Those of us who live in Red States won’t learn anything new. We live with this cognitive dissonance and delusional politics on a daily basis. But for the rest of you folks, I leave you with this little taste:
"Let me get this straight," I say to David. "You've been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?"
"Well," he says, "there's a lot of people on welfare who don't deserve it. Too many people are living off the government."
"But," I protest, "you live off the government. And have been your whole life!"
"Yeah," he says, "but I don't make very much." Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it's going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit.
That’s pretty much all there is to say. I mean yeah, Taibbi goes on to talk about how
the Tea Party doesn't really care about issues — it's about something deep down and psychological
but I’ve already talked enough about the Modern Conservative Inferiority Complex, the culture wars, the alienation. So, I won’t bore you any longer.
But go read it, it’s interesting. Some good little observations. His take on Kentucky Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning is worth the price of admission alone.
