A Freebie from Freemont

When Election Day arrives on Tuesday, everyone will be anticipating a shit storm for the Democrats. It appears the nation has been swept up by a wave of conservative backlash caused, in part, by the political influence of the Tea Party ‘movement.’ What we stand to see on Tuesday is the triumph of a number of far right conservatives in states like Nevada and Florida who have, in some cases, gone against the Republican establishment in order to rise to power. These conservatives, such as Sharron Angle and Marco Rubio, have seized a moment in American politics, a moment that has allowed an opportunity to raise historic amounts of money towards their campaign bids for public office that never would have been possible a year ago. This same political climate, these politicians claim, will help champion their conservative ideals and inspire a new brand of politics in Washington. The only problem is one thing: they forgot to run their campaigns on a political platform that is even remotely fucking feasible. In fact, they will be beating the Democrats come Tuesday by building a mountain of bullshit that lies atop a gently and strategically placed mesh of hay covering a deep, dark hole with spikes at the bottom of it. You know—like the one at the end of Goonies where Data almost parishes were not for his trusty plastic teeth attached to a Slinky that turned out to be one of his successful inventions. The only difference here is that the Tea Party Republicans do not have any such ingenuity and they will eventually impale themselves on the spikes at the bottom of the long, dark pit.

See, the Tea Party platform—this notion that government is bad, that the deficit is too high, and that all we need is a whole lot of tax cuts in order to stimulate the economy and create jobs—is a terribly impossible one. We’re not going to do anything about the deficit unless some taxes are raised or unless someone has a clear and far-reaching plan to create large economic growth in this country. Tea Party candidates not only don’t have a coherent plan to grow the economy, but they are also unsupportive of the areas of the economy where growth can be nurtured like in science and green technology. Now, I’m not saying that the Democrats have done a great job in pushing forward their agenda. And President Obama ran his 2008 campaign on a platform that set him up for sure failure as he created impossibly high expectations to live up to. But, his administration continues to have a plan for the future—one is founded in reality. I will continue to argue that he has been completely inept at executing this plan due to a lack of balls and his refusal to shove policy down the clenched throats of Republicans. Yet, it remains a focused platform (as methodical as it may be), one that is contrary to the impossible nature of what conservatives are proposing.

So, go ahead fuckwads—take back the House. In fact, I have already been planning on how much fun I am going to have when the Sharon Angle’s and the Mark Rubio’s of the world take their first crack at solving the troubles we find ourselves in. Because, when they dig into their pockets for the answers and all they find are blank checks from anonymous corporate donors with nothing written in the memos, then, the idiots of this country will realize that the answers were something lost in the waves of confusion that was the election of 2010.

Mark my fucking words, Friends of Freemont, as I continue to tell you that this modern day ‘Tea Party’ is not a movement. And, since the Democrats are apparently too much a bunch of pussies to play the hard kind of politics that are needed to defeat the mindless masses of clueless assholes, it will take people like us to lead our own revolution if we want to wake up in a world that makes sense anymore.

I am may be an eternal pessimist, but it is because of this that I am willing to fight.

Your Sergeant at Arms in this Chaos of Shit,

Freemont B. Barrington       

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 onlyyell 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       

Friends of Freemont,

I said that I wanted to move away from the Tea Party discussion after attending the Boston rally on April 14^th along with my cameraman, Mr. Backcorner. However, it appears that over this past week the question of Tea Party racism has come up quite a bit. So, I thought it would be a disservice to the Friends of Freemont if I didn’t weigh in. 

First off, I’ve given you a couple of days to analyze the below video blogs so that you could compare two very different versions of the event that occurred that day—one from a seeming insider’s point of view and one from an observer’s. I hope you were able to decipher my obvious message because I think the work speaks for itself. If you could not, I encourage you to drop my blog from your favorites and stop following me on Twitter.

I will admit that, in prepping for last Wednesday’s rally, I had a number of questions I intended to ask Tea Partiers that had to do with racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism. However, after arriving at the Common, the first thing that struck me (as you have seen in the video) was not any absurd bigotry, but, rather, the lack of enthusiasm by the event’s attendees. What I saw that day was not racism.  It was a collective sense of confusion. These are people who clearly feel like they’re being marginalized by the government. It’s just not clear to me whether they actually are being marginalized by the government.

