In a recent conversation with a friend I was asked the question of what I think about the Republican Party attempting to take out the Tea Party. Then later I watched a short video of a Doctor Who/Rocky Horror Picture Show Parody (there was a link here but it no longer works). What do these things have in common with the description of how the improbability drive on the Heart of Gold works? Everything, of course. I was a walking down the street just a having a think when it hit me that The Tea Party itself is foreshadowed nicely by the 70s era Time Warp (1973 if you're counting).
I grew up in the South. The Deep South. I mean can't get any further South without getting your feet wet, American by birth Southern by the Grace of God South. Southern Living isn't a magazine, it's just a record of what goes on. I'm talking north of Wiggins is Yankee territory. I picked on my wife for years for being a Northerner because she was from around Birmingham. I was 14 before I found out that DamnYankee was two words. South. And I came out of the South with traditional conservative values.
My whole career has been spent trying to pay as much in taxes as I possibly can. Not because I want an increase in my tax bracket but because the amount I owe increases with my salary as the tax rate decreases.
Before anyone tries revokes my Alabama residency, I hate taxes. The state motto shouldn't be "Audemus Jura Nostra Defendere" but "Alabama, Odious Tributa!" While other people say they hate taxes, in Alabama we put our money where our mouth is on that. So the Taxed Enough Already Party should seem to be the one for me. But again, it's the Time Warp on many levels.
Take your typical Right Wing (yeah, I'm a Right Wing Nut Job and I'll say it) Nut Job. Now, "It's just a jump to the left." Get away from the idealists who believe in unchecked laissez-faire capitalism without a system of helping out the less fortunate. I'm right there with you.
But the Tea Party doesn't jump all the way to the Libertarian way of thinking, they stop short, think better of it, "and then a step to the right." We like Republican candidates, we don't like Republican candidates. They're our guy; no they're not. The Tea Party People don't seem to commit. Almost like the Southern Democrats of old who proclaim to be Democrats vehemently until such time as they get into the polls and close the curtain--then they voted conservatively.
"Put your hands on your hips," the traditional body language for I don't think so, really, and so many other sardonic ways of saying not on my watch. You can take my guns when you pry them from my cold, dead hands (much different than Molon Labe, because that's Greek to me). My God, my family, my country. Don't Tread on Me. Any number of clichés that represent the unchanging way of leave it alone.
Of course, for the true RHPS fans "Your own hips!" Not the guy/gal in front of you. No hanky-panky in the ranks. Do it behind closed doors.
"And pull your knees in tight." Alright, guess keeping it in your pants, holding an aspirin between your knees for conservative values is not an oft-echoed sentiment though anti-abortion certainly is and I put that in this category. Perhaps its a bit of a stretch but I am using a cult classic song from a drug-haze written movie to describe a serious political movement.
"But it's the pelvic thrust" which is unfiltered symbolism for sex. Not even hidden, I mean straight up "fuck it." Which the Tea Party supporters can find themselves doing at election time. Support the Tea guy, support the Republican guy, screw it all up and let the liberal candidate win. For those looking for an obscure reference but perfect example see John C. Breckinridge/Stephen Douglas fiasco that perfectly highlighted a conservative party split that allowed a liberal candidate to win.
Watching network news "That really drives you insane." I stopped watching it in the mid-90s before it replicated itself. It, and talk radio, is full of near caricatures of extreme ideals attempting to "educate" the masses by merely giving them "talking points" to use in their arguments (because we can't call them debates) with non-like minded others. Driving people into a frenzy of name-calling and comparisons to debacles and fiascos of all sorts that the other group finds so critical yet fall short of the importance of the current issue du jour.
By all means, "Let's do the time warp, again." But what's my point? Am I saying eschew the Republican Party? No. Am I saying abandon the Tea Party? No. Am I saying to take either of them over the Democratic Party? No. Am I saying we should all become Libertarians? No. History repeats itself because no one listens.
The trip to Frank N. Furter's Castle was a drug-tripping, eye-opening, life-changing event. It ended in something taking off that left a giant hole and a motley group of people lying around wondering WTF just happened.
It's astounding, time is fleeting.
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