The Tea Party vs blind arrogance

The Tea Party folks are now in the strong position that always comes in a fight with self-blinded, delusional opponents. Mr. Obama and his party, most Republicans, and the media are so arrogant they do not see they are talking only to themselves, while much of the the country comes together against them. The president’s remarks last week about how Tea Party forces ought to “thank him” is a good example of how far removed he is from a reality that finds millions of Americans believing he and our political elite are deliberately trying to destroy what they and their ancestors — white, black, yellow, and red — have built on this continent over the past 400 years.

Mr. Obama, his Ivy League colleagues, most Republicans, and the media shills who back them regard America and the world as laboratories for their campaign to build a country that matches their collectivist, amoral, and anti-republican ideology. They want to “perfect” the rest of us in their image, which means all must think as they do.

This is what happens, I think, when people separate themselves from anything that might be truthfully termed religious faith. I am not talking here about any particular religion or sect, but rather the belief that there is a God who made the world and its inhabitants, who demands the latter obey some minimal rules of decency in relations with each other, and who gave humans the ability to reason and with it the ability to see that while God is perfect, they are not, cannot made so, and therefore need to give each other the benefit of the doubt as often as possible.

Mr. Obama and his political peers in both parties talk a good religious game, but most, it seems to me, have long ago lost the sense that they are imperfect human beings ultimately accountable to their maker. They are intent in perfecting the rest of us, or least creating conditions in which we cannot not object to or block their behavior. The beginning of this process is to eradicate any sense of America being a special place worth preserving with as much prosperity and independence as possible. Mr. Obama, with help from his party and most Republicans, is excelling at this kind of destruction:

  • He has increased the amount of foreign aid that America will give away to the rest of the world from the nearly $30 billion level of 2009. He and his bipartisan colleagues act as if this is “their” money, not the taxpayers. They also act as if it is a genuinely moral decision to take part of the money the federal government steals from our pockets and give it to foreigners — while Americans here at home are unemployed, hungry, and in other ways having a tough time. The message can only be read to say: “To hell with Americans, we political leaders want to appear benevolent by giving money to foreigners who we think are more worthy of help than the Americans who worked for the money being given away.”
  • He and his bipartisan colleagues continue to conduct wars overseas that they have no intention of winning. Whatever position each of us hold on the Afghan and Iraq wars, I doubt there is anyone who wanted to see U.S. soldiers and Marines die in wars our political leaders never meant to win. As in the area of foreign aid, Obama and his Republican peers seem to think that these young people are “theirs” and so can be “spent” as they see fit, even if it means wasting their lives by involving us in wars they do not mean to win. Again, the message can only read: “To hell with American parents, we will use their kids lives as we see fit, after all an American life is worth no more than that of any foreigner.”
  • He, his party, and the Republicans have decided to “perfect” the U.S. Constitution by deciding its requirement that Congress declare war is no longer valid, and that, as superior men and women, they can decide where and when to go to war without the American people having a say in the decision. More than that, they believe they have every right to make policies that yield situations where war is automatic if foreign powers act in certain ways; if, for example, China goes after Taiwan, Serbia decides to retake its stolen Kosovo province, North Korea attacks South Korea, or if Israel decides on war with Iran. This message can only read: “To hell with Americans, our job is to decide when and where to go to war, or when to allow others to decide that issue for you, the only role U.S. citizens have is to cheerfully pony up the taxes and young people we will waste in such wars.”
  • He and all recent presidents have conducted a war on Christianity in America under the banner of the “separation of church and state.” Falsely claiming that they are doing the Founders’ work, these men and women, through their actions and appointments, have aided — or at least have done nothing to stop — the creation of “rights” that are nothing less than attacks on Christian beliefs. Whether by eradicating the term “Christmas” from our public lexicon; by championing nearly every kind of sexual deviance, or by facilitating the murder of 45-plus million unborn Americans by defending and perpetuating a Supreme Court decision even more merciless, anti-human, and lethal than Dred Scott, our political leaders have a message that can only read: “To hell with American Christians, we regard them as out-dated simpletons, we hate their God, and we will create a federal government that takes His place.” [NB: Other religions of course are exempt from the “separation of church and state” sanction. They are, rather, to be favored by our national government and with our tax money. Tyrannical Islamic theocracies are protected by the U.S. military and Islam is called a “religion of peace” whose young men just happen to be killing our soldiers and Marines, and the “Jewish state” receives tens of billions of dollars annually to help maintain its theocracy and involve our soldier-children in its expansionism and endless religious war.)

The perfection sought by Mr. Obama and his bipartisan colleagues, then, seems to be one in which they remake America and the world in their image, no matter what the cost to the Americans. Most Americans, in our leaders’ minds, are badly flawed because they still harbor such quaint ideas as love of God, country, family, and neighbor, and so are fit only to pay in treasure and blood for their leaders’ experiments in perfecting people at home and abroad.

The Tea Party people see, reject, and are challenging this agenda. They are, for now, doing so peacefully. We should all hope that Obama, his party, and the Republicans begin to see that their smug sense of invulnerability and superiority is unwarranted and blinds them to a whirlwind of anger they have knowingly sowed and which — in one form or another — they will surely reap.

Author: Michael F. Scheuer

Michael F. Scheuer worked at the CIA as an intelligence officer for 22 years. He was the first chief of its Osama bin Laden unit, and helped create its rendition program, which he ran for 40 months. He is an American blogger, historian, foreign policy critic, and political analyst.