A Freebie from Freemont

In my last blog I mentioned in its conclusion that it is my belief that both the right (embodied in the vigor of the tea party movement) and the left (encouraged by the outdated concepts of the NAACP) are similarly missing the point with their separate political agendas. The result is that we as a nation (right and left) will continue to be lost inside of this back-and-forth bullshit and will never realize the truth that would allow us to rise up against our true oppressors within the system. This notion can be seen very clearly for me after the events that took place in relation to the NAACP’s reaction to possible Tea Party racism and Mark Williams’s departure from the group after making statements that were perceived by both the left and the right to be offensive.

If you are unfamiliar with the story, Mark’s response to the NAACP request for the Tea Party to rid itself of its extreme racist elements was the following piece of satire, which is a theoretical letter from a NAACP member to Abraham Lincoln:

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew

NAACP Head Colored Person

Let me first say that I defend Mark Williams’s claim that the above posting was satire. It was extremely bad satire (I do much better), but it was satire nonetheless. I would even go as far to say that this might be the most creative piece of literature that I have seen come out of the Tea Party movement. No matter what you believe about his intention, at least this website posting made you think. And this may be the first time I have had to use any small part of my brain when reading something made by a Tea Party patriot. Normally, the ambiguous cookie-cutter talking points that are spewed forth from the Tea Party work to fog up any glimpse you might get of a coherent political agenda (Sarah Palin’s Energy / Budget Tax Cuts / Lift Americans Spirit comes to mind). But this piece at least put some meat on the bones of an otherwise mindless group of complete fucking morons. Don’t get me wrong—I think the Mark Williams’s and Andrew Breitbart’s of the world are opportunistic douche bags—but at least they have a plan of action.

As you can imagine, the liberal (and conservative) backlash to Williams’s above website posting was predictably quick. And the result was that his faction of the Tea Party (known as the Tea Party Express) was disbanded from the Tea Party Federation. But I am here (and will remain here) to say that all of this uproar is simply reactionary bullshit on the behalf of both the liberals and the conservatives. We must be a country that gets past the notion that symbolic racial victories lead to progress when the reality is that systemic change is what we actually need to strive for. We must try to forge ahead when it comes to the concept of race (as hard as that may be) and recognize that it is the steep imbalance between the classes of this country that is the real reason why a unified revolution of the people must occur.

Now, I don’t expect any of the Tea Party followers to embrace many of the concepts that I have put forth. And, if they do, it would only be lost in translation and stuffed inside the bloated bullshit of one of their mindless talking points. But, once upon a time, it used to be the organizations like the NAACP, founded on the noble ideals of social equality, that understood the importance in my argument. Today, they only rely upon outdated political tactics to maintain the power that they hold rather than fighting for the real causes of their forgotten revolution. And it is within this thick atmosphere, saturated by the smell of stale bullshit, that our true sense of purpose has been lost in the mindless and reactionary malaise of got-ya politics.

So, you can yell socialist and you can yell racist, but I will only yell revolution until I’m cut up into small pieces and fed to the hungry dogs that wait for me out back.

FreeB. 

If you’ve read the blog lately, you know that a lot of what I have been posting has been the political philosophy of my leftist idealism. This philosophy is based upon the notion that the top 3% wealthiest people of this country have hijacked the political power and influence of the people and that it will require a social revolution in order to restore a proper social balance. My politics are based upon this underlying notion. And the job of a leftist radical is to keep the government in check by putting outside pressure on the established system in order to create change. This mission is ongoing regardless of what party or what president is in office.

So, when I speak of a particular political figure, be it in vain or in agreement with, I do it only in the name of advancing the revolution. Part of being a radical is also being a pragmatist and not to copping out by giving yourself up to the populist movements of society. That is the reason why I have a deep distrust both for the conservative panderers who work to maintain the status quo and the liberal politically correct who only want to create symbolic change so that we’ll misinterpret the actual state of things.

I share many concepts with socialist and communist radicals, but I do not advocate either political institution. The reason why many left-leaning people today who support a “liberal” agenda are being demonized as socialists is because it is an easy way for conservatives to copout and deem those individuals who want to change the system as being dangerous. This way, they are able to scare enough people in the middle to maintain the power necessary to prevent change. If the middle remains complacent, then the balance of things stays the same and the status quo is preserved.

The reality is that revolutionaries like myself are not communists at all, but, rather, “Democraticists” that see the current condition of our democracy in a state of great inequality. The comparison to Communism only exists because most of the literature that a radical can find in relation to social revolution is that of the socialist and communist upheavals. This is not to say that every radical is a communist or a socialist, but that every radical is most likely schooled in the ideals of socialist thought as it relates to our current class, economic, and political system.

It is with these ideas that I encourage you, Friends of Freemont, to be weary of such copout tactics of both conservatives and liberals. Examples of such can clearly be seen this week in the NAACP’s discussion of possible Tea Party racism buttressed by the far right agenda of these political newcomers who continue to veil their greed for power with the idea that an unchanging Constitution will benefit everyone equally and the concept that organizing for the purpose of political change is a communistic ritual. Here, the liberals remain attached to the tactics of the past and are not thinking creatively to find new ways to affect the nature of the system. They are either too dumb to realize this or they are apathetic and comfortable with the continued state of things. By the same token, the Tea Party far right conservatives have no answers to our current social problems, but they find a threat in the possible upheaval of our social order. As such, they use scare tactics that are packaged with the unifying concepts of patriotism and pride. In this way, both sides are blurring our image of the social order and preventing us from advancing the revolutionary agenda.

And until we are able to recognize these realities and use our Democratic influence to change the current social structure, we will continue to be ruled by the powerful few and will eventually drown in our own apathy.

- Freemont Barrington