I can’t speak for Tea Party rallies that occurred across the country, but the one I attended in Boston was very white, middle-class, and suburban (at least as far as the people I saw and spoke with). I can understand, then, why there would be a shared sense of confusion on behalf of the Tea Partiers with regards to their movement’s goals and objectives. History is certainly against you there, Tea Party Patriots. Because white, middle class, and suburban has never made for interesting protest. You may want to leave such activities up to people like me.

As to the the question of Tea Party racism: does the fact that they are predominantly white and “protesting” a black president make the Tea Partiers racists? Of course it doesn’t. I met a number of pleasant people that day who had brought their children to the event and I’m sure would have been horrified if they witnessed any blatant bigotry taking place. In fact, one of the funniest moments for me during the day was when a group of people (appearing to be predominantly black) who were dressed in yellow t-shirts that read Go Home Racists and Bigots began to march through the center of the rally. I had taken the high ground at this point and I looked on as these activists made their way across the park. And the result, Friends of Freemont, was absolutely nothing. There was no jeering. There was no rabble-rousing. There was no discernible engagement between these activists and the Tea Party patrons. I knew then that I was out of my element in a way that I never anticipated. 

So, I find it laughable that liberals are once again shouting Racism! when they describe the April Tea Party rallies. This cry of racism is the same declaration of socialism that occurs on the opposite side of the proverbial picket line. Neither action accomplishes anything and neither brings forth a defined political agenda. The argument that I have continued to proclaim on this blog is not that the Tea Party movement is a group of racists, but that they are a people who stand for nothing and have produced nothing. And when liberals stand up and yell Racism! is when they become as politically unproductive as their Tea Party counterparts. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time these ignorant, PC liberals morphed into their worst nightmare without realizing it. And it won’t be the last. That’s why I’ve always warned you to be careful, Friends of Free, not to paint yourself into a corner when describing your politics because you don’t want to fall into the empty abyss of nothingness that circles this country.

I’d like to end by bringing up the fact that, despite being very close up to the stage when Sarah Palin was speaking on Wednesday, I could barely hear her speech. I was told after the event by friends that she was miked perfectly when they saw the local television coverage. This, again, is my point about the Tea Party—they are not a real movement; they are nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The best way I can explain the Tea Party is that it’s a group of people who embody a piece of the social consciousness who are representing it unconsciously. As such, I would encourage both he right and the left to come back into the world of the living— a place where I exist. That way, maybe we can talk some politics again.

Your Beacon of Truth,

Mr. Freemont Barrington 

Friends of Free:

I present to you the footage from April 14th’s Tea Party rally on the Boston Common. Eat your fucking hearts out. I think the work speaks for itself.

- Freemont

I make a brief appearance here on local radio host Todd Feinburg’s video blog about last Wednesday’s Tea Party rally on the Boston Common. I’ll let you guess which one I am. I want you to watch this clip and mull it over for the day because his portrayal of the event is much different than my version that I’ll post later tonight. It seems Todd and I have very different perceptions of the Tea Party “movement,” but perhaps we can hash this out on his radio program if he’d like to have me on. What do ya say, Todd? You may have to warn your listeners to watch out for radicals on your radio waves.

- Free

Friends of Free-

I am still working on the footage from Wednesday’s Tea Party rally. I did, however, want to address my kiss with a very tan and rather insane man (since there are a number of heterosexual FOF who now seem concerned with my sexual orientation). 

First - I have stated on this bog many times the amount of women I have had encounters with. As a radical, I hold nothing back in the sexual realm. If the man kiss calls into question my sexual preference, so be it. What I’m here to do on this blog is to blur the lines between the real and the unreal and to push the bounds of the absurd. I want to do this by both observing and exploring the outer limits of the collective social consciousness. I think that only through understanding that which is outside of ourselves will we be able to get a clear picture of that which is within. The human condition is one that can only really be analyzed by traveling beyond the state in which one exists into a separate world that is both unfamiliar and, at times, unpleasant.

