About that "take back America" business

The Tea Party says they want to "take back America." Essayist Terrence Heath asks three important questions related to that demand.

Who do they want to take it from?

Who are they taking it for?

How will they take it?

The answer to that last question is becoming clear. There have been reports of such things as a reporter handcuffed to a chair in Alaska. Most recent is a protester whose head was stomped on at a Rand Paul rally (the video went viral). The answer, then, is through violence. Maya Angelou: "When people show you who they are, believe them."

This is not new in American history. Violence is how the black man was kept in his place during Jim Crow (which isn't all that long ago). It intimidates and discourages dissent. It is a method of getting your way when your arguments are not rational and don't convince your opponent. And when your opponent shows you that your arguments aren't rational, violence is a ready response. Stephen Colbert: "Reality has a well known liberal bias."

Back to that first question. The list of who is likely to get the boot (either to the pants or the head) is familiar: teachers unions, Muslim-looking people, living in a house you can't afford, dependent on government health insurance, stem cell research, public transportation, global warming, loving someone of the same sex, the poor, Hispanics, blacks, atheists, and on and on. And the biggest boot for that usurper in the White House.

And to the second question. The Tea Party folks don't seem to be asking one important question of their own: All that money that is funding their movement and the candidates they were able to nominate -- where is it coming from?

Hint: It isn't coming from the rabble.

The Tea Party is attacking the government. But who, other than the government, can protect their food, water, air, environment, and climate? Who other than the government can regulate business and banking? So turn it around. Who doesn't want business and banking regulation? Who doesn't care if food, water, air, environment, and climate are clean, safe, and livable? Yup, corporations are funding the Tea Party movement.

And when legislation comes up to gut clean water regulation who is that freshman politician going to listen to, the rabble or the guy writing the checks?

Then the Tea Party will find out they've been played. They'll find out the new Golden Rule is He who has the gold, rules. The rest of us just live here. Unless we get the boot.