Just before the break for revamping our blog (Thanks for the great new blog, Tracey!), civility in America, especially in Congress, at the US Open, and at the MTV’s Video Music Awards seemed dead. We had Congressman Joe Wilson yelling at the President, Serena Williams threatening a line judge, and that bizarre moment when Kanye West grabbed the mike from Taylor Swift. Thankfully Swift was named the youngest Entertainer of the Year at the Country Music Awards w/o Kane. The slim beauty went on to thank “every single person here for not running up on the stage…” Williams apologized in a backhanded fashion, when she later confessed that she really” just lost control” and “I used to be worse.” President Obama and Joe, not the plumber, have supposedly not kissed but made up. There are even rumors of a Fox appearance by Obama, so has the holiday season spurred everyone to make nice or have we become a nation full of yellers?

In Faithlink; Connecting Faith and Life, consulting agent Letitia Baldridge fears this lack of civility is a larger trend. “Two things are happening here: One is a mad desire to be the center of news, and the other is a sense among these people that because they are successful they can get away with anything.” I have no doubt that Joe and Kanye both were fully aware that they were being watched by thousands and had calculated the words and the resulting publicity. I would once have laid odds that Joe and Kanye didn’t have a spontaneous bone in their bodies, but I am rethinking that. Now Serena is surely operating on the “You Can’t Touch Me” principle. After listening to Chip Berlet, a political research analyst and author from Boston in Boise last night, I just think that they were just plain mad, not as in crazy, but angry.

Berlet gave a sometimes hilarious, but fascinating talk about the history behind right-wing populism and defined some of the labels that are being thrown around like fascism and the Patriot Movement, etc. His message was really about the failure to address the righteous anger of the middle class and the outcome of such movements; their “direct scapegoating” of minorities, women, and activists. The problem with yelling at, say the tea baggers or calling them crazy or dismissing them, is that they are not all crazy. Less face it, which among us isn’t angry about the bailouts? Maybe a few fat cats in Sun Valley, but not many of us have sympathy for banks and mortgage lenders or understand derivatives or all the twists and turns in the health care bill. The saddest part of all this, is that anger is often directed at immigrants, black Acorn workers, and now, of course, Muslims in the Armed Forces.

When this messy bunch of anger has no where to go, it goes where it has always gone, that is to the scapegoats. The word scapegoat comes from Judaism and the Day of Atonement. An innocent goat symbolically carrying man’s sins is driven off into the wilderness as a sacrifice. Christians often relate it to the self-sacrifice of Christ. One’s sins are absolved by the sacrifice of a goat, not man’s, hence scapegoat. When jobs are dwindling, immigrants and undocumented workers are blamed, when you get sick Mexican Americans are blamed for H1N1 (even the poor pig got a bigger break on this), when a terrorist and/or a madman kills soldiers in Fort Hood, all Muslims or at least all Muslims in the Armed Forces are implicated. This is what happened to the Jews in Germany, the Irish in the Anti-Papist movement in the 1850s, and even white folks like Reginald Denny who was pulled out of his truck and viciously attacked in LA after the acquittal of the police who beat Rodney King. Ironically then, of course, tea baggers could become the scapegoats of liberals and progressive if things don’t go their way with health care.

The two things that progressives can do that will make a difference are #1 Call your  Senators, even if you have called before.   Make your support of health care known because they are hearing more from the people saying no.  Be vocal, polite, and tell them what you want for Idaho!  #2 Engage in thoughtful conversations with others acknowlegding your common ground.  Shouting down your neighbor or your pew mate or your relative might make you feel better for a few minutes, but it will solve nothing.  The majority of Americans are Independents.  We need to get our message out.  Get informed on the issues beyond MSM.  Check out NPR, the dailykos.com, and for gosh sakes watch CSPAN.  I live this stuff and sometimes I just have to watch without the chatter and commentary.  We don’t need someone telling us what we just heard. 

Check out local and regional blogs like mountaingoatreport.typepad.com, 43rdstateblues.com and High Country News at hcn.org.  You can read about energy projects and political news throughout the West on this site.  Great things are happening with wind.  The first time home owner stimulus money is still available and there are new benefits for other buyers.   We are the adults in the room and we need to take back the conversation in a civil way.  Your voice and opinion matter, but remember that no one hears you after the first few words if you are shouting.   

I fear that we could all end up like Little Sambo’s tigers; chasing each other round and round until we melt down into butter if we don’t try to listen to each other. I have to admit that the last thing I thought I would bring away from the Monday night presentation was a realization that my anger does nothing, but fuel more anger. Here we are again in this together.

There is nothing like having a fellow progressive call you up short and make you think about the things you rant about and the people that drive you nuts in a whole new way.  The author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, Berlet came to Boise to speak to local human rights leaders about “How Race, Class & Gender Anxiety Fuel Demonization & Scapegoating,” but what he really was saying is that it is okay to be angry, even if you are, gulp, a tea bagger or a 9-12er, but don’t scapegoat the innocent.