My stunt on Wednesday was nothing more than a part of this journey. I did not kiss a man because I am gay. But, rather, as an exercise to chip away at the collective homophobia that plagues this country in order to reveal a piece of the Androgynous Conscience— this social construct that is being inhibited by the continued bigotry and suppression that still exists within this country.  

If you join the Free Revolution, there may be some necessary proverbial man kisses that lie ahead. But this will only ensure that it is a journey that will truly explore all the unanswered questions of this so-called “free” society.

Tea Party footage to come soon. Please stay tuned.

Your Most Real Modern Day Explorer,

Sir. Freemont Barrington 

Friends of Free-

I will have footage for you soon of my fieldwork of the Tea Party gathering that took place on the Boston Common today. I’m waking up from a nap right now because I was practically lulled to sleep at the event. The only major occurrence of the day was that I was finally able to kiss a man on film as an expression of my support for gay rights. So, you can cross that off the list.

I think the only real story of the day was that there was no story at all. The Tea Party supporters that I encountered seemed generally confused as to what they were even supporting. It clearly goes right along with all that I have been saying on this blog for the past few months. They came with no defined agenda and no answers on how we should solve the political issues that plague this country. The general opinion among the crowd was that our taxes are too high. And that’s about fucking it.

When Sarah Palin took stage, the PA system barely carried her voice to the back of the crowd. I believe that they were expecting about 10,000 people today, but it appeared like only about 2,000 folks showed up. Even Palin was unable to get a real reaction out of the crowd. Sure, there were some hoots and hollers. But, take it from this leftist revolutionary— the Tea Party is no political movement. It is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

The Tea Party is not a political movement because it rests in the hands of aging white Americans who appear to be more disillusioned with their own thoughts than they are with the realities of the government. They are wrestling with these abstract concepts that they’re unable to bring down to the earth and, so, they float up into the air with only each other to grab onto.

Now, I’m not much of a man for church, Friends of Free. But the gathering today was more like what I would expect out of a church service than an organized political movement— filled with geeks and old people.  

I know that the Tea Party will keep coming up in 2010 and into 2012. But, as far as I’m concerned, this is case closed. They are a wandering band of white Americans with very few ideas and no political vision. I am so fucking over their mindless bullshit at this point that I might even stop blogging about them. But what would be the fun in that? Isn’t bashing the weak how the aging white suburban Americans came to power in the first place?

The Real Revolution exists Here,

- Freemont Barrington   

Friends of Freemont-

On Sunday, I had another appearance on Cambridge’s own: CUNT TV. Or the ‘Cambridge Rag’ to those of you less inclined towards vulgarity. If you missed it, I will be posting it on this blog very soon.

On Wednesday, we have Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express coming into town and I couldn’t be more excited. The jokes for this fucking thing are just writing themselves. If you would like to join the Friends of Freemont in the Boston Common, feel Free to come down. Just look for the guy dressed like Castro with a copy of the Communist Manifesto in his pocket. That’ll be me.

This promises to be one for the ages and I will broadcast all the footage here on this blog throughout the week. There should be plenty of material to last us a lifetime. 

I am the Religion of the People,

Freemont Barrington

I read an article in the Washington Times last week that inferred Barack Obama has lost some major support from Independent voters following the passage of the healthcare reform bill. This whole “Independent” concept is something that has really perplexed me for a number of years now. And so, here on this fucking spectacular blog, I am going to try and put my thoughts down to see if I can make sense of this fleeting and indeterminable category of Americans.

First off— who the fuck are “Independents”? Well, the definition may depend upon the state you live in. Being a resident of the occasionally reasonable Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I am able to register myself as “Unenrolled” or “No Party.” This registration is not categorized as “Independent” and (much different than in other states) allows me to vote in either party’s primary election when I enter my voting station (you are asked at the door which ballet you would like to take up). I find this to be a surprisingly flexible method of voter registration in what is generally a very inflexible state. It gives me the opportunity to Freely follow a number of political races and make a game time decision on where my vote would best be served on election day. It is a system that I fully support in every state of this union.

