Tea Party Has Potential to Bring America Closer Together

by Sam Permutt | August 30, 2010

By dismissing the Tea Party as simply anti-intellectual, racist, and angry, aren’t I guilty of the very intolerance I decry? I don’t even really know what the Tea Party is. I know that they host protests and that many bring incendiary signs to them. I know that some of their self-proclaimed leaders are rabble-rousers and that they appear on Fox News with carefully scripted talking points. I know that the New York Times/CBS poll earlier this year said that they are overwhelmingly white. Everything else I know and feel about them is what I’ve learned from MSNBC, Bill Maher, and the Huffington Post.

And this media portrayal of the Tea Party is why I tend to ridicule them as “tea baggers.” Why I sneer at their ideas as crazy. Why I dislike them for their assumptions. Yet, I’ve never actually spoken to one. I’ve never thoroughly investigated the benefits of a trimmed-down government, and I’ve never cared to understand why they feel so anxious about everything. So, why do I automatically stereotype them? Why do I automatically assume that everyone in the Tea Party hates blacks and Mexicans? Shouldn’t a law student engage in a more careful analysis before jumping to such conclusions?

The problem most likely stems from the technological ease with which we can all confirm and then reconfirm our biases. The Republicans go to the Drudge Report; the Democrats go to the Daily Beast. If you already believe Obama is a commie, you go to Michelle Malkin’s blog. If you still can’t get over Michael Dukakis, you go to the Daily Kos. It’s a lot easier to corroborate our deeply held suspicions these days.

So maybe there is a teachable moment here, after all. Writing about the Tea Party has made me realize that I shake my finger at them without knowing what I’m shaking my finger at. I’m intolerant—maybe not of gay marriage, or amnesty programs, but of other people’s legitimate differences in opinion.

It is easier that way. It’s easy to shut off Fox News and turn on Rachel Maddow. It’s comfortable to hear the same viewpoint over and over, to shrug my shoulders and say about the other side, “Well, they’re just crazy.” True, some people are just crazy—particularly in the South. But, some views deserve measured inquiry, irrespective of how I feel about them emotionally. Glen Beck might be an exploitative showman, but his weepy soliloquies articulate a feeling that runs deep in certain parts of this country. I’m not saying that we should support that feeling. But it should at least be explored, not shunned. Otherwise, the divide between left and right in this country will just continue to grow.

I understand that that’s a naïve and very “liberal” thing to say. Perhaps I can allow myself to be hopeful for once. If we all tried to understand each other better, the Tea Party, for all its faults, could lead to a closing of the wide gap between what has become two opposing, and seemingly intransigent, camps. It won’t happen easily, because it’s our natural inclination to shut down when we hear something we don’t like. And, many in the Tea Party don’t make it easy. I wouldn’t want to have a beer summit with a guy holding a sign that says “Tea Bag the Liberal Dems before They Tea Bag You!” But, what’s the alternative? We can continue to watch our national schism grow. Hatred, fear, and racism do not naturally abate.

Do we reach out to the Tea Party before they tea bag us? Maybe we should. Something needs to happen. Something needs to shake up the so-called stagnant waters of our political landscape. Perhaps that something is the Tea Party.

Gary Gregory

I commend Mr. Permutt on his insightful comments regarding the incredibly polarized society in which we live. When you exclusively get your news from either Fox News or MSNBC, what you are getting hardly qualifies as “news,” but rather as propaganda to promote a conservative or liberal agenda, respectively. However, I must take issue with his assertion that “some people are just crazy—particularly in the South.” This statement suggests that while “crazy” people are all over this country, it is well known that they overwhelmingly live in the South. Substitute any other region in the world for the American South, say Israel, for example, and this statement becomes patently offensive. With all of the hysteria in New York over Muslims’ desire to exercise their basic freedoms of religion and private property by building a house of worship, and the fanning of anti-Islamic flames to which it has led, I would think Mr. Permutt would not have to look far to see “crazy” people in this city. I fully agree with the majority of the article, and simply hope that in the future Mr. Permutt will extend the same tolerance he is promoting to people of all geographic regions, particularly mine.
Gary Gregory

I commend Mr. Permutt on his insightful comments regarding the incredibly polarized society in which we live. When you exclusively get your news from either Fox News or MSNBC, what you are getting hardly qualifies as “news,” but rather as propaganda to promote a conservative or liberal agenda, respectively. However, I must take issue with his assertion that “some people are just crazy—particularly in the South.” This statement suggests that while “crazy” people are all over this country, it is well known that they overwhelmingly live in the South. Substitute any other region in the world for the American South, say Israel, for example, and this statement becomes patently offensive. With all of the hysteria in New York over Muslims’ desire to exercise their basic freedoms of religion and private property by building a house of worship, and the fanning of anti-Islamic flames to which it has led, I would think Mr. Permutt would not have to look far to see “crazy” people in this city. I fully agree with the majority of the article, and simply hope that in the future Mr. Permutt will extend the same tolerance he is promoting to people of all geographic regions, particularly mine.