Sarah Palin = Abbie Hoffman
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/d/e/deanarms/2010/04/sarah-palin-abbie-hoffman.php
April 16, 2010
by deanarms
And the Tea Baggers of today share much with the Yippies of yore.
The genius of Hoffman and Rubin and the anarchic Yippies circa 1968
was that they understood how to manipulate the core symbols of
America to create outrage among their opposition and draw attention
to their cause. Their fringe behavior offended the majority but drew
the sympathies of a broad base of supporters - even people who were
not willing to paint their faces and throw excrement at police,
opposed the Vietnam War and sympathized at some level with the
generational struggle that the Yippies symbolized.
I'm not writing this to rehash whether the Yippies' means were proper
or what the meaning of all that stuff was. I am writing to draw what
I see is a remarkable parallel between the guerilla strategies that
the Yippie's crudely implemented and the Teabaggers' ability to grab
media attention that is wildly disproportionate to the actual support
they enjoy. The Washington Post talked about "scores" of Teabaggers
at yesterday's rally. The Chicago Tribune and the local tv stations
here in Chicago covered the Tea Party rally of 1,500 like it was some
million man march. The polls put Teabag support at 18% - a number
which, I believe, includes that penumbra of sympathizers who are
drawn to the symbolism of the tea parties but are not quite prepared
to carry posters depicting President Obama as an orangutan.
The right was quick to appropriate the tools of media manipulation
that the left had pioneered during the anti-war years. "The Selling
of a President" by Joe McGinness is a classic about how Nixon's
campaign repackaged Richard Nixon into commodity that consumers
actually wanted to buy. Central to that effort was his appeal to the
fears and anxieties of the Silent Majority - fears that had been
stoked by the crazy yippies and everyone else on the left. The
right took off from there - Ronald Reagan and his brilliant media
imaging ("Morning in America"), Lee Atwater and Willie Horton, Karl
Rove and his exploitation of the born agains and the southerners and
all that crap. All of these strategies were refined variations on
the central insight that the yippies, and of course many others on
the left, had.
Desecrating the core symbols of our democracy - wearing an American
flag shirt, calling police pigs, rioting at the Chicago Democratic
convention, smoking dope in public, free love, crazy rock music -
will guaranty you media attention. It seems like a given now but it
was news then; nobody had done it before. And of course the converse
will work as well. Rabidly defending those very same symbols -
literally wrapping yourself in the flag, proclaiming undying love for
the "troops" (while refusing to fund VA benefits), flaunting your
purity (while your teenage daughter gets knocked up), disrupting the
Florida recount and town hall meetings in the name of democracy -
will also assure you center stage in the media spotlight.
The bonus for the tea baggers is that, because they loudly proclaim
their patriotism and their love of the constitution, that coverage
will be uncritical. They have used the disruptive tactics pioneered
by the left to create a new right media sensation. Sarah Palin
welcomed all the "patriots" at yesterday's rally. She might not be
bright but she is smart enough to zero in on the phrases and images
that rally her base and infuriate her opponents. Abbie Hoffman in heels.
And now I find myself in the position of my elders in the late
60's. Defending the established political order against the rude and
crude attacks of the insurgents. So here's the dumb question - why
doesn't it look like we're having fun. The yippies were about
nothing if not fun. The teabaggers, as ill-informed and misconceived
as they are, are also having fun.
We're the establishment now. Our hair is gray. I've got a
paunch. I hate whining about how unfair it is that the teabaggers
are getting this fawning coverage. On the other hand, I love Jon
Stewart and Bill Maher and Colbert and Anthony Weiner and Alan
Grayson, folks that have a trace of that anarchic spirit that
celebrate what's great and cool about our politics. And the blogs
that also have regenerated that old energy during that last 6-7 years
- turning around congress during the Bush years and being a central
force in electing a president who has the hallmarks of greatness,
notwithstanding quibbles at the margins for not being progressive enough.
Ultimately we have the satisfaction of knowing that the teabaggers
will be a footnote to history, kind of like the Yippies were. A
phenomenon that is very much of the moment, but one that had a much
greater impression during its time than it will have on the overall
course of events.
.
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