walrus51

Something I heard or read today created a connection in my head between “The Silent Majority” and “The Tea Party”

Silent Majority?

I think from the late 1960’s/ early 1970’s — started with President Nixon — and continued to fester well into the 1990’s thanks to Pat Buchanan and some of his ultra-conservative friends and supporters.

Buchanan delivered a keynote address at the 1992 Republican National Convention, which became known as the culture war speech, in which he described “a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America.” In the speech, he said of Bill and Hillary Clinton: “The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units — that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation we still call God’s country.”

However you slice it, the Tea Party is nothing new.

Back in the day, they wore white sheets, burned the cross, and became the subject of a very haunting song by Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”.

I remember when my Mother had a bumper sticker on her car that said, “The Silent Majority is Neither.”

I thought maybe she was a communist or something.

Fast forward 40 years: Here I am! (not a communist, but maybe a centrist?)

Van Jones (formerly the senior advisor to Pres. Obama for ‘Green Jobs”) is now the spokesperson for the American Dream Movement.

He has targeted the vanishing American middle class that he says is working harder than ever, yet is struggling to maintain its livelihood.

When I recently discovered this new movement, I concluded they are Anti-Tea Party, so I immediately signed up and made a modest contribution.

In the short term, I’m planning to haunt Mr. Jones and American Dream —- who knows? Maybe they can muster the REAL “silent majority” into getting vocal.