D.C. rally, one participant flew in from Oregon to"be in the belly of the beast" and meet celebrities like...drumroll--Alan Keyes.
But he shouldn't be mocked. There is a strange logic to the tea-bagging, which critics on the left ignore. You either know Alan Keyes for his insane pursuit of the Obama birth certificate issue or from Borat. The pictures of the events yesterday with women with hats covered with teabags and men dressed like colonial soldiers and signs portraying Obama as Hitler were in fact out of Borat. And I believe there is a reason for this.
If you have had a difficult time understanding why Glenn Beck is acting like he is, it's best to change the frame from which you view him. While the unintended consequences of his incendiary rhetroic recently has led to the killing of three policemen in Pittsburgh,he is nothing other than an instrument of the Fox Channel to cope in the Obama age when Fox no longer has access to the White House and no longer receives stories to plant.
Roger Ailes is a communications genius and Rupert Murdoch is as cold a cynic one can find. The name of the game is still money. The tea parties are a perfect example, not of astroturfing as the left is claiming about a top down movement, but rather television programming. Murdoch could care less if his minions incite armed violence. Clearly, having Sean Hannity post a poll about how do you want to overthrow the government is meant to suck the audience into the Fox orbit. The winning option was armed struggle, something I wish on no one either as the combatant or victim.
The events themselves are meant to be laughed at--they are entertainment and based on the principle of game shows or the old Jerry Springer Show that Americans love to embarrass themselves and be made fun of. The size of the tea parties suggest that precise thing--this was in fact Fox using their base audience as guinea pigs and turning the country into the Gong Show. The lack of irony in all this was intentional in the Murdoch world--the deliberate use of jargon for a gay sexual practice, the hosting of an event at the Alamo where Americans were slaughtered, and the list goes on. Conservatives need to feel victimized and embattled. What better way to create group cohesion and to ensure a loyal audience than to have them subject to ridicule? Even Michael Steele of the RNC fell for the bait--claiming "We outdid the MSNBCs of the world". In fact, all of us were to laugh at the participants so the "liberal" media could be criticized for its arrogant views of the average citizen. What better way to ensure group bonding.
The psychology of this from a marketing view is rather sound but its utility for political activism very negligible. Fox News triumphed with tea parties, filling hours of program time with little overhead and building their base audience. But in fact conservatives or Republicans wounded their own cause by appearing in the Murdoch production of Borat.
Consider how Machivellian this all is--the next event for the tea-baggers is July 4th, a date rarely, ever used for political demonstrations because people are out on a holiday and look at fireworks. But Fox is sadistic enough to get its audience to appear for the day on television exhibiting lunatic behavior.
For the Newt Ginrgich and Dick Armey's of the world, there has to be a reality check. According to recent, reliable polling, the Republican Party stands at historic low levels of 25% identification. The Democrats are 40% and Independents are at 35%. Republicans have lost the following constituencies: the youth (which Reagan once won 60% of ); Hispanics; Blacks; and professionals or the suburban vote. The Republican party has no representation in Congress from New England, a dwindling amount from the Mid-Atlantic states, and is rapidly becoming a Southern party.
A recent Gallup poll has for the first time in my lifetime recorded that basically Americans feel the tax code is fair. With Obama's tax-cuts going into effect, this might rise, depending on whether Fox spin is neutralized. So why will another platform of tax cuts be successful?
In another entry, I'll explore whether there is not another agenda to the recent Republican obstructionism. But in the meantime, Fox enjoys its ratings with the Reality Show: Americans Go Bonkers.
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