Assessing the Opposition in Our Current Climate

My sister in law is a frequent Facebook poster and yesterday posted something about Tea Party adherents.  Her post "What can we admire the Tea Party for? Their dedicated efforts to "turn scattered, voiceless discontent into a united protest." Y'know, just like, say -- Saul Alinsky.   Like many of her comments - this one had a bit of irony. I suspect most of the Tea Party people would not like to claim Alinsky or his tactics.  But there is an element of truth in her post.  One of her commenters added  "Positive proof that there are far too many gullible people out there."


I disagree with a lot of what politicians do today in the spirit of advancing their ideas. John Kerry calls the people who will vote against his point of view "uninformed."  Kerry is not the only one.  During the 2008 election a lot of commentators from the right worried that Obama was some kind of "manchurian candidate."  This time the dems seem to have thoughts about how quirky the voters are at this point.  Part of the reason voters are grumpy is the contempt that many elected officials have for their constituents.  I'm not sure either side would get that one.   But from my perspective the claim about gullibility does not diminish that some of those opponents of a particular policy may well have come to their opinions because of their thinking about an issue not as a result of missing that process.