Lord, I’m thankful for each new day, but I’m not thankful for the Tea Party. I’m thankful that I have a roof over my head, but I’m not thankful for for the Tea Party. I’m thankful that, though poor, I have enough food to share with those less fortunate than I, but I’m not thankful for for the Tea Party. And I’m thankful for the friends who read and comment here, but I’m not thankful for for the Tea Party. Why?
I’ve never seen a group of people so willing to believe the most outrageous lies without the slightest effort to fact check them, and continue to do believe them, even when confronted with proof. Here’s an example fitting for today.
Forget what you learned about the first Thanksgiving being a celebration of a bountiful harvest, or an expression of gratitude to the Indians who helped the Pilgrims through those harsh first months in an unfamiliar land. In the Tea Party view of the holiday, the first settlers were actually early socialists. They realized the error of their collectivist ways and embraced capitalism, producing a bumper year, upon which they decided that it was only right to celebrate the glory of the free market and private property.
Historians quibble with this interpretation. But the story, related by libertarians and conservatives for years, has taken on new life over the last year among Tea Party audiences, who revere early American history, and hunger for any argument against what they believe is the big-government takeover of the United States.
It has made Thanksgiving another proxy in the debate over health care and entitlement spending, and placed it alongside the New Deal and the Constitution on the platter of historical items picked apart by competing narratives.
There are other debates about Thanksgiving — whether the first was in Jamestown, Va., or Plymouth, Mass.; whether it was intended as a religious holiday or not. But broadly, the version passed on to generations of American schoolchildren holds that the settlers who had arrived in the New World on the Mayflower in 1620 were celebrating the next year’s good harvest, sharing in the bounty with Squanto and their other Indian friends, who had taught them how to hunt and farm on new terrain… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
I quibble with the official version as well, because that initial harvest was not all that bountiful. The pilgrims were not sharing their bounty with poor savages as the official account portrays. The Native Americans went hunting and brought the meat to the feast. Inviting a guest to Thanksgiving dinner is not an act of charity when the guest brings the turkey. So Lord, I’m thankful that Native Americans shared their bounty with the rest of us, but I’m still not thankful for the Tea Party.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Off topic: I may be sporadic for a couple days. See today’s Open Thread.
12 Responses to “Lord, I’m Not Thankful for the Tea Party”
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I live near Jamestown. It was, and is, a swamp. Not a smart place to land, and even dumber to try to settle there, but the dumb pilgrims did just that, and were nearly wiped out their first year there – from disease, starvation, etc. They had a reason to be thankful – those reviled indians saved their stupid selves from themselves.
I’ve never been impressed with the pilgrim stories. Not even when I was a little kid and I swear history class never got past the f’ing pilgrims. 👿
I’m thankful today that I have a job, Mr. Bee has a job, we’re doing OK, Lil’Bee is happy and healthy, and I have my “second family” – my blogging buddies.
Happy Thanksgiving to you,Tom 😀
Thanks Bee. Same to you. I know what you mean about second family. Mine is closer than my first.
Just another myth found in our text books. No, I’m not thankful for the Tea Party either. But I am thankful for all of you and I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving however you interpret it.
Thanks, Leslie. Likewise.
I am thankful for the Tea Party for giving me a lot of laughs over the past year. Sadly, many people actually take them seriously, and for that I’m not thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving, Tom.
Benji, they ceased to be funny when they reached the Legislature.
Thanks, and same to you.
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy dinner with your loved ones tonight.
“I’ve never seen a group of people so willing to believe the most outrageous lies without the slightest effort to fact check them, and continue to do believe them, even when confronted with proof.”
Actually, I think Tea Partiers are tied with creationists for that honor.
Perhaps because they, for the most part, are the creationists.
I cosign that. If it weren’t detrimental to the rest of the country, I’d sit here and hope they get exactly what they’re asking for. It would serve them right. As it stands, I hope I’ve been wrong all these years. I hope there is a god and he swipes all those sanctimonious, self-righteous, lying Tea Party bigots up in the “rapture” so the rest of us can get on with the business of repairing this country.
But I’m not holding my breath.
I’m not thankful for them, either. But I’m thankful there are a few voices of reason left in America.
Happy Thanksgiving. 😀
Liz
Welcome, Liz! 🙂
Personally, I believe there is a God, but that she is more inclined to allowing people to face the consequences of their own behavior rather that acts of OT wrath.
Thank you, and same to you.
I hope this bunch of whackaloons (teabaggers) goes away soon and please take Swauky Sarah with you too!
Happy thanksgiving everyone.
I just hope they (and she) are permanently relegated to Saturday Night Live.