Neil Macdonald: The dismantling of the Tea Party

[Justin_Beach]

From the CBC:

I miss the Tea Party already.

I miss the pot-bellied guys in tricorne hats waving around muskets (or, sometimes, assault rifles), demanding dramatic cuts in government spending, except for spending that benefited them, which, given their age and physical condition, was most government spending.

I miss all the warnings about official communism and posters of Barack HUSSEIN Obama with a Hitler moustache (although I could never quite understand the conflation of Hitler and communism) and the speeches about how the government wants to confiscate your guns and surrender to the United Nations.

The Tea Party was an angry national spectacle that had the added value of being politically relevant and highly newsworthy, at least in its early days, after Obama first took office back in 2009.

Full Article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/13/f-rfa-macdonald-tea-party.html

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. This is a really wonderful article! Thanks!

The country is freaking out today about the shootings of children, courtesy of the NRA, so few other things are being noticed, but I hope you post this in a few days.

[Justin_Beach]

2. Thanks, I'll try that.

I understand that there is really only one story today. Unfortunately I've come to doubt that anything substantial will change as a result.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. I agree with you on that. Nothing here will change

Not with regard to guns. There's a love of guns among the right wing that is obsessive.

[Justin_Beach]

4. And .. as I understand it

the NRA get a good chunk of it's funding from weapons manufacturers (some of which also make guns for the military and police). It makes it difficult to go after the NRA because a "boycott" wouldn't really hurt their funding sources - assuming that people who are opposed to the NRA aren't buying a lot of guns to begin with.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Yes indeed.

The NRA is the lobby for gun and weapon manufacturers. People here are being shot because some are making a lot of money off those guns. The sale of weapons is too lucrative, and the U.S. is only about the dollar bill.

[Justin_Beach]

6. I know ...

I lived in the US for 30 of my 42 years ... things are better here (we have no second amendment) but our current PM is pretty pro-gun.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. Things are always better up there.

I don't know quite why, but it is what it is. This place is the epitome of savagery.

[Justin_Beach]

8. We have our problems

..our current government being one of them but I think it's just a difference in culture. We had no violent revolution, no civil war, no wild west, our fights with natives were minor by comparison and our native population is still large. Also, because of the landscape and climate we've always had to work together more and as a smaller country, we've had to work cooperatively with other countries - no 'our way or the highway'.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Do you think history shaped this country's ideology?

What about the greed here? What's your opinion? Is that all part of it? I have trouble seeing the forest for the trees.

[Justin_Beach]

10. Hard to say

... there was definitely greed here, still is. The same with Europe - very rich, very greedy people but there came a point in the history of Canada and most of Europe that the majority (not-rich .. or particularly greedy) voted in ways that reined in the rich and greedy. The US isn't there yet, partially because of the mythology that says that "anyone with a little hard work and imagination can be rich too.) ... It's partially true, in the same way that anyone can win the lottery but most people, in most places, recognize that it's not likely to happen to most people - even if they do work very hard, and took steps to make sure that people at the bottom had enough - something Canada still needs to work on, but the social safety net here is much better than the one in the US.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

11. I'm off to bed, but I will say this...

I wish I knew how that whole mistaken notion that everything can be improved by working like a horse, non-stop and with no rest. First, it's a lie. Second, how come that idea didn't grab hold in Canada? It's just north of the border! Wish I knew that.

[Justin_Beach]

12. It's not that people here don't work hard

...there just doesn't seem to be the same illusion that hard work, by itself, will bring wealth and success.

Canada is just north of the border but there are barriers. Canada happened, in part, because of the American Revolution. This is the part of North America that chose to remain British. Part of what defined Canada was 'not being American'. We, to an extent, still are part of Britain - we belong to the Commonwealth, the Queen is on our money and we have a parliamentary system. We weren't fully and completely independent, with our own constitution, until the 1980s.

http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/eras/trudeau/the_constitution.htm

We also have Quebec and French Canada more broadly, Quebec has strong ties to France and French Canadian culture is very different, even from that of English Canada. Then there are the First Nations - our "Indians" are still, very much, a part of Canada - many of them are people who's ancestors fled the United States 100+ years ago.

We have had influxes from the States - Alberta (our most "American" - right leaning province) was settled by American farmers (because of an offer of free land). More recently there was a large influx during the Vietnam war. But those people have all been just a part of the mosaic. We are a multicultural country. In Toronto (where I lived for 10 years until recently) more than half the population was born outside of Canada and, according to the census, more than 200 languages are spoken (as a mother tongue).

So, although we are close by the US and have been influenced by the US, it has never been our sole influence.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. That's how Canada escaped having the warped aspects of American ideology, but...

how did the U.S. developed this really screwed up ideology about guns, about how working hard is the answer to everything, and other such garbage?

[Justin_Beach]

14. Well ... the gun thing

as I said has always been the answer for Americans - from "How do we deal with the native population" to "how do we separate from England" to "How do we respond to 9/11" - the answer has always been guns.

The "Protestant work ethic" thing originally stems from the Calvinists or pilgrims. It's an ideology that said, basically, that we are on Earth to work hard and praise god, not to have fun. It was the founding ideology, was strong with the 'founding fathers' and it has been in the interest of the elites / ruling class to perpetuate the myth - "Hard work is the answer / I got where I am by hard work and if you work really hard you can do it too."

[Sarah Ibarruri]

15. That does make sense. It also explains why this country thrives on war and having enemies.

Never mind that if you pull the curtain aside, you are suddenly looking at the a-hs getting rich off all this.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

16. Were there no pilgrims or Calvinists up in Canada? Or maybe somebody kicked their behind long ago

and their ideas fizzled into the ether?

[Justin_Beach]

17. The Calvanists

...were never that popular in England (the primary reason they left) and, as I said, we basically still are part of England (sort-of). England has an official church, the Church of England and for most of the 19th century Canada was dominated by the C of E and the Catholics. Any other groups were tiny minorities. (In the 20th century it diversified greatly).

The thing is that the "Land of opportunity" people the "With hard work anyone can be rich" people - leave out an important detail. You also have to be greedy and ruthless - you have to be willing to sell your employees, business partners, friends even family up the river in the name of greed. If you work really hard you might be able to earn (honestly "earn&quot a million dollars in your lifetime. But, more than that you didn't "earn" it, you got someone else to earn it for you, you took a percentage of what others earned, you swindled others out of what they earned or you flat out stole it.

As I said earlier, part of the difference is that in most developed countries there are checks on greet or, at least, you are taxed heavily if you "earn" unreasonable amounts of money and those taxes go to pay for things for everyone. Another problem, in the states, is that a good percentage of (already low) taxes go to pay for more things for rich people - business subsidies and wars as profit making opportunities.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

18. Calvin was a depraved little critter, wasn't he?

His interpretation of God was that God can only love certain people. No surprise they'd end up ostracized in England. But they sure set up shop here in the U.S. and spread their ideology, turning this into a bit of a hellhole, didn't they?

[Justin_Beach]

19. Well ... to be fair

Calvin was a dick, but the US can change any time it decides to. There is no law that says America has to stay the way it is.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

21. LOL! You're right. What it boils down to is that people here want that ideology. nt

[Justin_Beach]

20. PS

You may also notice that the northern states - New England area - tend to be more like Canada / Europe than the Southern States.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. There's a world of difference between northern and southern states. I think it's the water? :)

It's tainted down south.