The Tea Party and its fear of death umbrella gathers together the scattered right

An in-depth look at the origins of the Tea Party and how the "lie of 2009," Sarah Palin's death panels, helped unify the right, from Veterans Today:

Members of the Tea Party “Patriots” [at the 9-12 rally in D.C. last year] did not seem to care that their rhetoric was irrational, or that comparing Obama to Hitler and Stalin was contradictory and obviously hyperbolic. Their motives were entirely negative. By purging government of the multicultural evil that had seized power through illicit means (several activists told me they believed ACORN helped Obama steal the election), they were convinced that a mythical golden American yesteryear would return. They had no interest in building anything new or even articulating an agenda, much less discussing the merits of policies. The Tea Party’s primary concern was cultural purification — freedom from, not freedom to. Against the dark image of the president and his liberal allies, Tea Party activists defined themselves as the children of light. The racial subtext was always transparent.

[ . . . ]

Following the Tea Party script of avoiding social issues like abortion and gay marriage in order to obscure the large presence of the Christian Right within the movement’s ranks, the self-described “hardcore pro-lifer” Palin recast herself as a libertarian concerned primarily with issues of “economic freedom.” She claimed the Democratic “cap and trade” plan to limit carbon emissions would harm the livelihood of blue-collar workers, and she assailed health care reform as a Trojan Horse for “socialism” (though she admitted her family “used to hustle over the border” to take advantage of Canada’s single-payer health care system). But no Palin attack had as much effect as the one she blasted out on her Facebook page claiming the Obama health care plan included a provision for “death panels” that would recommend euthanasia for severely ill patients like her Down syndrome-afflicted son, Trig. With the click of a button, Palin transformed the tone of the health care debate from rancorous to poisonous.

[ . . . ]

Most importantly, the [death panel] rumor resonated both with hard-core libertarians who resented the very existence of the federal government and Christian Right activists who viewed the legalization of abortion as a slippery slope to government-sponsored euthanasia. The hysteria it engendered helped repair the rift exposed by the Terri Schiavo charade in 2005, when the evangelical conservative James Dobson publicly clashed with [Dick] Armey, the libertarian leader, over the right of the government to interfere in a private family matter of life and death.

Excerpts from Max Blumenthal's Republican Gomorrah. Take some time during your lunch or coffee break to give the full article a good read. Further along he discusses how "[t]he slurring of Obama as a sort of sleeper agent crypto-Muslim helped bring the neoconservatives back into" a sort of united conservative front with evangelicals. How? With a powerful fear-of-death umbrella: Tea Partiers exploit one's fear of mortality with their death panels, and neocons have done it for years with their "liberals are weak on national defense" saw. So Tea Partiers bring more neocons in by offering the explanation that Obama is a secret Muslim.

Neocons, bless their hearts, are usually very thoughtful, intelligent people, captains of industry and of think tanks. But even the smartest of us can get caught up in outrageous, preposterous lies if the lies tap into our fear of death. It's a crude weapon, and it's a little embarrassing afterward to see that one's been drawn into it; yet it's tremendously hard to ignore.

Blumenthal's excerpt continues with a run-down of the "several disturbing murders committed by far-right extremists" following President Obama's inauguration; a discussion of Glenn Beck, Oathkeepers, and Rep. Bart Stupak (anti-choice D-Mich.,), who went from Tea Party darling to accused "baby killer" over healthcare reform; and death threats to Democratic members of Congress. The Veterans Today website interprets the author's conclusion in words commonly, though incorrectly, attributed to Sinclair Lewis: when fascism comes to America, it'll come wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross. Similarly, murderous wingnuts aren't really refreshing the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots -- rather, it's the blood of innocents -- and Tea Partiers aren't really supporting true American values, either.