George Monbiot Can’t Comprehend the Tea Party

George Monbiot seems to be famous. I’d heard of him, but had never run across any of his writings until today.

So I’m perusing the various blogs this morning when I find this little gem - The Tea Party movement: deluded and inspired by millionaires.

Naturally, I’m intrigued. I consider myself a member of this movement, even though there’s no formal way to confirm that since there’s no formal organization to belong to. Which is one of the reasons I like it. To quote Marx, I wouldn’t belong to a club that would allow me to be a member.

I’ve watched as pundits in the traditional media have tried to dissect the movement without success. Their well-known and built-in liberal bias gets in the way of their analysis, as it always draws some incorrect conclusion or nefarious inference. All their arrows miss their marks wildly.

I’m accustomed to that, as is everyone else in the Movement. After a while, it became a grand sport: seeing who can come up with the most fallacious and outrageous article to describe the greatest populist movement in recent American history.

And today, we have a winner! May I have the electronic envelope, please?

George Monbiot.

Let me start by saying, George, please introduce me to your drug dealer. You are getting some seriously primo stuff. I’ll keep it under wraps, just between you and me, ok?

Nothing else explains the wild-eyed, insane rantings contained in his post at the Guardian. I can say without reservation that I’ve never read such bullshit in my life.

Normally, an outside viewpoint is welcomed when you’re trying to figure something out. Not in this case. In a very odd way, it’s comforting to see that the insanity of progressivism knows no national boundaries, and that there are raving leftists in England too.

Monbiot starts straight out of the gate this way,

The Tea Party movement is remarkable in two respects. It is one of the biggest exercises in false consciousness the world has seen – and the biggest Astroturf operation in history.

Then the contradictions begin,

An Astroturf campaign is a fake grassroots movement: it purports to be a spontaneous uprising of concerned citizens, but in reality it is founded and funded by elite interests. Some Astroturf campaigns have no grassroots component at all. Others catalyse and direct real mobilisations.

So, George, which one is it? In the aftermath of the Obama coronation, we discovered that that David Axelrod was one of the first practitioners of this thing we call Astroturf. We found out just how he did it, with well-placed operatives engaging in an electronic whispering campaign, much like someone setting up a dishonest scam at an art auction. So, yes, if you include Axelrod, then this is certainly accurate.

Monbiot gives us the benefit of the doubt for a nanosecond before he calls us dumb hicks, who are too stupid to figure things out for ourselves,

It is mostly composed of passionate, well-meaning people who think they are fighting elite power, unaware that they have been organised by the very interests they believe they are confronting.

Monbiot then launches into his version of a conspiracy theory that would make Vince Flynn proud, as he outlines the influence of the Koch brothers in American conservative politics. To Monbiot, the Koch brothers are just the embodiment of evil,

The Kochs want to pay less tax, keep more profits and be restrained by less regulation. Their challenge has been to persuade the people harmed by this agenda that it's good for them.

So, George, keeping more of our own money (which we made by working) is a bad thing? What’s your dealer’s name again?

The curious thing that Monbiot ignores is that George Soros does many of the same things that he excoriates the Koch brothers for, except Soros is doing it in order to bring America, and Americans, to their knees, thereby hurting untold millions of innocent people who want nothing more than to quietly live their lives in peace. He's done it before.

Monbiot's overall comprehension skills are soreley lacking when it comes to the Tea Party Movement, as is the case with other leftists. There is a reason for this: they cannot understand something simple. The Tea Party is simple because the concepts of freedom and liberty are simple. There's nothing to figure out, no great secret to decode, and no layers of nuance to wade through. Just a few very basic principles that have lived in the hearts of people since the dawn of time.

Sadly, those ideals are not embraced by all.