For people
to learn lessons from their mistakes five things have to happen: they have to
have an element of humility in their nature; understand that they are not the
center of the universe; have empathy and a basic respect for their fellow
humans; be aware of themselves and the impact of their behavior on those around
them; and want to change very much.
If any of
those are absent, they might do little temporary shifts but it’ll only be to
try and get out of crisis. Essentially
they’ll carry on doing the same old same old. Or else they might not even make
any superficial move towards changing. Carry that to the extreme and you have a
sociopath.
Since
President Obama stood his ground, backed by Harry Reid and sane politicians,
and the Tea Party experienced a resounding loss, many have expressed the hope
that now the Tea Party will be sobered; will have learned their lessons. They’ll
take a long hard look at how detrimental to everybody – including themselves –
their actions have been. How they’ve undermined democracy by acting against the
wishes of the majority of the electorate and underestimated Obama, Harry Reid and
Democrats in general.
How their
behavior was so outside of the bounds of normalcy and decency that they turned
even moderate Republicans against them, making enemies where before they had
friends. How absolutely nothing good resulted from their actions. Nothing for
them, nothing for anybody else.
The idea
that this group has been sobered in any way at all is naïve. The Tea Party is
already spoiling for another fight, congratulating themselves and Ted Cruz on a
fight well fought. Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of The Family Leader (an umbrella Christian
conservative organization), anti-gay, anti-abortion, who has become
increasingly unpopular in Iowa, has backed losers and has failed in every run
he himself has made in politics but believes he has a political future said of Cruz “[he] is a rock star
sucking all the energy in the conservative movement. He’s making all the right
enemies with the Republican establishment, which is taking him to unprecedented
heights.”
And judging
by the type of support the Tea Party is garnering, from organizations like the
Heritage Foundation which has turned ultra conservative in the past six months
and whose money helps secure seats in the House for Republican Representatives, they’ll
never surrender. It isn’t going to bother them that the GOP job approval rating has taken a massive hit or that its chances of succeeding in any future election are
diminished. That’s because they don’t want to nurture the Republican Party as a
moderate party. They want to take it over. They’re taking the long view.
It’s hard
to take this group seriously when they’re so out of touch and are openly saying
that what they’ve learned is how to be more effective next time, how to up the
stakes, how to create more pressure. Or that’s what they think they’ve learned.
How you believe you can up the stakes from government shutdown and defaulting
on debt is hard to imagine. How you can imagine there’s anywhere to go against
a President who just flat out says “no” and stands his ground is beyond rational.
How you
think you can take over a whole country which is ruled by democracy and retain
power for any length of time when your support is 22% and on a downward trajectory – words fail.
They behave
like fools and none of the normal parameters of rationality apply to them. But
they’re fools with a mission and with money backing them. Which adds something
sinister to the mix. Can you imagine an America run by super conservatives who
have secured power by gerrymandering and some of whose members wave the
Confederate flag in front of the Whitehouse? You might not be able to but
they can. And they believe it’s a good thing.
They won’t
succeed in the long run. But they can do damage in the short run and they’ve
already illustrated that they have a talent for that, so it's probably not a good idea to dismiss them entirely.