But, here’s the rub: when national opinion polls are carried out to gather feelings on “Independent” sentiment, am I categorized as one? I can only assume so. But this really bothers me. Why? Well, because Independents appear to be—on a whole— the dumbest mother fucking voters in America. Only in the category of “Independent” could there be a spike in disapproval ratings towards President Obama after the Democrats passed healthcare reform— clearly one of Obama’s most important initiatives during his 2008 campaign, a campaign that had attracted so many of these so called “Indie” voters. Sure, it’s true that many of these “Independents” who disapprove of the reform bill may actually be left-leaning folks who don’t think that the healthcare bill went far enough. But my gut tells me that most of the disapproval comes from that group of reactionary fuckwads—these dumb mother fuckers who neither understand the nature of public policy nor the constructs of the Legislative Branch of the US government. They are people who vote on character over execution and prefer immediate rewards over long-term vision. They are like bratty kids who are given the choice to have one piece of candy now or get taken out for ice cream after dinner and they choose the fucking piece of candy. 

If anyone really has a right to be mad at President Obama, it’s not the “Independents” (who are often portrayed as fence sitters), but, rather, the liberals. Liberals have been abandoned by the White House on one policy after another. Each week of this presidency brings a new issue that could make a liberal cringe—from the very first month when Obama took office and decided he would not seek to repeal the Bush tax cuts to earlier last week when he agreed to move ahead with offshore drilling. Now, as much as I hate a significant portion of these PC, yuppie pussy-footing liberals (which I have stated on this blog many times), I will say: at least they fucking stand for something. Because you can bet your fucking ass that there are a larger number of so called “Independents” who voted for Obama in 2008 and now are a part of this TeaBagging fuckwad movement— a band of fear mongering lunatic retards who don’t stand for one cause that’s founded in reality. And they are certainly a group of people that I’d rather never be associated with. But, yet, as a Massachusetts “Unenrolled,” am I? Am I lumped in with this group of misguided reactionary morons?

Where does all this leave me?  Who am I?

Well, I’ll tell you just who I goddamned mother fucking am:     

If someone called me (they couldn’t because I rock hard on the down low, but, theoretically, if someone called) and asked if I supported the healthcare reform bill, I would simply say yes. I’ve stated on this blog that it is a very moderate bill and that we need to keep a full court press on these politicians to further expand the availability of healthcare to Americans in the years to come, but I would not get into the fucking nuances of the goddamned bill on that phone call. And, I certainly wouldn’t be petrified of a reform bill after a group of white people tossed around the word Nazi in a few fucking town hall meetings.

If this same someone asked me if I supported the president’s plan to allow offshore drilling, I would say no I do not. Not because I am a tree-hugging liberal sandal-wearing hippie fuck. I do not where sandals and have never favored that form of footwear. In fact, I do not associate myself with any sandal-wearers of any sort. If you become a Friend of Freemont, this wardrobe option must be stripped from your repertoire. I do not support offshore drilling, rather, because I believe that such an action goes against the very idea of alternative energy and will only open the flood gates to where we can drill for oil in the United States of America (or in the waters that surround it). It is a short-term solution that will gobble up money that could be put towards research of more environmentally safe forms of energy— ones that could actually expand the US economy globally.  

And, if I was asked if I support the president’s troop increase in Afghanistan, I would give a simple answer of yes to the question. This is a plan that Obama clearly supported during his campaign and one of the few campaign promises that he’s actually followed through with up to this point in his presidency. I continue to believe that it is the only current conflict that we should be involved with and should have been involved with in the first place.  

So, what exactly do these answers make me? Do they make me an “Independent”? Do they make me a liberal? Do they make me a conservative?

I think the only thing that they make me is a fucking asshole who is willing to actually think for himself rather than someone who is dragged one way or the other by knee jerk reactions to governmental policy. Do they have a political fucking category for that one? Can I take that ballet when I walk into the fucking voting booth this November?

Your Most Practical Radical,

Mr. Freemont Barrington