Flunking 8th Grade Civics with the Tea Party (Op-Ed)

http://aattp.org/flunking-8th-grade-civics-tea-party/

Flunking 8th Grade Civics with the Tea Party (Op-Ed)

Laurin Suiter
October 17, 2013



A popular refrain of those who proudly align themselves with the Tea Party is that they are just simple folk, who want to “adhere to the Constitution”. The chief object of their recent conversion to constitutional citizen-scholars is, of course, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). They stubbornly maintain to the contrary, despite a validating Supreme Court decision, a lost presidential election, and a complete congressional failure to repeal, that it is unconstitutional.

The reason they say the ACA is unconstitutional is simply because they disagree with it – not because they actually know anything about the Constitution. They never cite any legal reasoning beyond laying claim to “adhering” to the document, yet have no problem disregarding said document when a Supreme Court decision does not confirm their prejudices or validates their ignorance. Their “understanding” of the Constitution is emotionally charged – a potent mix of fear, gauzy myth-steeped nostalgia, and some deranged maudlin species of pride. This mutant pride indulges a fetish for Revolutionary-era cosplay, complete with teabags dangling from their headgear like a bicentennial Minnie Pearl. This heightened emotionalism, ably aided by an age-old alliance with demagoguery and propaganda, triumphs over any semblance of reason.

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Since the would-be citizen-scholars of the Tea Party are fond of quoting dead men in powdered wigs, here is one by Justice Marshall’s cousin and political rival Thomas Jefferson, who would have no use for the minions of the teabagger idiocracy flinging their wild monkey poop all over the place:



The Tea Party, judging by their boorish behavior, sub-literate signage, and coded rhetoric at rallies and town hall meetings – all further sanctioned via their purchased blow-up dolls on Fox News and in the chambers of Congress, are the present-day barbarians. Those of us who have evolved, reject their mistaken form of “originalist” fundamentalism, and will fight them every step of the way from dragging the rest of us back into their warped mythic-nostalgic wet dream. Tri-cornered hats and large buckles are no substitute for an eighth-grade grade civics education.