There have always been the fringe folks (or as I call them, the tinfoil hat wearing nut jobs) among us. You know the people I mean- the ones who have political views that are so off the wall all you can do is stare at them when they explain them to you. The ones who spend their life savings chasing Bigfoot. The ones who claim their cancer was cured by drinking their own urine. Most of them are good hearted people who tend to hang out with their fellow believers and don’t cause the rest of us any problems.
But then there are the less benign. The people who burn down womens’ clinics to stop abortions are an example or this sort. These are people who feel that their point of view is so much better than anyone else’s that there is no rule that cannot be broken in order to ensure the world is running according to their ideals. This past week we have seen the rise of a new breed of these whackadoos- the rabid Tea Partiers who have taken to using racial slurs, damaging property and threats of violence against members of Congress that voted in ways they do not approve of.
Let me say right now that I am aware that not ALL people who associate with the Tea Party endorse or support this kind of behavior. It’s just the fringe people who are doing this crap. Most of the Tea Partiers (is that what you call them?) are law abiding people who are just as appalled by this crap as the rest of us are.
But no matter where you fall on the political spectrum it has to be a bit worrisome that we seem to have completely lost our ability to discuss our differences in a calm, adult, constructive manner. It appears that the only people who are getting “heard” are the tin foil hat wearing freaks. And that scares me.
Actually I think the term to describe them is "Tea Baggers", but that in itself has a negative connotation to it (in reference to what a person can make a character do in a video game), so I really don't know what the right phrase is…