Herding Angry Cats
Tony E Dillon-Hansen
October 2013
The phrase “herding cats” is intended to reference ridiculous
attempts to control a group of people that are simply unwilling or unable to be
controlled. For me having a bundle of cuddling kitties in my arms sounds nice,
but this statement is indicative of the not-so-cuddly or lovable (in fact,
quite angry) TEA party during the recent Washington hysterics. They, like any
Americans, have the desire for rights and the desire to freely express oneself.
They may have these, but their singular perspective borders on insurgency.
Their vision ignores basic truths in favor of branding their view as a cause
and other cool-sounding rhetoric.
A cause is not always “just”, and sometimes, the “cause” is
short-sighted and just plain selfish. Many of the TEA party believe they have a
righteous cause, akin to saving Jesus from execution, and no matter who gets
hurt and with no respect to any others, they will fight to have there voice
heard because their cause is the only one that matters (not just a supposed
superior one.) Their cause is one that is nostalgic and envisions America to
look like the old southern plantations where people ought to live in their
place, the colors do not mix, guns are always great, and public education distorts
the values in society if not historical facts. Diversity is foreign to this
ideal and a threat to their American way of life. Further, this vision of
America wants government out of people's lives, unless those people desire
something different than the nostalgia. Anything that threatens the view should
be squashed. Thus, people raised in this point of view are sadly mistaken when
they find the rest of the world does not operate in this boxed view of the
world.
They have managed to get voted into office because of bloated
and gridlocked government with the vision to restore the nation to a “cause”.
Without consideration, they will stymy government to achieve this and have
preferred dysfunction over governance. Dysfunctional government is destructive
to the face and character of the United States. The Constitution asserts a slow
moving government in order that policy be given proper consideration rather
than rash irresponsibility. The Reagan mantra that “government is the problem”,
by itself, is incorrect, but when a herd of angry cats run the government, the
result can be a dangerous problem. Good government, in contrast, can be the
assistant that enables growth of the whole society. Bad government is as bad as
having rogue companies ruin our environment, hording resources, denying people
legitimate claims, enslaving people to poverty, persecuting entire sects of the
population, executing vigilante justice upon people via mobs, or hiding their
intolerance and hatreds behind supposed religious texts..
Currently, Washington is dysfunctional government disabled by
the loud few and those few want Washington to fail. To quote another president
(Kennedy), “We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of
weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security to constitute
maximum peril.” A weapon does not have to be a rocket or gun, but can be a
tactic to impale the government from doing anything. The TEA party, primarily
because of a couple policies they dislike, want to see Obama and the federal
government fail. An organization that ultimately wishes to witness the failure
of the government is being wildly reckless, threatening to economic security,
undermining of global alliances that count upon our stability, and teetering
upon insurrection against the very Constitution they supposedly uphold. That
does represent a “sufficient challenge” to the nation's security.
Further, these people have been elected from districts that
have been drawn to elect them and to keep them elected. They will not be held
accountable to people from outside of their caucus given the gerrymandering
that has entrenched their positions into power. Gerrymandering should be
declared illegal since it inherently rejects review by the people over the
Congress (explicit by the Constitution), and congressional districts should be
designed along the parameters that the Iowa redistricting has to follow. Until
then, these people will not be accountable to the whole of people but rather
only to the select few that have been selected to vote for them.
Another complaint issued by the TEA party is how government
spends money wastefully. Yet, they have installed themselves into power and
then milk the public for a salary to do nothing even though they were
supposedly elected to do something. Some contend that government policy should
be based upon some cost-benefit style marketism. Ironically, things like
accessible roads, airline safety, medical research, public education, science
research, retirement, and such are considered too costly, that is if others
might benefit more than they. Rights become part of a cost-benefit analysis
now. Simply, the right thing to do is replaced by the cost-effective thing to
do.
They are willing to promote big businesses, especially defense
contractors, that give short-term benefit to no one else but their own
business. This is an incongruous vision from the bigger concern about wasteful
spending if the spending they desire is only beneficial for a few. If these
people believe that government should give welfare to businesses and farmers
then they should have no problem with the government helping individual
citizens get better education, better health, or even a better standard of
living. That is because when more people have discretionary money, rather than just a few, then more
businesses have opportunity to sell products and services yields more boats
rising. Instead, they seem more focused upon building bombs than schools.
The actions by TEA party activists have made our country
vulnerable and threaten the stability of this country. Their right-wing
fanaticism is dangerous and if the current Congressional leadership or
President cannot herd these cats, they all need to be shown the door as quick
as possible.
