Frank Rich in the Times:
If Obama’s first legislative priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same surge of fear. The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play.
It is this very sad, but undeniable, truth that poisons the so-called Tea Party protests. Combined with the endless trail of evidence that they have no actual understanding of what legislation has been enacted, nor even any specific complaint against President Obama, all they have is a deep-seated rage, a sense of threat and loss that has been brought on by … what, exactly?
Yes, economically the nation has been through a major trauma. Was that instigated by Obama? Not even a true-blue teabagger could make that claim with a straight face. But I’ve yet to see or hear a cogent argument from these enraged conservatives. Only exclamations of fear – “Taxes! Tyranny! Birth Certificate! Communism! Czars! Government Takeover!” With no facts to make the case, just vague catchphrases repeated among the Beck-mimicking mobs.
Seething anger, manifested in vaguely racist protests or patently false claims against some looming threat, it’s all they can manage. I realize it is nothing new, but it’s worth considering anyways. I’m always open to an honest argument or political debate based in reality. But when the other side can offer nothing beyond claims of ‘tyranny’ against a duly-elected super majority, it says more about their expectations of democracy than it does about their understanding of it.