Countless
articles have been written and much energy expended by
liberals and alleged progressives in this nation about
the goings-on of the so-called Tea Party; as if the Tea
Party and its backers are some kind of historically new
phenomenon in this nation. It is not. It is in
fact an ongoing, repackaged, well financed, astro-turf
continuation of centuries of U.S. right wing political
chicanery in ‘America.’
The
installment of the slippery tongued, corporate-backed,
war mongering Barack Obama as head of the U.S. Empire
did not give birth to racism, economic disenfranchisement,
or the Tea Party. It has simply been used to enhance it
primarily because instead of seriously organizing
for and around the intensifying bread and butter / survival
issues of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow
peoples, many liberals and ‘progressives’ have chosen
to fixate upon the Tea Party as if said fixation will
somehow bring about an end to increasing joblessness,
home foreclosures, homelessness, corporate hegemony, the
gutting of the U.S. Constitution at home, and imperialistic
U.S. wars abroad.
The
most fundamental and inherent danger vis-a-vis the Tea
Party is the propensity on the part of liberals and ‘progressives’
to pretend that the Obama / Biden / Rahm Emanuel regime
is somehow intrinsically different from the regime
of its predecessor George W. Bush; while essentially
ignoring their duty to organize with everyday people
for real systemic change, which must include unabashedly
standing up to and rejecting the policies of Barack Obama,
the Democratic Party foxes, and the Republican
Party wolves.
The
Tea Party is doing precisely what the extreme right wing
(whatever its guise) has always done, as
any serious student of history knows. Our obligation,
on the other hand, is to urgently, collectively, and creatively
develop and present viable alternatives to, for, and with
everyday people of all colors, in opposition to both the
Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves.
We should be organizing---not whining about the
extreme right wing doing what it has always done. Indeed,
we should be out-organizing the right wing—extreme
or otherwise.
Notwithstanding
those dangerously naïve and foolhardy souls who declared
that the installment of Barack Obama as U.S. President
meant the beginning of a “new day” or the ushering in
of some kind of non-existent “post racial” fairy tale
era of enlightenment; the right wing and the extreme
right wing quickly grasped the breathing space and opportunity
to increase its pernicious activities, even as
the Obama / Biden regime itself repeatedly acquiesced
to the right wing, bailed out the Wall Street robber barons,
made back-room deals with the big insurance companies
and pharmaceutical company giants, and placated the corporate
military elite’s war machine---all at the expense
of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people.
Our
duty and responsibility is to organize to serve the collective
political, economic, and social interests of everyday
people, not those of any regime, be it of the Democratic
or Republican Party. All power belongs to the people---everyday
Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people!
Always
remember that the corporate-stream media is in service
to the foxes and the wolves of the Democrat and Republican
parties, not the people. The job of the corporate-stream
media is to distract, mislead, and obfuscate. Thus, we
must network and organize as we have never networked and
organized before, disseminating survival information to
one another that is relevant to the lives of everyday
people.
Be
keenly aware of the machinations of the right wing,
the extreme right wing, the Republican Party wolves, and
the Democratic Party foxes—but do not be fixated
upon them. If anything, be fixated upon devising tactics
and strategies to serve the needs of the everyday people
in this nation and globally. For they / we are in great
pain!
Educate,
agitate, and organize for the present and the future!
Onward my sisters and brothers! Onward!
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney,
is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister
of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political
prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored
his civil/political rights case to the United Nations
under the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities
in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was
interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as TheMacNeil/LehrerNewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and
Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard
Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.