But I'll say something about these tea parties. These people are full of bullshit. They claim to be protesting budget deficits and growing government debt. The last president presided over record setting budget deficits and record setting growth of government debt. And there were no protests, there wasn't a peep said about it. This is action (or inaction) that speaks louder than words. Whatever it is that gets these people riled up, it isn't budget deficits.

I've also noticed that the war protests have disappeared. I guess war is ok now.

What does this tell me? This tells me that people are not primarily concerned with what the government is doing so much as who the government is. Bush and Obama represent two different cultures, and most people identify more with one than the other. Arguing about politics takes the form of arguing over policies like war or budget deficits, but these issues are superficial only. The real goal in arguing about politics is to show that your culture is superior to the other. You do this by insisting that whatever your people are doing, its a good thing to be doing it, and that it is being done right. If the other culture is responsible for something, then you must insist that its a bad something, and that they're doing it wrong. The implication is always that your culture is both wise and competent.

Last year I took some broadly misunderstood photos from one of the Tea Parties here in DC. People did not understand my genius, but they rarely do. My experience there supports what I'm saying. That gathering was not about budget deficits. It was about a bunch of people of a similar culture getting together and having a big, fun group activity. It was like a concert, that same sort of feeling was pervasive. Protests are just group activities. It could have been about anything and they still would have come and enjoyed themselves.

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