One of the strangest, and perhaps most morbid, developments in American politics is the way that the usual partisan suspects have mobilized to disown the suicidal pilot in Texas.
He isn’t one of us, he’s one of them!
Liberals have clung to the choice of an IRS building as “proof” that this guy was some far-right tea-party anti-government guy. Conservatives are pointing to his rants against big business and the way he seems to praise communism.
What they can both agree with is that he clearly belongs in the other camp because none of their own team mates could ever possibly do such a thing. So while we have very few actual clues to what this man’s voting history looks like, or what philosophical books might have informed his ideology (if any), there is an entire industry of punditry currently busy at the task of proving that he wasn’t “one of us…” whatever that us happens to be.
Frustration beyond ideology
Beyond attempting to one-up the competition, I think the partisans are also looking for a more practical end in their effort at profiling.
There seems to be an idea that if the ideology is identified, so too can the ring-leader who incites such violent action. Some have suggested Ron Paul, because apparently someone with a similar name to the pilot made a significant donation to his primary campaign in 2007. But Ron Paul is a pretty strict pacifist who only advocates armed conflict in extreme cases of self-defense. The guy who is calling for drastic military reductions and prison leniency isn’t exactly the same kind of guy who would incite his followers to commit political violence… Talk about counter-productive!
Others have suggested Palin, since she’s crowned herself as the new leader of the conservative protest movement. This one doesn’t fit either though, because she seems much more interested in seizing control of the very power that people are becoming frustrated with.
The reality is probably a bit more murky and disturbing than the stereotyping analysis will be able to explain.
People just aren’t happy, and they rightfully see that the government in D.C. can do little to protect them from the economy. Looking at where Congress‘s priorities are, they might even be making things worse for a lot of us average people who still have to work for a living if we want to eat or have an overpriced roof for our heads.
When times are tough, people can’t afford the luxury of rigid ideologies and partisanship. Its enough to have two stubborn forces intent on trying to differentiate from each other in every possible detail, but the reality is that neither group will be able to achieve a pure truth without conceding ground to the good points of the opposition.
So, if you’re looking for a partisan ring-leader to blame, consider all of them – at once. Then move on, move on to something that is more flexible and constructive, because this rigidity is otherwise to become the rigormortis of our nation.