Proponents of contemporary Tea Party ideals profess to believe in one overriding mantra: Shrink Government. Just about any legislation they support or oppose must go through this narrow lens. Because of this, many Tea Party Supporters are up in arms that Congressional Republicans are backing away from their pledge to pare $100 billion from the federal budget and instead aim for a still severe cut of $60 - $70 billion.
Mind you, a lot of the services and infrastructure these same people depend on would be significantly compromised if legislation was enacted to reduce spending by $100 billion or more. Try to explain these pertinent facts to Tea Party people and all you tend to receive back is robotic murmurs of "Must shrink government. Must shrink government."
While it could be easily argued that most members of the various Tea Party organizations suffer from some type of a delusional disorder, I happen to think that Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) more closely fits the bill.
Consequently, even though they can see that our roads are breaking apart, bridges and buildings are being compromised, food is unsafe and subject to contamination, health care costs are going through the roof and living wage jobs are nowhere to be found, they feel compelled to support and advocate for the very policies that have caused many of these problems in the first place!!
What seals this diagnosis for me is that the OCD individual has poor insight skills. That is to say that the "person for the most part does not recognize that the obsession or compulsion is unreasonable."
Demanding draconian cuts from the portion of the population that didn't cause our financial meltdown, while concurrently supporting huge tax breaks and deregulation for the small sliver of the population who DID foment most of our problems, sounds patently unreasonable to me.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Mind you, a lot of the services and infrastructure these same people depend on would be significantly compromised if legislation was enacted to reduce spending by $100 billion or more. Try to explain these pertinent facts to Tea Party people and all you tend to receive back is robotic murmurs of "Must shrink government. Must shrink government."
While it could be easily argued that most members of the various Tea Party organizations suffer from some type of a delusional disorder, I happen to think that Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) more closely fits the bill.
OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) an anxiety disorder. OCD is characterized by uncontrollable intrusive thoughts and action that can only be alleviated by patterns of rigid and ceremonial behavior. Symptoms frequently cause considerable distress and interference with daily social or work activities. There may be a major preoccupation with the smallest of details in daily life. Obsessive ideas frequently involve contamination, dirt, diseases, germs, real / imagined trauma, or some type of frightening/unpleasant theme. People recognize their obsessive ideas do not make sense but are unable to stop them. These obsessive thoughts frequently lead to compulsive behaviors as the person try to prevent or change some dreaded event. They frequently repeat activities over and over again.From the standpoint of Tea Partyers, the American ideal has been contaminated by big government, tax-and-spend S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-T-S who aim to destroy free market principles from the inside out. Because of this belief, they must compulsively try to starve the beast by attacking labor unions, the middle class and poor.
Consequently, even though they can see that our roads are breaking apart, bridges and buildings are being compromised, food is unsafe and subject to contamination, health care costs are going through the roof and living wage jobs are nowhere to be found, they feel compelled to support and advocate for the very policies that have caused many of these problems in the first place!!
What seals this diagnosis for me is that the OCD individual has poor insight skills. That is to say that the "person for the most part does not recognize that the obsession or compulsion is unreasonable."
Demanding draconian cuts from the portion of the population that didn't cause our financial meltdown, while concurrently supporting huge tax breaks and deregulation for the small sliver of the population who DID foment most of our problems, sounds patently unreasonable to me.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Great posting! Keep it coming.
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