So going into this assignment I tried to keep my min as open as possible. This was hard considering I had yet to do much research into this so called "Tea Party" yet I had many friends from both my home in California and here in Minneapolis spouting out a multitude of ideas about the rising group. Some positive, some negative, I'm sure you can guess which state the majority of each came from. Anyways... as I started into the Zernike article I was blown away by how much it reminded me of Adorno's excerpt from The Psychological Techniques of Martin Luther Thomas's Radio Addresses. It was almost if Adorno was actually writing about the organizers of the Tea Party. One of the clearest links was when Zernike was talking about Glen Beck's role in spreading awareness of the party and helping other to become involved. To gain the trust of these people, quoting Vernike, Beck with his, "just-between us style, his openness about his struggles with addiction, and his sneering at elites resonated with a lot of Americans who felt they had no voice." This perfectly describes part of what Adorno referred to as the "Emotional Release Devise" in which the speaker is "consciously and empathetically emotional as a part of his technique." So what about these two relations is important? Hello! Do we really want a group that is spouting off their political propaganda, I mean, political views in what Adorno describes as a fascist leadership manner? No thank you.
So putting these disturbing similarities aside, I decided to look a little deeper and try and find out, from the horses mouth, so to speak, what this Tea Party is claiming they are all about. The first thing I noticed is there are quite a few people who have claimed to have started the Tea Party. Why would anyone trust in a party who isn't even clear on who started it? Whatever, moving on. I finally decided upon a webpage about the Tea Party, teaparty.org. What I found amusing about this site was its simplicity. It gave a brief statement about their core values, my favorite of which being that "Gun Ownership is Sacred" and "Traditional Family Values Are Encouraged." Aside from that, all you could really do on the page was sign up to be part of the Tea Party or donate money. Wow, so not impressed, even I, who severely lacks in computer skills, could have come up with something more then that.
Even looking to other publications such as Newsweek, all that can really be ascertained is that "they want change!" Just like Network's Howard Beale ranting, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" the people of the Tea Party claim to be fed up with the government. What's really interesting though is they don't really seem to have a solid plan for all these changes they want to make, mostly they are just full of vague ideas. As put by Newsweek's Daniel Stone, "one of the movement’s biggest snags has been its inability to articulate concrete changes it would make to Washington and the federal government." I mean, as we can see by the New York Times/CNN poles, most of the country would like some sort of change involving the government. Most people have finally realized what a critical time our government is in and that the decisions made effect us all. But, is going back to a grass roots, small government really the best solution? According to a surprisingly/scary number of people, yes, that is the way to go. I on the other hand remain unconvinced.
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