The election, the Democrats and the Tea Party (oh my)

Two years ago, we celebrated the election of Barack Obama and the end of the Bush Dark Age. Today, we look for the silver lining in the Republican take-over of the House of Representatives. I am not a pundit and the analysis has been better said elsewhere. While Obama had Democratic majorities in both houses, he was able to save the economy (which had been wrecked under Bush with endless wars, tax cuts for millionaires and devil-may-care banking) and pass a health care package. Nice, but not nice enough and too nice.

The Democrats always play nicer than the right wing Republicans who via the Tea Party called Obama a Muslim terrorist, a Socialist and a non-American. Obama was vilified as the Joker from Batman. People demanded to see his birth certificate. The State of Hawaii finally produced it and still some "birthers" doubted its authenticity. Where was the outrage? What if McCain had been elected. He was born in Panama which is not part of the United States. What if McCain had been portrayed as a fascist (as some Vietnam soldiers were called during the height of that war)? And so on with personal attacks.

No one would have ever impuned McCain thusly. Democrats never want to be seen as disrespecting the military because they have been portrayed as weak on defense. McCain's place of birth was on an American military base. Of course, he is American. So his name. McCain. A Scottish or Irish one. What's more American than that? Obama certainly is not an American name; it's a Kenyan one. Of course Obama had to have born there, or so the Tea-baggers' logic runs.

Others have articulated it but the reason the Tea-baggers and others want to reclaim their country is because they don't perceive Obama as part of their country. They're pissed off a black guy (who doesn't even have a European surname) is president. They're pissed off that a white person will soon no longer be the presumptive American. They feel threatened by non-whites and all minorities. The America of their youth (white Christians in power, others knowing their place) is disappearing and they are right. Obama represents the future of the nation and the Tea-baggers are pissed and they're scared. Scared they will be treated the way minorities have been treated.

And the Democrats lacked the will to denounce the Republicans and the Tea-baggers' egregious claims. They stood passively while Fox News' pundits ran-a-muck with deceptive diatribes. The Democrats turned the other cheek while the right pronounced them and Obama (as well as Muslims and gays and so on) as unpatriotic and un-American. They did not resoundingly shout how dare the Tea-baggers accuse the president of being a Muslim terrorist. The Democrats were quiet. They were passive the way they always are for fear of pissing off the good Republicans (who know the fringe is vile but who need the fringe to get elected) who are merely conservative, not reactionary. Democrats fear being seen as liberal or progressive. They fear not being reelected.

The Democrats were afraid to stand up for what was right. Over and over again. They refused to just repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." They were afraid to call the "birthers" liars. They were afraid to say that the mosque near Ground Zero (2 blocks away) has as much right to be built as any other building properly zoned and legally owned.

The whole election season was the most uncivil I've ever witnessed. The claims many made were outrageous, hurtful, slanderous and nasty. Plain nasty. The country is in a most uncivil state.

So, while I find the Tea-baggers odious, I find the Democrats spineless. Too nice if you will. The heroic and the truthsayers are few. The liars and the cowards rule.

The silver lining? I am not sure but there will be another election next year.